What do youngsters think of the news?

Are youngsters interested in the news?

Interest in news is not exactly high for teenagers in secondary education, as shown by the biannual study Apestaartjaren, which maps out media use by children and youngsters between ages 6 and 18.

When youngsters are asked which news categories they are most interested in, the categories ‘criminality, accidents, street safety, disasters’ and ‘sports’ score on average a measly 5.5 and 5.3 out of 10 respectively - and these are the highest scores. Political news scores the lowest: 44% of youngsters indicate that they have little to no interest in it. The research does show that news interest rises as teenagers get older: youngsters in the last two years of high school follow the news more closely than those in the first two years.

What are youngsters’ preferred news sources?

Social media are a big part of youngsters’ lives, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 76% of them read news articles shared on social media at least weekly. 54% even do so daily. Television (55%), radio (53%) and messaging apps (49%) also get consulted weekly. News websites are at the bottom of the list at about 26%.  

How does the news make youngsters feel?

Youngsters tend to think of themselves as pretty news literate: they generally consider themselves capable of understanding the news. 24% indicate that they are occasionally confused by the quality of the news or information. 29% feel overwhelmed by the huge amount of available news. Research in the Digital News Report also showed that youngsters (37%) trust the news slightly less than news consumers who are over 35 (57%).

What do youngsters think of news personalisation?

Small-scale research by the VUB in 2016 checked how youngsters felt about news personalisation through focus group conversations. Youngsters described news personalisation through user data like a double-edged sword: on the one hand you lose control over what news you get to see, on the other hand it can save you time and allow you to explore your interests more deeply. Youngsters mostly think it’s important to be aware of when news is being personalised. They also like to keep the control and freedom to follow news that was not personalised.

What do youngsters think of clickbait?

Clickbait - the practice of purposely giving articles an attractive or promising title - is often used in the news industry. The title is literally used as bait to make people click, even if the content isn’t always what the title promised. Although the youngsters in the research study above were able to recognise clickbait, they admitted they were often curious about the contents and would still click. But when the contents of the article don’t match the title, this harms the trustworthiness of the source.