Stop Scaring Teens With The News
from the the-front-page-is-irrelevant dept
A recent study reports that while most teenagers describe their online experiences on YouTube as a "treat," most classify their online news experiences as stressful or a "reminder of the world's dangers." Furthermore, most of the teenagers in the study do not actively keep up with the news. Rarely, if ever, do they go directly to the news websites, but rather end up there from portals and news aggregators, and only then if something catches their eye. The report recommends that news organizations help allay teen angst by making their sites better springboards for conversations and being more focused on solutions and problem-solvers. That said, is this really a problem with online news? Perhaps the way traditional news organizations approach the news is actually the problem. How many teenagers regularly watch the evening news? Perhaps news organizations should study why The Daily Show and Digg are so popular, since both present news in a more relevant, palatable, and oftentimes, more humorous fashion. Maybe it's not the online-ness of the news that is the cause of their waning popularity, but rather, the fact that they are at risk of becoming irrelevant to a new generation of news consumers.
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agreed
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and I find the news stressful and a
reminder of the world's dangers.
There's little good news reported.
If it bleeds it leads. That's bound
to give a distorted and frightening
view of the world.
Luckily with age comes some skepticism
and a little cynicism, that helps mute the
effect of the news reports. I can't help
but think with each news article that I
read "what's the reporter's angle and who
benefits from this."
It would be nice to see the news run more
as a public service and less as a profit
center. At least with the internet I can
pick and chose seeking the least glitz
laden sources of news.
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the news orgs care about teens since...?
Yes, I'll agree that sometimes the stories that get run aren't fully developed and often go off of what information is available (which is usually a police report, which is not known to be a shiny, happy document, although sometimes entertaining whenever there's a possession-related arrest).
However, what's the point in catering to teens? I am a Millenial/Gen Y-er, and we're an obscenely self-involved group. Even being a student journalist and therefore more likely to read up on world events, I have a hard time caring about local government elections (read: any elections for that matter) or the latest rapist on the block as much as I'm more inclined to see what my Facebook feed says.
Yes, I'll admit that I would prefer to watch "the daily show" or "the colbert report" than refresh Yahoo!News and get the latest on the Pakistan situation. And yes, I'll admit that there's still some resistance in the j-world (to say the least) when it comes to switching to so-called "new media" and its ability to evolve as events release from the typical newsprint format.
But I'll also admit that the news organizations -- be they physical papers, wire services, crawlers like Yahoo and Google or anyone who has a stake in making profits -- don't really give a poo about teenagers.
The notion, which is proven again and again, is that teenagers don't care about what is going on elsewhere in their neighborhoods, countries or the world and won't until they are at least in college, more likely in the 27 y/o+ demographic, which tends to actually subscribe to news services.
So really, should we give a shit about whether we're scaring self-absorbed teens with news when they're not going to actually care for at least a few years anyway? Or should we focus our efforts on evolving the medium of reporting as a whole to Generation Y and younger who are so tech-reliant/savvy and more likely to use newsprint as a tool for packing shot glasses than as a source of information?
As an aside, Comment 1/rstr5105: While I understood by "msm" you meant, "mainstream media" the more common connotation for that acronym is "men having sex with men" so... you may want to spell that one out next time.
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In a few years
When future economies become more dominated by biotech, with its greater emphasis on ethical issues, will the "market fundamentalists" of yesteryear sound heartless and backward?
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Re: In a few years
"Will Techdirt consist of old geezers ranting and raving about outdated "intellectual property" issues, foaming at the mouth about how evil RIAA used to be?"
No, it will consist of old geezerz ranting about the punkz on their lawn.
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Stop Scaring us all with the news
with their negativism, but then they wouldn't be them.
Between 'If it Bleeds it Leads', and 'The Conspiracy to keep us Broke and uninformed', we can't really expect them to act in a socially responsible manner. After all, real 'Social Responsibility' is not part of their trick bag.
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To the point though, news in general now a days is less about what's happening and more about 'entertainment' which is freaking absurd. At least in the US it is this way, I can't safely vouch its the same everywhere, but I'm willing to bet its not just an American or Western thing.
It all comes back to responsibility. It is irresponsible of the media to cause public scares for no reason, or to 'create drama' and be invasive (paparazzi, some 'investigative' reporters).
