Young readers trust newspapers
Young readers trust newspapers more than other news sources. This was revealed at a Round Table on Youth Readership at the WAN conference in Cape Town, Sunday, 3 June 2007, when Dr Robert Barnard, an international media researcher, opened discussion on “winning strategies for engaging a new generation”.
Barnard, a partner in Youth Media DNA now doing a quantative study in which 1000 young people will be surveyed, has been involved in ongoing media research into where youth get their news.
He said responses of 10 focus groups of young people in 10 different countries showed that they viewed the traditional media as more stable, trustworthy and more reliable than the new media
However, when asked who they perceived as the most important news brands, Google, Yahoo, CCN and the BBC came up more frequently than newspapers.
“The first brand they adopt is television, then the Internet,” he said. “They view newspapers as an inspirational kind of romantic, aspirational ideal. They see newspapers as a different kind of media.”
Comprehensive youth strategy
Barnard called for a comprehensive youth strategy, emphasising that NIE (newspapers in education) was not enough. Of particular importance was a parents' strategy as parents exerted considerable influence on the lives of their children.
“If parents have books in the house, their children are more likely to read,” he said. “The same goes with newspapers. If papers are left lying around, children will start reading them, particularly if they are not forced to do so.”
Research also dispelled the misunderstanding that young readers were “apathetic and disengaged.” Rather, it was found that young people wanted information they could use for social interaction “to appear smart” or when applying for jobs.
Barnard said the youth were rejecting institutions such as, for instance, politics.
A more personal way
“Look at voting,” he said. “If you can't get a voter by the time he/she is 20 to 24, you won't get him. Young people are expressing themselves in a more personal way and voting on the Internet, for the Idols and so on.”
He quoted research by Pepsi Cola who found that if they could capture a Pepsi drinker by the age of 12, he would be worth US$75000 over a lifetime. However, if he was not a drinker by the age of 18 or 20, he would not be worth going after.
He added: “Where we see a challenge is where there is a distribution of news through SMS, skype and emails.”
