Getting Personal:Does Traditional Journalism Fit into the Net

Generation’s Media Mix?

Mike McKean, Convergence Faculty ChairMissouri School of Journalism

November 2005

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The Net Generation: Who are They?

•Born in or after 1982

•Gravitate toward group activity

•8 out of 10 say, “It’s cool to be smart.”

•Focused on grades and performance

•Busy with extracurricular activities

•Identify with parents’ values

•Respectful of social conventions and institutions

•Fascination for new technologies

•Racially and ethnically diverse

Source: Howe and Strauss, 2003 as summarized by Educause V.P.Diana Oblinger at the Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute, University of Missouri-Columbia, April 2005.

Interactive, citizen-centered content created and delivered on the internet, 3G mobile

phones, digital music players, and handheld videogame systems offers rich alternatives to

news and entertainment presented by local, national

and global media corporations.

RemixingtheMedia

New survey shows 57% of U.S. teens are content creators

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Nov. 2005

Remixing the Media:Mashups create new music by combining old tunes.

DJ Dangermouse makes mega-hit by merging rapper Jay Z’s lyrics from his Black Album with music by The Beatles from their White Album.

This is a clear copyright violation, but The Grey Album spawns many imitators, both professional and amateur.

Remixing the Media:Playlisting lets patrons act as temporary DJs.

They hook their MP3 players (such as the iPod shown on the right) into a club’s sound system.

This way they can share their favorite music mixes (also

known as playlists).

Remixing the Media:“Photoshopping” allows people to make new images by combining or manipulating original photos, drawings and graphics in creative ways using Adobe Photoshop or similar editing software.

Photoshopping contests are very popular on sites such as Worth1000 & Flikr

From Worth1000.com’s “Politicians in Drag 2” competition

Remixing the Media:Podcasting democratizes radio.

Inexpensive audio tools make it easy to create a podcast.

Integrated software such as iTunes or specialty programs like iPodder make it easy to organize and download your favorite programs.

Remixing the Media: Blogging, until recently a text-driven form of first-person reporting and opinion, now features visuals on the popular site postsecret.blogspot.com.

Remixing the Media: Content creation and management tools becoming easier, smaller, cheaper

So what does the “remix culture” have to do with journalism?

Recent studies indicate young people prefer these new communication channels to the older ones for news as well as entertainment.

Newspaper Readership Declining

Source: Crosby, Online Journalism Review, 4 Mar 04

TV News Viewership Declining

Source: Crosby, Pew Center for the People and the Press, 2000

Campaign 2004 and the Youth Audience

• Survey says 18-29 year olds get political news regularly from:

• Local TV 26%• Newspaper 23%• Internet 20%• Comedy Shows 21%

• Source: Pew Center for the People and the Press, 2004Host John Stewart parodies politics on The

Daily Show.

“The future of the U.S. news industry is seriously

threatened by the seemingly irrevocable move by young

people away from traditional sources of news.”

Merrill Brown, Carnegie Corporation, April 2005

Young People Rate Strengths of Media

Source: Carnegie Reporter, Carnegie Corporation, April 2005

Local TV News

Network TV News

Cable TV News

Internet

Newspaper

Trustworthy 21% 19% 21% 10% 9%

Up-to-date 19% 13% 24% 29% 4%

Offers “news I can use”

37% 11% 10% 20% 9%

Useful way to learn

15% 11% 14% 41% 8%

Entertaining 23% 12% 18% 20% 4%

Provides news only when I want it

12% 6% 9% 49% 9%

Young People’s News Sources: 2007

Source: Carnegie Reporter, Carnegie Corporation, April 2005

39%

14%

10%8%

5%

InternetLocal TVCable TVNewspaperNetwork TV

Net rating: those who say “more likely” to use minus those who say “less likely”

So what do we do to keep traditional journalism relevant to the Net Generation?

•Teach current and future journalists new digital skills

•Teach current and future journalists a new, “citizen-centric” attitude

•Teach current and future journalists to incorporate their stories into the personal media mix of more citizens

Traditional journalists need to adopt a new set of values as well as a new set of tools to cope with the public's growing ability to mix and manipulate personal and public media.