Analysis of news and current affairs audiences have, until very recently, suggested that younger audiences are not only less engaged by this type of content, but are also perhaps increasingly less engaged with it. To combat misinformation, some tech companies are altering their content regulation policies but a few key trends remain — one is increased reliance on social media platforms for news.
The Rise of social media as a Source
Updated figures indicate a rise further up the age groups, with generations becoming increasingly saturated on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for the latest world affairs. This trend is occurring in the face of reports of falling public trust and use of more traditional news media. The review suggests that social media is becoming an increasingly important news source for this segment, compared to other platforms.
Impact of Digital Content Creation
Within these social media ecosystems some personalities have attracted large followings and have assumed an air as a purveyor of current affairs. One of these people, Dylan Page, better known as News Daddy online, has ticked TikTok up to 10.4m followers Just to put into context, this quote comes with the info that this was the number of users following The New York Times just in one of its platforms, the digital footprint for one of the different platforms they manage had a user base of 595,600. These numbers show the power of a social media influencer as a one-person media outlet.
The Young (Adults) Trust Issue: social media Information
The report further suggests that children are cultivating a higher level of trust in the content consumed on social media. Such ever-increasing dependence and faith comes against the backdrop of some tech firms tweaking their moderation mechanism to tackle disinformation. This result does imply that there might be a significant shift in younger generations perspectives around the credibility and reliability of news and information that is transmitted via social media compared to news that is disseminated via traditional media outlets.
Effects on the Information Environment
The shifting news consumption trends of the younger generation could have larger repercussions within the information ecosystem. Finally, these are trends will no doubt evolve, and the changing role of social networks and solo content creators in the press will be something to watch out for in the decades to come, too. Particularly in the media sector, the lively study us between classic information stores and extra current social media structures in giving statistics to the public is a constant place of development.
Future of News Delivery: Implications
And although this trend of younger people using social media as their primary source of information brings us into a lot of really problematic questions about how news is engaged with, the stats are still somewhat indicative of the future of news. People should understand why this appears to be happening and why such information flowing through such platforms may be favoured; to some, it may be more convenient, instantaneous and relatable. Further, one needs to examine the effect of social media content moderation policies on the news and information quality that these cohorts are exposed to.
And this to be explored too — the individual content creators shaping the informational landscape. However, there is one thing about these that makes the news system broken also, although they have a great potential to reach large audiences, they can also be a risk and not send the content properly and indeed which can destroy the news system. While people think about how best to encourage responsible news consumption habits, what our survey data thus far has begun to reveal — that younger people have very large insights and practices they are drawing on in terms of assessing the credibility of information they come across on social media — will be increasingly important in the future.
Widespread adoption of video online will also have a defining impact on the future of the media landscape, which is dictated by how traditional news organisations respond to these shifting consumption patterns. This is one of the areas where media needs to get together right across the larger industry — the challenge of attracting young audiences where they are, but without compromising on the journalistic foundations of truthfulness and trust. While time will tell the exact nature of the broader relationship between then-existing journalistic norms and the social media ecosystem, there should be no doubt that by the time future generations come of age, the way news is produced, spread, and seen will be far from static.
