Abstract
Despite extensive attention paid to young adults and youth media consumption by both industry and scholars, confusion persists about what drives young adults’ media consumption. While the same could be said for other key demographic groups, young adults are especially interesting for news media organizations and journalism institutions as they make up the foundation of the industry’s future livelihood. In this regard, concern persist that young adults are being “lost in tiktokland” (Lindthardt 2022), are less willing to pay for news media content and journalism (Kammer et al 2015) and lack a parental catalyst for developing news habits (Edgerly et al 2018). Implicitly implied in such concerns is that young adults are being lost to a world of entertainment, gaming and diversion.
Accordingly, this study investigates young adults’ processes of developing a relationship to news and journalism in a high choice media landscape. Drawing on the concept of media repertoire, which is defined as “the entirety of media a person regularly uses” (Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012: 758), the study focus upon the experiences of Danish youth aged 18-24. The data is composed of semi-structured interviews, Q-sort methodology and think aloud protocols. Methodologically, the study takes an emic approach in which news and journalism are de-centered and an everyday life perspective on media is foregrounded. (Highmore 2010). Concretely, this entails including media types which features entertainment and popular media genres, such as podcast, TV series, fiction, documentaries, influencers and lifestyle magazines along conventional news media sources. Moreover, the study deploys the concept of public connection (Couldry, Livingstone, and Markham 2010) and imagined user modes (Bengtsson 2012) and analyses five media repertoires outlined in a previous study: the online traditionalist, depth-seeking audiophile, digital news seeker, interpersonal networker, and non-news information seeker (Peters et al. 2021). The study then asks how news, information and entertainment categories configure in the media repertoires of the participants. Doing so, the study advances the following three-fold argument: First and foremost that young adults’ media repertoires are characterized by experiential ambivalence, in which everyday uses of news and entertainment media are considered both negative and positive in conflicting and simultaneous ways. Diving into this ambivalence, the study argues that 1) entertainment media categories challenge young adults’ efforts and ideals of becoming what they consider ‘mature’ media users. This in turn involves consuming news and journalism. 2) Normative ideals about consuming the news is being re-configured away from ‘the informed citizen’ towards ‘the productive person’. This entails that pleasureful media consumption becomes immature and sinful when it is considered passive or pleasure-driven. 3) While the media genres and types matter, the imagined mode of consumption (Bengtsson 2012) seem to matter more in terms of fostering a sense of mature and meaningful media use. In this regard, viewing a documentary can be legitimate if done for productive reasons; and sinful if done for entertainment purposes. Likewise, news consumed in a diversion-driven mode can be considered immature and sinful because it relates to entertainment. In this ideal, entertainment is considered to be in opposition to idealized imagined user modes. In sum, by exploring how young adults navigate a high-choice media landscape of information and entertainment at this crucial life stage, the study contributes to understanding the democratic significance of everyday media use. (Moe & Ytre-Arne 2021).
Accordingly, this study investigates young adults’ processes of developing a relationship to news and journalism in a high choice media landscape. Drawing on the concept of media repertoire, which is defined as “the entirety of media a person regularly uses” (Hasebrink & Domeyer, 2012: 758), the study focus upon the experiences of Danish youth aged 18-24. The data is composed of semi-structured interviews, Q-sort methodology and think aloud protocols. Methodologically, the study takes an emic approach in which news and journalism are de-centered and an everyday life perspective on media is foregrounded. (Highmore 2010). Concretely, this entails including media types which features entertainment and popular media genres, such as podcast, TV series, fiction, documentaries, influencers and lifestyle magazines along conventional news media sources. Moreover, the study deploys the concept of public connection (Couldry, Livingstone, and Markham 2010) and imagined user modes (Bengtsson 2012) and analyses five media repertoires outlined in a previous study: the online traditionalist, depth-seeking audiophile, digital news seeker, interpersonal networker, and non-news information seeker (Peters et al. 2021). The study then asks how news, information and entertainment categories configure in the media repertoires of the participants. Doing so, the study advances the following three-fold argument: First and foremost that young adults’ media repertoires are characterized by experiential ambivalence, in which everyday uses of news and entertainment media are considered both negative and positive in conflicting and simultaneous ways. Diving into this ambivalence, the study argues that 1) entertainment media categories challenge young adults’ efforts and ideals of becoming what they consider ‘mature’ media users. This in turn involves consuming news and journalism. 2) Normative ideals about consuming the news is being re-configured away from ‘the informed citizen’ towards ‘the productive person’. This entails that pleasureful media consumption becomes immature and sinful when it is considered passive or pleasure-driven. 3) While the media genres and types matter, the imagined mode of consumption (Bengtsson 2012) seem to matter more in terms of fostering a sense of mature and meaningful media use. In this regard, viewing a documentary can be legitimate if done for productive reasons; and sinful if done for entertainment purposes. Likewise, news consumed in a diversion-driven mode can be considered immature and sinful because it relates to entertainment. In this ideal, entertainment is considered to be in opposition to idealized imagined user modes. In sum, by exploring how young adults navigate a high-choice media landscape of information and entertainment at this crucial life stage, the study contributes to understanding the democratic significance of everyday media use. (Moe & Ytre-Arne 2021).
