Generation Z, has the news and media lost contact with digital natives?
This question was posed among many others recently during a live online session at the 5th edition of WAN-IFRA's Digital Media Africa conference which took place between 6 and 7 July. The conference encouraged dialogue around topics that affect the media in 2021 and beyond.
Session host, journalist and media lecturer Pontsho Pilane asked how the media could attempt to reach a new audience that may not be necessarily interested in analogue methods of news consumption.
“How do we reach a younger audience? People who may never buy a newspaper and only really consume and interact with the news and current affairs through their phones and their laptops?” she asked.
Pilane worked for The Daily Vox, one of the leading youth-centric publications in South Africa She said her experience at the publication made her aware of the urgent need for more youth-centred media and products.
“The Daily Vox was started on the backbone of realising that there are no media that caters to young people. There is a need for the media to resonate with the youth and reach Gen Z, especially in an age of rising social media sites such as TikTok where news is being disseminated by young people,” she said.
Chief membership officer at Malaysiakini Lynn D’Cruz suggested that media should diversify their content to capture a young generation's attention with varied interests.
“We need to penetrate these chambers and diversify the content as much as possible in order to reach a wider audience. The youth like variety, have a short attention span and move this attention really quickly,” she said.
D'Cruz recently established youth-oriented publication Youthphoria which is run by 15 young journalists predominantly in their twenties. She said she learned that young people do in fact know what they want from the media and that the media needs to start listening to these needs.
“They are not interested in the chaos we have left behind; they are more interested in finding and creating solutions-based news outlets and practices,” D'Cruz said.
Pilane echoed these sentiments, highlighting that the youth interact with news for different and more practical reasons and that the media needs to adapt to these changes.
“News wants to tell us what we should know, whereas young audiences want to know more about useful information like how to navigate the world and learn practical skills in order to figure things out for themselves,” explained the host.
A report from the Reuters Institute suggests that it is all about presentation; the media needs to craft news differently to appeal to younger audiences and the experience of news should feel as easy and accessible as logging on to Tik-Tok or Instagram.
“TikTok now reaches a quarter (24%) of under-35s, with 7% using the platform for news – and a higher penetration in parts of Latin America and Asia,” Reuters reported.
This also reflected the beliefs of The Standard’s editor Mark Oloo, who argued that it is not true that traditional media has no use for the youth, but rather that young consumers prefer to get their information from secondary sources such as social media, as these platforms are more interactive and innovative.
“People under age 35 spend only 8 minutes a week consuming news from traditional sites and are instead relying on social media for news. This is because they believe that social media is interactive, provides news in real-time and is more entertaining. Additionally, they go from interacting with news as passive consumers to agents who have the power to give their own feedback and opinions,” he said.
The problem with these platforms, according to Oloo, is that celebrities mainly control the news narrative and are not experienced journalists, which may cause problems with reporting accuracy. He believes it is time to diversify newsrooms with young talent who can provide more innovation in the way stories are told.
“We need to involve the youth in every aspect of what we do and make sure their voices matter as both sources and writers. If we diversify newsrooms, we allow our audience to become more diverse as well,” he explained.
This recommendation was backed by D’Cruz, who also believes that it is time to start listening to the voices of the youth, provide training and hand over the torch.
“We need to pass on our journalistic skills and knowledge to assist them [young journalists] in continuing the production of quality media products but at the same time, allow them to choose what areas they want to focus on for themselves,” she said.
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