In today's hybrid media environment new content creators challenge the status of professionally produced journalism and blur the lines between professional and non-professional content. Growing up in this information landscape, younger generations have developed news-related practices and attitudes that lie in stark contrast to those of previous generations. In addition, discrepancies exist between news definitions and the use practices of young people. We conducted focus groups with German adolescents (15–17 years), young adults (18–24 years) and adults (40–53 years) in August 2020 to uncover young peoples’ orientation toward news and journalism. Our study indicates that the boundaries of what journalism is and what it is not are becoming increasingly indistinct. However, distinctions do emerge between the journalistic and non-journalistic sources that adolescents and young adults use and the functions they associate with them according to their information needs. Differences between the age groups become apparent in their motivations to stay informed which highlights the important role non-journalistic sources play in information behaviour and opinion formation. For teenage participants especially, Social Media Influencers (SMIs) are relevant within these processes, which are linked to a perceived social duty-to-keep-informed. Moreover, findings from the focus groups highlight cohort-specific differences regarding the understanding of journalism and, consequently, differences in the assessment of trust and reliability as well as the verification strategies that are applied. In sum, for young participants journalism is a reliable source of information, especially in the case of current events and for crosschecking online information, while non-journalistic sources fulfil social needs.

No abstract

No abstract

Studies on audiences’ information behavior paint a mixed picture of young and old people’s interests, their involvement with news and information, and the effects news consumption has on their learning. By adapting Giddens’s structuration approach, this study aims to assess audience behavior and its relationship with journalism by comparing the use behavior and attitudes of three age groups—adolescents, young adults, and adults—as characterized by distinct media socialization and use patterns. We identify types of information orientation—that is, a typology of behavior and attitudes towards news and information—for the examination of news audiences. Based on a representative face-to-face survey (N = 1,508) with German adolescents (14–17 years old), young adults (18–24 years old), and adults (40–53 years old), we identify four types that can be characterized by a certain pattern of news-related attitudes, the use of sources, and their relevance to opinion formation, as well as the perceived information level of participants. We examine how these types of information orientation differ between and among the three age groups and explore their relationship with audiences’ socio-political knowledge. The findings show that not all young people are necessarily less interested and engaged with news and journalism than older people. Moreover, it is a combination of interest with the use and perceived relevance of journalistic sources that is relevant for positive effects on information levels.

Die Informationsnutzung und Meinungsbildungsprozesse finden bei jungen Menschen überwiegend in sozialen Medien statt, wo sich reichweitenstarke Akteure, sogenannte Social Media Influencer (SMI), am politischen Diskurs beteiligen. Aufgrund der engen Beziehung zu ihrer Followerschaft und ihrer Identifikationsfunktion wird diesen Persönlichkeiten das Potenzial als Vermittler informativer Inhalte und als Meinungsführer zugesprochen. Bislang liegen allerdings nur wenige empirische Erkenntnisse über deren tatsächliche Relevanz im Meinungsbildungsprozess vor. Zudem wurde die Rolle parasozialer Beziehungen (PSB) zwar als verstärkender Faktor für die persuasive Wirkung von SMI identifiziert, jedoch ist weitestgehend unklar, welche spezifischen Eigenschaften und Funktionen bei Beziehungs- und Identifikationsprozessen eine Rolle spielen. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde daher auf Grundlage des theoretischen Konzepts der parasozialen Meinungsführerschaft untersucht, warum junge Menschen einzelnen Persönlichkeiten in sozialen Medien folgen (Motive), wie sie diese charakterisieren (Schlüsselmerkmale) und welche Relevanz sie ihnen für die eigene Meinungsbildung zuschreiben (Funktionen). Die Ergebnisse aus 22 halbstrukturierten Einzelinterviews mit Jugendlichen (14- bis 17-Jährige) und jungen Erwachsenen (18- bis 24-Jährige) zeigen insgesamt große geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede bezüglich der wahrgenommenen PSB zu einzelnen Persönlichkeiten und den zugeschriebenen Eigenschaften. Ihre Relevanz für die eigene Meinungsbildung bewerten die Befragten je nachdem, ob es sich um alltagsrelevante und persönliche oder gesamtgesellschaftlich relevante und politische Informationen handelt, unterschiedlich. Die Teilgruppe der Influencer*innen übernimmt insbesondere Unterhaltungs-, Inspirations- und Orientierungsfunktionen.