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Publikationsdato | 18 okt. 2022 |
| Status | Udgivet - 18 okt. 2022 |
| Begivenhed | ECREA Pre-conference: Young people, entertainment and cross-media storytelling:: Perspectives and methods for investigating youth media - Århus University , Århus, Danmark Varighed: 18 okt. 2022 → 18 okt. 2022 |
Konference
| Konference | ECREA Pre-conference: Young people, entertainment and cross-media storytelling: |
|---|---|
| Lokation | Århus University |
| Land/Område | Danmark |
| By | Århus |
| Periode | 18/10/2022 → 18/10/2022 |
| Andet | Entertainment media play a vital role in the media lives of teenagers and youth, as do social, digital and global platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Netflix. Today’s youth entertainment culture thus includes not only entertainment produced by legacy mass media producers, but also content creators, influencers and ‘new media’ players. Many of these content creators make entertainment to be spread across platforms to strengthen brands and income and create fictional and non-fictional cross-media storylines. The prominent position of global entertainment platforms among teenagers also impacts viewing communities by reconstructing place and locality and by extending the production and modes of cultural reproduction that inform and shape how people perceive themselves and others. All this raises the stakes for national media industries to retain younger segments and for media policymakers, who traditionally have fulfilled policy goals by regulating national media institutions. <br/><br/>This pre-conference invites contributions that further theories about industry notions, practices and strategies of conducive production and distribution practices related to young people as audiences. Contributions can deal with questions concerning all aspects of genre and all aspects of entertainment made for or consumed by youth—from policy and production perspectives to textual analysis and reception studies. Addressing such questions, we are especially interested in papers that shed new light on one or more of the following themes: <br/><br/> Case studies of youth productions and/or youth content. <br/><br/> Studies investigating how youth consume or use entertainment media. <br/><br/> Studies investigating how screenwriters, producers and commissioners conceive and produce content aimed for and consumed by youth. <br/><br/> Studies investigating how emerging producers, content creators or influencers conceive and produce content aimed for and consumed by youth and teenagers. <br/><br/> Studies investigating the role of public service media and other national institutions in serving and engaging young people. <br/><br/> Studies investigating why young people seek out non-domestic/global entertainment. <br/><br/> Studies investigating the role that language plays in the consumption of global entertainment. <br/><br/> Studies investigating the role of policymakers, policies and funding schemes in facilitating high ‘quality’ content needed by young people. <br/><br/> Research and theoretical reflections on the ways in which transnational cultural encounters via screen impact opinions and behaviour towards the Other. <br/><br/> Studies of different genres, aesthetics and modes of address in current content targeting young audiences. <br/><br/> Conceptual and critical interventions into the production and consumption of youth media content, including perspectives on cross-media storytelling, youth fiction, social media entertainment, content creators and influencers. <br/><br/> Methodological interventions that address the challenges in researching young audiences, youth productions and/or youth content. <br/> |
Emneord
- Young Adults
- News Audiences
- News Use
- audience research