Who is using news sources and how much? That's a question that the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press Politics and Public shed some light on in the course of trying to guage the news habits of young people. The Center is part of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The suspicion is that young people nowadays pay less attention to the news than their counterparts in earlier decades. One of the tables included has information on media use by age group, which contains interesting facts.
The medium which is hurting in general and has made but a small dent in teenage habits is newspaper; television holds its own with teens – almost a third check out TV news every day and about a fourth hear news on the radio every day. A fifth seek news in the Internet. Older adults lead all categories except the Internet.
NEWSPAPER | Teenagers | Young Adults | Older Adults |
Every day | 9% | 16% | 35% |
Several X weekly | 17% | 13% | 14% |
Once a week | 23% | 20% | 15% |
Less than 1X/week | 5% | 6% | 3% |
Hardly ever/never | 46% | 45% | 33% |
NATIONAL TV NEWS | Teenagers | Young Adults | Older Adults |
Every day | 31% | 31% | 57% |
Several X weekly | 22% | 26% | 23% |
Once a week | 23% | 16% | 10% |
Less than 1X/week | 6% | 3% | 1% |
Hardly ever/never | 10% | 24% | 9% |
LOCAL TV NEWS | Teenagers | Young Adults | Older Adults |
Every day | 30% | 36% | 62% |
Several X weekly | 23% | 25% | 19% |
Once a week | 24% | 14% | 7% |
Less than 1X/week | 3% | 5% | 1% |
Hardly ever/never | 20% | 20% | 11% |
RADIO NEWS | Teenagers | Young Adults | Older Adults |
Every day | 25% | 29% | 38% |
Several X weekly | 13% | 15% | 20% |
Once a week | 18% | 11% | 10% |
Less than 1X/week | 8% | 5% | 2% |
Hardly ever/never | 36% | 40% | 30% |
INTERNET NEWS | Teenagers | Young Adults | Older Adults |
Every day | 20% | 22% | 20% |
Several X weekly | 23% | 16% | 11% |
Once a week | 15% | 13% | 11% |
Less than 1X/week | 10% | 4% | 4% |
Hardly ever/never | 32% | 45% | 54% |
Source: Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press Politics and Public, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University