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Young People and News

Young People and News

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Title: Young People and News
Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Author Organization: A Report from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy
Author Organization URL: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/carnegie_home.htm
Publication Date: Jul 1, 2007
Publication File: Young News Web

Although much is known about the news habits of young Americans, much is in dispute or subject to refinement. Analysts agree on one thing: today's young people pay less attention to daily news than their counterparts of two or three decades ago. However, estimates of the decline vary widely, and some analysts claim the digital revolution is a generational watershed that is bringing young people back to news. "The notion is that no young person cares about news, and that is wrong," one such analyst said recently. "They're moving to a different distribution system." Other analysts disagree, saying the Internet highway is leading young people to almost everything but the news. The scholar Robert Putnam claims that, as Internet traffic has expanded, news use has diminished as a proportion of the total traffic.

Filed Under: carnegie-knight initiative on the future of journalism education