Newsliteracy-millennials

How information works among different generations

Notes by Bill Densmore on a presentation given at the Poynter-American Society of Newspaper Editors seminar on news literacy in a digital era, Aug. 12, 2008, St. Petersburg, Fla.

Jack MacKenzie from Frank N. Magid Associates Inc. talked about "How Information Works Among Different Generations." He runs the millennial strategy program group at Magid. He said he is bullish about information and about millennials. "The fact is that we can do business with these guys and they are a pretty good group to do business with."

The changes which have sent news-industry revenues plunging and stagnated circulation are the result of the information consumption habits of Generation X, not the Millenials, according to MacKenzie. "The changes in our business have been driven by Gen X ers . . . this is the problem. Millenials aren't (the problem) ... Millenials get their news from more sources . . . "if one definition of literacy is being plugged in, these guys win."

Key generational questions

Questions asked by MacKenzie:

Are we here to fix journalism or the companies that traditionally create and distribute it?

Are we here to save the truth, or our two-source, multiple angles to define it?

Are we hear to save democracy or the topics we think are important to protect it?

Magid's generation evolution and characterizations

Baby Boomers -- 1945-1964 -- Anti-establishment, combative parental relationships, over-achievers.
Generation X -- 1965-1976 -- Individualistic, vacuous parental relationships, under-achievers.
Millennials -- 1977-1996 -- Who are they and what do they want to do?

VIEW SLIDESHOW OF MACKENZIE PRESENTATION EXCERPTS

Defining the Millennial generation

Confident in their ability to succeed
Smarter than previous generations -- aptitude test scores are up
Collaborative team players who think in groups
They like their parents
They're optimistic about their place in the world
They aren't rebellious and tend to follow authority
They are social networkers who are eager to share news with friends

Societal factors that helped form the Millennials

In 1972, the nation passed Title IX -- requiring equal facilties for both sexes in federally funded educational facilities. This trickled down to young-girl athletic opportunities, has caused a gender-gap reduction and saw the birth of the girl-power movement.

Fifty-six percent of college freshman classes are female. Women are outperforming men by many measures.

Around 1974 -- soccer for young girls extended and strengthened the family unit -- first family sport . . . soccer moms and mini-fans . . . the birth of the idea of "don't keep score . . . trophies for everyone phenomenon."

Around 1976 -- Gymboree opens -- extending playgroup expectations, fostering emerge oof the active dad and playgroups.

Around 1978 -- Kids are more and more protected -- child-seat safety mandates, "baby on board" vs. latchkey kids, and the expectations of customization for the needs of the children (Densmore observation: Does this raise the possibility that millenails will be more self-centered?)

Now 83 million millenials. The adult population are on campus (22%), in flux (9%), single workers (16%) or settled (13%). Almost 30% are still teens.

How does Magid's research defines literacy?

Where do baby boomers get their news?

Top sources of news: A total of 83% watch local TV at least weekly; about 71% get news from friends, family or coworkers; 69% from local print newspapers; 67% from search engines; 65% from national network TV news; 59% from radio; 57% from web portals; 53% from cable TV news; 42% from national morning network news shows.

Where do Generation X get their news?

Top sources: 77% friends, family or coworkers; 73% local TV news;

Adult millenials use more sources: Low Literacy?

A total of 81% from friends, family or coworkers; 75% search engines; 69% web portals; 68% local TV news; 58% social-networking sites; 56% local print newspapers; 55% cable TV news; 52% radio; 50% national radio news.

What is the impact of the U.S. presidential election?

MacKenzie says, based on turnout figures for the presidential primaries, Millenials are plugged into the U.S. presidential election. Right now their participation "skews Democrat." He says a new book by a retired Magid reseachers and USC scholar, says that whoever wins this fall will likely win seven of the next 10 presidential elections. (Book citation: Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics, by Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais. Hais is retired as vice president, Entertainment Research, at communications research firm at Frank N. Magid Associates. Winograd is executive director of the Center for Telecom Management at USC’s Marshall School of Business. He served as Senior Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore, during the second term of President Clinton’s administration.)

Characteristics of Milennials

Magid research finds that 27% of millenials have expressed political involvement with with web interaction, 19% with offline interaction, vs. Gen X'ers who have done 20% web and 14% offline and boomers 19% web and 20% offline.

The research also finds that millenials lead in word-of-mouth activities such as tring to convince others about candidates, or posting comments. The figures: 18% for millenials, 14% for Gen X'ers and XX% for boomers.

"So what's the problem, if they are showing that they are better citizens?" asks MacKenzie. The answer: "Boomers upon which we have built our business consume news daily, use the same sources and they consume it at the same time of day. And Millennials don't. That's what is the difficult part."

