New study shows Millennials ‘snack’ on same newsbrands throughout the day
Old habits die hard for young people accessing news it seems after research conducted by Newsworks and the University of Bath found that 18-34 year-olds ‘snack’ on the same newsbrands constantly throughout the day.
This limited desire to foray contrasts with a news landscape that is far more diverse than at any other time in history amidst an increasingly cluttered landscape of big media players and lone bloggers.
Generation News found that 74 per cent of 18-34 year olds seek out established newsbrands to obtain a balanced picture with so-called Millennials being far more likely than the baby boomer generation, individuals aged 50-65, to access news from digital sources.
Denise Turner, Newsworks' insight director, said of the research: "We live in a world saturated with news, with a multitude of sources available to us, so we wanted to understand how that is affecting newsbrand habits across the generations. This research shows that our multi-platform news landscape has created more routes into newsbrands, with new habits being formed. Newsbrands continue to provide a trusted lens on the world."
Bas Verplanken, professor of social psychology at the University of Bath, added: "This study shows that newsbrands remain as addictive across generations as they have ever been, with young people relying on them as much as their parents do for a balanced and informed view. What's interesting is how millennials are discovering newsbrands – digitally and via social media numerous times a day. That's testament to how well newsbrands have adapted to a connected age."
Whilst there is some divergence of habits between the generations individual are influenced more readily by their engagement and interest, although 73 per cent of Millennials cited social media as the hook which led them to seek out additional information on interesting stories they might otherwise have missed.