Author: Belinda Clarke

New Medill survey shows higher-than-expected news engagement among young people

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date October 10, 2023
No Comments on New Medill survey shows higher-than-expected news engagement among young people

An oft-cited factor in the continued struggles of traditional news outlets has been the sense that young people are disengaged from the news. But the News Socialization Study, a new survey commissioned by Medill reveals that teenagers may be keeping up with current events more than previously thought.

“The survey found more engagement with news among teens than we were expecting,” says Stephanie Edgerly, professor and Associate Dean for Research at Medill. Edgerly oversaw the survey, which was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. “We found that 29% of teens said they encounter news daily. That’s encouraging.”

Paula Poindexter, professor at the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, shares Edgerly’s positive reading of the survey results, though she says she would like to see those numbers grow.

“The daily engagement numbers in the survey were higher than I would have expected,” says Poindexter, author of “Millennials, News and Social Media: Is News Engagement a Thing of the Past?” “That’s a good thing, but there’s certainly an opportunity for teens to become even more engaged.”

Older teens (16 to 17 years old) showed slightly higher engagement levels than younger teens (13 to 15 years old). This finding may seem logical given that the college application process and eligibility to vote may trigger increased interest in national events.

More surprising may be the relatively robust consumption of local and network TV news among teens. The survey found that 46% of teens saw local TV news daily or weekly, while 42% encountered national network TV news daily or weekly. The numbers were lower for cable, sports and entertainment news as well as for news-related satire/comedy shows.

“It’s important to keep in mind that when we refer to TV news, we aren’t necessarily referring to watching a big box in your living room,” Edgerly says. “Teens may also encounter TV news on their phones and laptops. But there seems to be an accessibility to TV news that appeals to them.”

Poindexter adds a note of caution: “Regarding the survey’s TV news numbers, what’s not clear is whether teens deliberately turned on TV news or they encountered it because their parents were watching it,” she says. “We should keep that in mind.”

The survey also shows the continued influence of social media on teen news consumption. Roughly a quarter of all surveyed teens said they engaged with news on YouTube (37%), TikTok (35%) or Instagram (33%) on a daily or weekly basis, though the sources of that news remain in question.

“We have a much clearer idea of the sources of news teens are seeing on local and national TV outlets,” Edgerly says. “We have a less clear idea of the sources behind what they see on YouTube and TikTok. Those are more of a black box at this point.”

No surprise, the survey shows that teen engagement with newspapers is low. Only 5% of teens said they encountered news through local or national newspapers on a daily basis. The numbers were somewhat higher for weekly news encounters in local newspapers (18%) and national newspapers (13%). Given that the survey does not specify “print” when referring to newspapers, these low numbers may reflect minimal newspaper engagement even when considering digital formats.

“I think this poses some very important questions for newspaper organizations,” Edgerly says. “What is their strategy for trying to engage this younger group? They should be thinking about that now. Waiting until teens are in their 20s or 30s will be too late.”

The survey also explores the inclusion of news in school curricula.

When asked what kind of classroom news-related activities they engaged in at least once in the past year, 75% of the surveyed teens said they discussed news stories in class, and 62% followed news as part of a class assignment. Another 59% said they discussed how to tell whether information can be trusted.

“These findings are really, really important, especially at this moment in time,” Poindexter says. “It’s encouraging that schools are still bringing news into the classroom and even assessing its quality.”

At the same time, only 44% of teens said they “created a news story about an issue or event as part of a class assignment,” and only 31% said they learned about the job of a reporter in class. So Edgerly detects a discrepancy between news discussion and hands-on activities in schools.

Although Edgerly says she is pleased with how the new survey provides a window into teen news engagement, she acknowledges the need for further research.

“This survey provides a snapshot of how U.S. teens are engaging with news, and we don’t often get data this level of detail from a large national sample of U.S. teens,” she says. “It’s great in helping clarify trends.

“But there is still more to understand, particularly in terms of what is happening online and in social media spaces. We have much more to learn about what it means to have YouTube or Instagram be a teen’s door into news. Those spaces invite many more questions than answers at this point.”

The survey was funded by a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation as part of its support for Medill’s Local News Initiative and its Metro Media Lab project.

The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago surveyed 1,507 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 from March 10 to April 26, 2023.

The survey used a mixture of probability and nonprobability sampling. Quotas used for the nonprobability sample: race/ethnicity, age, parent education, binary gender.

The survey was a mixture of phone and web survey methods.

Overall data is weighted to be representative in terms of age, gender, region, race/ethnicity, parent education, using TrueNorth Calibration methodology.

Survey margin of error was +/- 6.43%.

For this survey “news” was defined as stories about current events and public issues that come from media organizations. Examples include newspapers, television, podcasts, news programs and news websites. Sources may also include social media posts on platforms such as YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram.

