"EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUNG PEOPLE

DON'T ENGAGE WITH THE NEWS..."

"In this context the journalist ‘reports to’ a privatized,

virtualized public whose demands, however, can be

expressed directly, in person. A consequence of this

altered relationship is that the sense- or sensation-seeking

public sets the agenda, not the journalist. And what counts

as journalism extends ever further into non-canonical

areas, until ‘journalism’ is dissolved. In other words, even

as its representative democratic function is superseded,

journalism itself massively expands. The expansion of

journalism is taking place technologically as it develops

on-line, and generically as it migrates into areas beyond

news journalism, including sport, lifestyles, fashion, travel,

and ‘popular’ forms." (Hartley, 2000: 44-45)

KEY QUESTIONS:

• What is 'news', and who decides what is

'good' news?

• What are young people disengaging from?

• What is engagement, and what counts as a

legitimate form of it?

• What other cultural concerns are at play

here?

"YOUNG PEOPLE":• “A generation that rejects news” (Sternberg, 2002:

308)

• Almost every quantitative and qualitative study into

young people and news consumption has shown this.

• Therefore seen as “the ultimate face of political

apathy” (McKee, 2005: 184).

• Why might this be?

• Because young people are bad citizens?

• Moral PanicF?

• Have always been seen as a troublesome demographic

• Between childhood and adulthood

• See Moral Panics, week 3

• Normally young people were assumed to ‘grow into’ newspapers

and other mainstream news forms - "cohort effect" (Buckingham,

2000)

• But is starting to move up the age groupsF

• Demonised by traditional news and current affairs?

• Who is disengaging?

"YOUNG PEOPLE":

WHERE DO YOU GET

YOUR NEWS FROM?

"YOUNG PEOPLE":

QUESTION:

WHAT IS

'NEWS'?

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

• Question of definition...

• Should it be defined broadly?

• Or narrowly?

• Who might have a stake in the

answer?

• Is Kim Kardashian's baby "news"?

“[T]here may be more than one way or one

television genre to inform citizens about

politicsF the notion that only programmes

formally labelled as ‘informational’ should be

regarded as legitimate outlets for civic

communication is unsustainable.”

– Jay Blumler (1999:

243)

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

The Panel

Michael Moore

TDS/Colbert

The Project

The Chaser

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

Michael: It shows the politicians as humans,

not just the face on TVF

Brian: Like, what they say officially will be

different to what they say in this, because this

is a joke, so what they say will be what

they’re actually thinking, and not just some

official statement on TV. [F] What they say

will be what their actual opinion is, rather than

their ‘official’ opinion.

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

"In something like The Daily Show, we can see a deeply

complex blend of entertainment and serious news, popular

culture and politics... Its significance lies not just in its

ability to cover news, but that it very often covers news

better; that it challenges power more directly than orthodox

approaches, and is far more engaging for viewers as well.

It shows us that, sometimes, breaking journalism’s well-

established ‘rules’ is not simply possible, but actually

desirable." Harrington, 2013

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

Who says enjoyment and

"watching the news" are

incompatible concepts?

WHAT IS 'NEWS'?

• Increasingly Bottom--Up movement of

information

• Everyone is/can be a journalist ("citizen

journalism")

• More opportunities to challenge the powerful

• E.g. Obama RE: Pennsylvanians

• The Lewinsky scandal in the Drudge Report

WHAT IS 'ENGAGEMENT'?

• Disrupts traditional (top—down) models of communication.

• E.g. Twitter, blogs

• Challenges existing business models

• Moves journalism into increasingly ‘conversational’, networked

(side—side) style.

• Gives voice to those not otherwise heard.

• Greatly expands the news sphere.

• Greater ‘space’ = deeper analysis?

CITIZEN JOURNALISM:

Critiques:

• “Amatuerish”

• “Truth” is lost in chaos

• Mainly pimply teenagers in their bedrooms

• Overhyped? (Turner, 2009)

• De-legitimising ”Expertise”

• Increasing quantity of political discourse, but not necessarily the quality?

• Breaking public sphere into lots of mutually ignorant sphericules? (e.g.

Conservapedia)

CITIZEN JOURNALISM:

Keen, A. (2007) The Cult of the Amateur,

London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing

•“Infinite Monkey Theorum” – cultish

•“Killing our Culture and Assaulting our Economy”

•Moral panic?

CITIZEN JOURNALISM:

MORAL PANIC?• ‘Power’ divested from the hands of the few, into the hands of the many.

• E.g. Gutenberg Bible

• It’s all teens, idiots, ‘the masses’.

• E.g. Big Brother

• Lack of “expertise”...

• E.g. Jazz, Punk

• Leading to cultural decay...

• E.g. Comic booksF

• Consumption Literacy – Production Literacy

"In this context the journalist ‘reports to’ a privatized,

virtualized public whose demands, however, can be

expressed directly, in person. A consequence of this

altered relationship is that the sense- or sensation-seeking

public sets the agenda, not the journalist. And what counts

as journalism extends ever further into non-canonical

areas, until ‘journalism’ is dissolved. In other words, even

as its representative democratic function is superseded,

journalism itself massively expands. The expansion of

journalism is taking place technologically as it develops

on-line, and generically as it migrates into areas beyond

news journalism, including sport, lifestyles, fashion, travel,

and ‘popular’ forms." (Hartley, 2000: 44-45)

ARE YOU DISENGAGED

FROM "THE NEWS"?

LET'S THINK...