Millennials See More Information, but Struggle to Engage With It

Millennials are reluctant to engage with news because their primary source for it, social media, is ridden with distraction and false information.

On average, online users are exposed to 54,000 words a day on social media alone, according to AdWeek. Among millennials, however, exposure doesn’t always translate to consumption.

“I can’t even look at news anymore,” Cody Weiss, a senior business major at the University of Texas at Austin, said. “I see so much fake news and quotes shared out of context.” By fake news Cody was referring to the abundance of fake stories that appeared on his social media leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Cody’s disdain for the news is shared by many young people today. A recent survey conducted for News Engagement Day by University of Texas journalism students showed only 32 percent of the 166 surveyed students read the news daily.

News Engagement Day is a four-year-old event designed to promote news consumption and was founded by UT journalism professor Paula Poindextor. The event is sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

At this year’s Engagement Day, which is held the first Tuesday of October, Poindexter previewed research that will be published later this year in the next edition of her book, , “Millennials, News, and Social Media: Is News Engagement a Thing of the Past?”.

In 2011, Poindextor published her book, “Millennials, News, and Social Media: Is News Engagement a Thing of the Past?”. At News Engagement Day, she previewed research that will be published in the book’s next edition that releases this year.

While 38% of millennials are exposed to news daily, only 22% of them seek it, according to Poindextor. She distinguishes seeking news from being exposed to it because many young people inadvertently stumble upon news articles when they go on line.

In today’s connected world, “it’s virtually impossible not to get news because it’s everywhere,” Poindextor said. “Even when you’re trying not to get news, news will get you.”

Nearly 78% of the UT students surveyed for News Engagement Day said their primary sources for getting news were either their smart phones or social media accounts.

Mellissa Chessher, a journalism professor who teaches graduate online journalism courses at Syracuse University, sees this trend as problematic. “Throughout the day, they (millennials) are consuming news, but they’re distracted by a million other things,” she said. “While they’re reading the news on their phones and social media accounts, they’re getting updates from other things.”

As a result, Chessher believes that millennials’ news awareness doesn’t extend beyond what they learn from headlines.

“Thoughtful, uninterrupted reading is compromised,” she said. “I worry about the depth of their understanding, not so much their access.”

Other consequences have arisen from the gatekeepers of information shifting from journalists to the common folk. Cody Weiss, the UT student quoted above, discussed the problems he’s noticed from real world news and social media being in the same place.

“It’s massively problematic,” he said. “I see people who are willing to share fake news because they want to push a certain cause or to appear a certain way.”

Some, though, are sharing false information on social media for more significant purposes than to maintain their online brand. At the end of September, several news outlets reported that the Russian government created fake Facebook groups to stir ethnic/racial divisions during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“We are beholden as journalists to be better fact checkers, to be better at calling out fake news,” Professor Chessher said when asked about these reports. “We must be relentless. You will never be able to control the internet, but we have to double down on reporting and critical thinking.”

Chessher believes it’s journalists’ responsibility to reverse the way news engagement is trending. Some, however, such as first-year business major, Sammy Lustberg, are taking direct action to enhance the quality of their news engagement.

“I don’t even go on social media for news anymore,” she said. “For that, I listen to ‘The Daily’.” The Daily is the New York Times daily news podcast.