Young adults suffering from news fatigue, study says

[Harbourmaster]

"GOTEBORG, Sweden:
Young adults experience news fatigue from being inundated by facts and updates and have trouble understanding in-depth reports, according to a study that was to be presented Monday at a global media conference.

The study, conducted by Context-Based Research Group, an ethnographic research company in Baltimore, found that the news consumption behavior of younger readers differed profoundly from that of previous generations.

The research project, commissioned by The Associated Press in 2007, analyzed the news consumption patterns of an ethnically diverse group of 18 men and women 18 to 34 years old in six major metropolitan areas in the United States, Britain and India."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/02/t.../young.php




Great study using a HUGE sample of 18 people!!!! PLEASE!

[laarree]

Only young adults?

The sample of only 18 people is truly absurd. It shows that the premise of the story
had been pre-determined to be true, and a less-than-half-assed research job was done
to substantiate the premise. It's very possible that the sample size was a typo.

[Harbourmaster]

I read it through a couple of times and decided that it was _possible_ that they used a sample of 18 people in each of the locales, but, that is not what they wrote. We will have to wait for the "paper" to be given so that we can actually see for ourselves what the sample size was.

[AlphaDog]

I saw that this morning and wasn't impressed by the numbers used in their analysis, either. Even a sample size of 108 (18 people in each of six metropolitan areas) over such a wide area of the world isn't adequate to get reliable results. I also question whether the young adults are truly "news fatigued," or whether they're just too impatient to take the time to read anything in depth. Judging by the way they've become accustomed to receiving short bursts of information, their brains may not be geared toward focusing on anything for more than just a few seconds. I'm being cynical again, huh?

[MikeF]

I would read this whole thread but I've kind of lost interest...

[OWC Jamie]

they just need a mo' urban translator.

[Mike Johnson]

Anybody who wants to read the report can. http://www.contextresearch.com/context/study3.cfm

Yes, it was 18 people total. It describes itself as an anthropology/ethnography project. They focused on young adults who gets news online to see exactly how they do it. The paper profiles the habits of each of the 18 people.

It's not terribly fascinating. The Fatigue bit is just one of several conclusions, most of which are pretty obvious. One -- that sports and entertainment news follow a pattern consumers like -- is interesting.

The recommendations are hardly notable. But the study was done for the AP, and they probably find the issue more compelling than I.

[StarGlazer]

18 or 108 students. The study is not worth the paper it printed on or the electrons it spreads on. I spend 30 years doing statistical human response studies and those sample sizes are absurb for this type of study. (Whose results were reported on one of the 24 hour news channels tonight.) I cannot believe the AP got rooked into this.

[Gutenberg]

The conclusion makes sense. I'm thinkin' the number is a typo.

Edit: Not a typo. The difference is that the study's an anthropological study, not a survey. So while the sample is not wide, the subjects are studied in great detail for a number of months. I think the info is good--it certainly is what I have noticed in myself and among a number of my friends. I really have to concentrate to get through long news stories and I no longer read magazines cover-to-cover. I dropped Yahoo as my web portal because I got tired of the headline snippets--I don't think you can learn much from the crawl at the bottom of the screen. I am seriously trying to stay away from scattershot information. It's not helpful to me.

What the AP's trying to find out is how to deliver the news effectively. They're hitting the target, but it's not being absorbed.

Edit #2: Anyone who wants to check out the method, check here. It's a pdf of the summary of the method and conclusions.

http://www.ap.org/newmodel.pdf

[viaripatti]

Like many others, I suspect it's not just young adults. Alvin Toffler was right; everything is moving faster and faster. Nobody cares about details; - "just give me the synopsis"... Bush was no exception in wanting his reports reduced to a paragraph or two on a page. Small wonder many citizens vote based on a single issue. I'm not hopeful.