News for adolescents: Mission impossible? An evaluation of Flemish television news aimed at teenagers

Abstract

Media companies as well as governments launch initiatives to reverse the decline in news consumption by adolescents. Since 2007, the Flemish government has been funding newscasts for adolescents on two commercial channels, Zoom on VTM and Jam on VT4. In 2008, these programs were evaluated using in-depth interviews with producers, content analysis of 30 episodes of each program, an analysis of the ratings for the first season, and an online survey among 663 adolescents aged 10 to 18. Results indicate that there is a lot of variation within this group, making it hard to please them with a single program. Zoom addresses slightly older adolescents (12Ϫ18) with a program closely following the "adult" news, while Jam provides younger adolescents (10Ϫ16) with more digestible and entertaining news. Most respondents in the survey liked both programs, among other things because of the strong presence of adolescents on screen. Yet adolescent viewing figures are extremely low, mainly due to the inappropriate place in the schedule.

Enjoyment of arousing television news: The role of age and sensation seeking

“…It showed that in particular young viewers enjoy arousing news stories. Recent developments in the news market, such as the emergence of highly arousing newscasts that especially aim at younger viewers (Vandebosch, Dhoest, and van den Bulck, 2009), seem beneficial to attract this viewer category. However, news producers should be cautious.…”

The Influence of Age and Gender on Preferences for Negative Content and Tabloid Packaging in Television News Stories

“…To attract young viewers, news is packaged in a flashy, attractive, and contemporary fashion that is stylistically different from the adult news (cf. NOS, 2007; Vandebosch et al, 2009).…”

“…To attract young viewers, news is packaged in a flashy, attractive, and contemporary fashion that is stylistically different from the adult news (cf. NOS, 2007;Vandebosch et al, 2009). Theoretical support for these news programs' strategies is offered by the activation model of information exposure (Donohew, Lorch, & Palmgreen, 1998;Donohew, Palmgreen, & Duncan, 1980) and, in particular, by those elements of the model that are based on Zuckerman's sensation-seeking theory (Zuckerman, 1994).…”

“…Over the past few years, some European countries have witnessed the rise of news programs that specifically aim at young viewers. In Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), two news programs, Zoom and Jam , are aimed at adolescents (Vandebosch, Dhoest, & van den Bulck, 2009). In the Netherlands, the news program Journaal op 3 is targeted at young adults (NOS, 2007).…”

“…Two recent studies provide mixed support for the argument that younger viewers are attracted to a flashy style in news reporting. An online survey focusing on Flemish adolescent newscasts showed that young viewers (10 to 18 years) considered the form of these newscasts appropriate for a newscast aimed at young people (Vandebosch et al, 2009). In addition, a study by Lang et al (2005) showed that young adults (18 to 22 years) had more positive evaluations for fast-paced news stories compared with slow-paced news stories irrespective of the story length, whereas older participants (25 to 81 years) had more positive evaluations for fast production only when the stories were long.…”