Young Adults' Reasons behind Avoidances of Daily Print Newspapers and Their Ideas for Change

Abstract

Focus groups in three cities were conducted with young adults (ages 18–29) to understand why they don't read daily print newspapers. The study examined news media avoidances, like “inconvenience” and “lack of time,” to uncover underlying meanings. Results showed prominent nonuse reasons have dimensions. Participants also suggested ways newspapers could improve. Participants were studied as two age groups, 18–24 and 25–29. Small group differences did emerge. The older group wanted less negative news, while the younger group justified it; the younger age group was more skeptical of the news and mentioned needing greater effort to understand it.

What Is News? Audiences May Have Their Own Ideas

“…Research into magazine coverage of the 2004 presidential election (Mueller & Reichert, 2009) yielded evidence of a cynical tone in news targeted toward young adults, leading the researchers to speculate that such a tone pushes readers into further disengagement. In examining reasons why young adults were turning away from newspapers, Zerba (2011) found that young adults in the study considered it difficult to find time to fit traditional newspapers into their daily routines, and they expressed a feeling that the stories in newspapers had little connection to their daily lives. Respondents in her study indicated that shorter, tothe-point stories, with more diversity and a mix of entertainment and hard news, would make newspapers more appealing.…”

Navigating cross-media news use

“…A second strand of research considers shifting user preferences, typically employing qualitative methods including interviews and focus groups to uncover the importance of news in users' everyday lives (e.g. Van Cauwenberge, d'Haenens, and Beentjes 2013;Zerba 2011). …”

“…A second strand of research considers shifting user preferences, typically employing qualitative methods including interviews and focus groups to uncover the importance of news in users' everyday lives (e.g. Van Cauwenberge, d'Haenens, and Beentjes 2013;Zerba 2011 Both lines of research then try to establish claims about what current news consumption looks like. However, by focusing on either patterns of perceived news media use or the perceived importance of platforms and outlets, one might not be able to grasp the complexity of news use.…”

Contenidos periodísticos y nuevos modelos de negocio: evaluación de servicios digitales

“…-accesibilidad: entendida como el aumento de la facilidad y la rapidez a la hora de poner las noticias a disposición de la audiencia (Qayyum, et al, 2010; Rodríguez-Martínez; Codina; Pedraza-Jiménez, 2010); -personalización, concebida en un doble sentido: poder crear un diario a la carta que responda a las preferencias de cada lector (Thurman, 2011) y ofrecer al público el control sobre su experiencia informativa, permitiéndole decidir qué noticias recibe, cómo y cuándo (Huang, 2009); -relevancia: orienta las preferencias de la audiencia hacia aquellas noticias relacionadas con su vida cotidiana (Túñez, 2009), con el foco puesto en lo local (Zerba, 2011), vinculadas al relato de experiencias personales (CosteraMeijer, 2007) y con elevadas dosis de utilidad práctica (Bernal-Triviño, 2009); -participación: es indicada por algunos autores como un criterio de evaluación clave (Raeymaeckers, 2004).…”

“…Esta clase de informaciones consigue una media de 7,45. Este resultado concuerda con hallazgos anteriores que indican que la cobertura periodística orientada hacia los temas cercanos al contexto vital de la audiencia y su tratamiento a partir de experiencias personales son los contenidos más valorados por el público joven (Zerba, 2011;Túñez, 2009; CosteraMeijer, 2007).…”