News Media Consumption Among Gen Y: Implications for the News Industry

The audio component of this story can be found here.

By Ryan Boulanger

Part Two: Applying These Lessons
Seattle’s recent loss of one of its oldest print newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, may have been a surprise to some people but it’s a trend that’s happening to major newspapers across the country.

As a result of our survey, we found that 85 percent of current college-aged students get most of their news from on-line sources – compared to 13 percent that rely on newspapers. Print newspapers have on-line counterparts that relay their content to a greater audience, using their branded name to gain trust on the Web.

Our survey also found that 88 percent of college-aged students use traditional news websites – a descendant of print newspapers – as their main source of on-line news. Blogs and other alternative news websites represented the remaining 12 percent.

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WSJ Social Media Policy

To address the issues of journalists using social media, The Wall Street Journal has issued a list of rules detailing “professional conduct” for their staff. Some of the rules follow (abridged):

• Never use a false name.
• Do not use family or friends to promote your work.
• Contact editor before networking with any contacts who may need to remain confidential.
• Don’t detail how an article was reported or created.
• Don’t discuss articles yet to be published.
• Do not engage in inappropriate dialogue.
• Separate work from pleasure.

Visit Editor and Publisher for the full list of rules.

Journalism professor Jeff Jarvis responded critically.

This misses the chance to make their reporting collaborative. Of course, they should discuss how an article was made. Of course, they should talk about stories as they in progress. Net natives – as WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch calls them – understand this.

Twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc. also provide the opportunity for reporters and editors to come out from behind the institutional voice of the paper – a voice that is less and less trusted – and to become human. Of course, they should mix business and pleasure.

[via Buzzmachine]

I Wrote That?

While my behavior in high school and college has been nothing short of exemplary, I can see the dilemma for some as more and more old school newspaper archives appear online.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:

As the papers have begun digitizing their back issues, their Web sites have become the latest front in the battle over online identities. Youthful activities that once would have disappeared into the recesses of a campus library are now preserved on the public record, to be viewed with skeptical eyes by an adult world of colleagues and potential employers. Alumni now in that world are contacting newspapers with requests for redaction. For unlike Facebook profiles — that other notable source of young-adult embarrassment — the ability to remove or edit questionable content in these cases is out of the author’s hands.

[via Chronicle of Higher Education]