For example:

Adult millenials are less likely to seek out news of the day: 29% adult Millennials, 35% Gen X'ers, 46% of Boomers.
They are less habitual in their news consumption. Asked if they use the same source: xx
Is there a certain time of day: 29% Millennials, 28% Gen X'ers, 44% Boomers.

Maybe they don't trust traditional/mainstream media?

MacKenzie said one hypothesis explored by Magid's research was whether Millennials don't trust traditional media. The research found that generally isn't true. "They trust anybody who has a viable website," he said. "They've got about the same amount of trust as Boomers have." MacKenzie says "trust" is not the most important consideration for Millennails in deciding what source to use, although it was one of the important factors.

Rather, Milennials "trust in themselves and each other." They make their own videos, and read and post comments. And they are not afraid to share their opinions and adult Millennials pass along more information about news events than the other two generations. They share information primarily from friends (41%), followed by local TV newscasts (39%), web sites (33%), national TV news programs (32%), programs on broadcast TV (31%), "my mom" (29%), print newspapers (29%) and newspaper websites (27%). Top sources -- rolled up -- TV news 50%; newspaper content (print or web) 41%; friends 41%; web site 33%; magazine contnet (print or Web) 24%.

The firm has created a series of questions and used online surveys to develop data on the most-used print information brands by generation -- Baby Boomers, Generation X and Adult Millennials. The online approach was used in part because the tradition of telephone surveys is becomming harder to make accurate -- fewer and fewer Millennials have listed, landline phones. The surveying found that the local print newspaper product was the No. 1 choice for all three generational subgroups. Other rankings:

Baby Boomer mentions:

Local Newspapers Smart Money Newsweek US News US Weekly Time Magazine Wall Street Journal USA Today People Chicago Tribune Business Week New Yorker Forbes New York Times Esqure LA Times

Generation X

Local newspapers USA Today Time Forbes People Business Week US Weekly Wall Street Journal Smart Money

Millennials (copy to come)

Online brand survey

They also surveyed online brands. Tops on all three lists when asked the six questions were the Internet Movie Database and Weather.com. WikiPedia was No. 3 on the adult Millennial list, lower on the Boomers and GenX. FoxNews was No. 3 on the Boomer site. Other highly mentioned sites -- Google, CNN.com, Yahoo News.

Milennials trust each other's opinion

Millennials trust each other's opinions and recommendations more than earlier generations. "They believe in each other. They actually believe what other people are talking about. And because they do and they trust them, that is a little bit of a problem," says MacKenzie. They think: "I kind of like that crowd notion. I kind of like the idea that we'll protect each other."

Howie Schneider, dean of the Stony Brook University journalism school, calls this finding disturbing: "What we are talking about is a generation that accepts information that other people accept . . . If this is the mindset of this generation then it seems to me we have a very big job to do to make them understand if they are going to survive the information age and make good decisions, they are going to have to apply other skills."

MacKenzie closes: "The idea that consumers are seeking out other opinions shouldn't offend us. It's good."

Some tentative conclusions

Rex Smith, editor of The Albany [N.Y.] Times Union next asks the group to reach some tentative conclusions based on what they've heard so far.

Tom Bettag, Discovery Channel research found that Millennials are turned off to news-reading and hype behind a desk, but are very open to sober discussion of the issues of the day. Discovery discovered this when asking focus groups how they should use former ABC Nightline news anchor Ted Koppel.

Jack MacKenzie said newspapers need to think about how they can be relevant to Millennial readers. "Credibility is not how you should market your product. It doesn't have resonance. If you're trying to sell newspapers, I don't think that is the way to do it . . . I don't think it is believable. I don't think you can make a sale on that point and make a sale to any generation."

John Hamilton of Louisiana State University raised what he called a troubling underlying question. "You could argue that our interest in media literacy is driven by our lack of economic viability" for what MSM has been doing. Many sources are free. "We can teach them to be very media literate and discriminating and that is a very worthwhile thing to do but ... who is going to provide original reporting and how are we going to find an economic way to sustain that?" is it going to come from multiple journalists. "Literate for what?" If there isn't quality news out there. "We might be teaching people to be literate about a model that isn't viable anymore."

Renee Hobbs, the Temple researcher, took off on that point. She noted that Harvard Law School scholar Yochai Benkler, in his book, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, (also watch VIDEO) chronicles a shift from market-bsaed information sharing to non-market based information sharing. "Reliable, high quality news and information now comes from people who are partisan, who are stakeholders." Data about perceptions of credibility show that people feel increasingly distrustful of market-based journalism. To be media literate, she says, means understanding how changing economic contexts shape both the the production and reception of informational messages.

Jerry Ceppos. "Do Millennials want to be educated about news literacy?"