It is also irresponsible of people to accept this crap at face value. I expect teenagers to be lazy, its the only right they actually can claim, but the self serving whine fests are a bit irritating.
I just wish it was JUST teenagers though. Far too many people these days just dont seem to know how to properly act.
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Re: Internationl mainsteam media
Yes, it's different in other parts of the world, but in most ways much the same. Across Europe, mainstream media is "just the facts" (local PBS stations often broadcast BBC news, if you're interested).
In the middle east, however, the news is propaganda. It must support Islam, so they end up with Al Jazeera as their news source. This is like having Jerry Falwell produce the CBS evening news. Worse, actually; at least Falwell's followers don't blow themselves up. But neither are known as unbiased sources.
Young people using The Daily Show or Colbert report is just as bad, however. The main interest with them is the entertainment factor (comedians will ridicule anything), but The Daily Show in particular leans so far left as to be nothing more than ideology. Is the Saturday Night Live weekend report a real newscast? No. Comedy is at best commentary, not news.
All things considered, the worst thing about our mainstream media in the US is the incompetence and laziness of the journalists themselves.
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this makes me happy
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LOL
Nice.
In reading the posts above I can't help but be reminded of a slight "wardrobe malfunction" at the SuperBowl a few years ago.
The local paper (usually a pretty respectful if slightly politically slanted one) ran a full page story about how horrible the whole scene was despite the fact that it was a tiny peek from far back and only for 1/2 second.
Naturally on the entire opposite page was an accompanying photo of "the event" zoomed right in to show exactly what had happened at just the right moment.
I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the article coupled with such a photo. Since then I hold little regard for any news outlet.
Seems you need to look at each story from multiple angles and decide for yourself what the "real" story is (usually somewhere between either parties account). I hardly have time for this myself and let's be honest - teens aren't exactly known for their diligence on their own time.
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1897 called
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Good news is Vanilla news
Local stations around the nation are already bending over backward to grab the attention of this new generation of Xbox/PS3 - Mis-diagnosed ADD suffering, Ritilen Popping, Dope Smoking, Short Attention Span, "My daddy never spanked me and my mommy hugged me too much" generation. They spice it up with animations, music, and new ways to call the "news" the action news to the minute with street level cameras mounted to helicopters.
Kids don't need better news boiled down to something digestible, they need a kick in the pants.
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In other News, Bush is trying to Pardon himself...
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Are you kidding me?
And as for calling the Daily Show relevant, can we be serious even thought the show isn't? It is a comedy show. Half if not more is completely fabricated and the rest is total opinion.
I do believe that journalism needs a wake up call concerning its biasness and I agree that they think everyone loves dirty laundry but isn't all that bad enough that we don't start limiting the news we get based on age? What if a 7 year old wanted to watch the news? Now we have to have Elmo as an anchor so the child can relate and not feel frightened.
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Re: Are you kidding me?
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It's been a problem a long time....
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So What?
We didn't.
Teenagers need something to worry about just like everyone else. Very few make stupid decisions over such things.
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Avoid the MSM
Anyone, at any age, who wants "news" has to look to aggregators (I prefer reddit to digg) and shows like The Daily Show because only there will one find more than the agreed upon corporate perspective presented by the MSM, only there will one hear of the relationships between news items, and only there will one find truly opposing, or different, interpretations to those the media elite want us to have.
And, if you want a nice clean current example you don't have to look any further than the MSM defining for us just who "legitimate" presidential candidate are and then working to restrict any media coverage that might go to those candidates they didn't choose. Anyone who wants to know what's going on must ignore the MSM and go to other sources--and now we have them.
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From the study, it seems like most people are just passive in news reading, but that's their problem. If they don't make an effort, it's only going to be the media's sensationalist stories that get to them. I'm probably more technologically aware than most people my age, however, so it might also be an issue of people simply not knowing that there are better sources of news and content out there. For instance, I'm probably one of around ten people at my school of 2000 students who has any idea what RSS is.
Seriously though, from what I've seen, this study is bullcrap. The people who get stressed by online content are going to feel the same about any other form of media. And really, teens just don't care that much, and we're pretty desensitized to the way things are today.
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