Inside Teenagers’ Brains: Mass Media for Adolescents
The VIII St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum took place on November 14–16, 2019. It’s main topic this year: “Cultural Codes in Globalizing World”. As chief editor of Phosphore, I was one of the speakers
What topics are the most interesting for teens?
Teens are more interested by sport, TV shows, and music. But for all theses topics, we are a less interesting than others media. If you like sport, you’ll prefer watch a live coverage of a soccer match. If you like TV shows, you’ll stay all evening with your Netflix account. And if you’re a huge fan of music, you’ll go to a concert or listen songs on Spotify. With access to everything, anytime, we have to find other narratives and other way to talk about these topics. We’ll meet free riders talking about what they are proud of, what kind of sensation they are looking for. Put some worlds on pictures. Help teens to verbalize what they like and why they like it. And we’ll try to provide them a variety of formats (upbeat stories, press cartoons, photo reports, first-hand accounts from young adults…).
How to create idols for modern teenagers?
Authenticity. When the personal history suits our collective moment. When the idol is trying to act the way he or she talks. Greta Thunberg takes a boat instead of flying to New York City : it’s important for teens. And for pop stars, it seems to me it’s important to have a narrative but also a visual universe. Lana del Rey sings the American way of life, but her videos, her customs, her show are all about America, with all the icons : cowboys, western, beachboys, skylines, etc.
How do teenagers consume media content? (Formats, duration, time, place etc.) And how to take all this into account when creating content?
All the formats, all the duration, all the time and everywhere. So how to take that into account? By varying the frequency of our publications (a daily app, a weekly video, and a two-weekly magazine) Through social media we have created a close bond with our audience : they can ask us questions about anything from major news events to personal problems, help select covers and titles for our publication, and share stories about causes they are committed to. They can be part of the news — young reporters themselves. Finally, we have changed the way we work, our organization and our team. We no longer have a news or culture desk with a fixed number of pages to fill. That’s gone. Instead we have a more flexible and pro-active editorial team who are in constant contact with our audience through social media, reporting, regular class visits and internships offered to high school students. Our media has adapted to the demands of young adults today by producing our videos, apps, website and magazine with the very people at which its aimed.
How do you compete with bloggers?
I don’t. I work with them! When we decided to do a weekly video on Youtube to answer teenagers’ questions about their body image, their feelings, their moods, etc., we never imagined doing it alone. We reached out to some bloggers we liked and asked them to work with us. These bloggers have charisma, a unique style/tone and way of talking ((to their audience)), and, of course, they have clear values. They were happy to reach a new audience thanks to us. They were also happy to work together (as a girl-boy duo) and to work with us — journalists who have time to meet specialists (in their field) and who know what they are talking about.
How traditional teenage media is changing?
We cannot anymore publish only a newsmagazine each month. We have to be like them everywhere, with a variety of contents and formats. But we have to keep a strong identity, with a tone (authentic and funny), a way of talking (ours is to be a friend of their big sister or big brother) and of course values (ours are human first, cooperation, engaged in the ecological transition). And that will never change.
David is a journalist, working for Bayard, the main publishing company for children and teenagers in France. He is in charge of the teenagers market, with several titles for 11‒14 and 14‒18 years old titles (Okapi, Phosphore…). Their core business is paper magazines, mostly by subscriptions. But they also develop videos, apps, etc. His academical background is engineering studies (in France and Canada) and journalism.