For research graphs in this story, visit: https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2023/09/06/medill-teen-news-engagement-survey/index.html

Article image by Annie Spratt used under Unsplash license (Unsplash)

New Dual Degree Combines Journalism with Social Policy

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date October 10, 2023
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In response to a rapidly changing journalism industry, Northwestern University has launched a new five-year dual degree program between the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) and Medill.

The new offering allows undergraduates to learn journalistic skills in the context of education and social policy, ultimately earning degrees from both schools. Since SESP and Medill prioritize experiential learning, students can choose between Medill’s Journalism Residency or a traditional SESP practicum during their third year in the program.

A community workshop component lets them share what they’ve learned with each other in a participatory and interactive environment, facilitated by experts from both schools.

“Over the last five years, several students have sought an opportunity to match their interest in journalism with their interest in education or social policy,” Medill Dean Charles Whitaker said. “We see many connections in these fields, and we are delighted to be able to provide students with a formal path to pursue these interests.”

The dual degree, which fulfills the requirements of both schools, will help students learn how to use media as a tool for creating change in learning environments, human relationships, organizations, and for social policy movements.

It is designed to prepare students for a wide variety of careers, and targets those who hope to make an impact in the world through communication, policy analysis, and reporting skills.

“Some of them, for example, may be interested in being science writers,” said psychologist and learning scientist David Rapp, the Walter Dill Scott Professor and director of undergraduate education at SESP.

“How do they convey the accuracy of a vaccination procedure to communities who might not be amenable to it?” Rapp said. “If students opt to serve in a role where they need to testify in front of the government, how do they provide evidence in accessible terms to folks who might not be scientists? The dual degree would support that.”

Rapp, who studies fake news and how to overcome it, said joint courses will eventually be offered. “Our students want to know how they can take what they’re learning about individuals and communities and make change in real world settings by addressing real world issues,” he said.

Students would earn a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Education and Social Policy. In addition to social policy, they can select any of SESP’s undergraduate concentrations, including elementary and secondary teaching, learning and organizational change, learning sciences, and human development in context.

Undergraduate applicants can apply to the dual-degree program when they apply for admission to Northwestern, and current students can follow the process through the Registrar’s Office to request to add an additional bachelor’s program. All students in the program would complete all requirements for both degrees.

“Fundamentally, the School of Education and Social Policy prepares leaders,” said SESP Dean Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy. “Many come to us with this drive and they’re interested in community and relationships. Our job is to create the conditions for students to lead whatever lives they wish, and the new dual degree program with Medill is another piece of that.”

To learn more, contact:

Ian Williams at the School of Education and Social Policy
Daniel MacKenzie at Medill

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Katie Derbes (MSJ99)

WWL-TV Evening Anchor & Investigative Reporter Katie Moore was honored with a crystal pillar at the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences national News & Documentary Awards in September 2023 in the Outstanding Regional Report: Investigative Reporting category. Moore’s national honor was for a series of investigative reports she did on the horrific conditions more than 800 nursing home residents endured during Hurricane Ida and the business dealings of the nursing homes’ owner. Moore has received 8 regional Emmy Awards throughout her TV News career.

2000s Class Notes

Lauren Dunn (MSJ01)

Lauren was recently named Executive Editor of the Health & Medical Unit at NBC News, leading a team of producers, reporters and editors who produce medical news across all of the network’s broadcast and digital platforms.

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Michelle McGovern (BSJ04, MSJ04, LAW08)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date October 10, 2023
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Michelle McGovern with Medill alum colleagues.

Rebecca Bowman, Vivek Shankar and Michelle McGovern – all Medill graduates – met in Seoul, where Rebecca and Vivek live, while Michelle was vacationing with her family. Vivek works at The NY Times Asia desk, Rebecca is a freelance writer and editor and Michelle is the General Counsel of a health tech company.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Benoit Denizet-Lewis (BSJ97)

Post author By Belinda Clarke
Post date October 10, 2023
No Comments on Benoit Denizet-Lewis (BSJ97)

Benoit Denizet-Lewis, an associate professor at Emerson College and a longtime writer with The New York Times Magazine, received a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The award will allow Denizet-Lewis to take a one-year leave from Emerson to complete his fourth book, “We Don’t Know You Anymore,” about transformation and identity change in turbulent times. The book will be published by William Morrow in the USA and Penguin Press in the UK.

2000s Class Notes

Will Sullivan (MSJ04)

Will Sullivan (MSJ04) joined The White House as a Digital Service Expert within Executive Office of the President, contributing his expertise to the U.S. Digital Service. The U.S. Digital Service is an innovative agency committed to transforming government services through technology and design. By bringing top-tier digital talent into the public sector, the USDS works tirelessly to improve the delivery of essential services to the American people.

1990s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

Brett Kurland (BSJ98)

Brett Kurland photo in newsroom control room. — 20211015 - Brett Kurland - Phoenix Released: Image fully released. Model release on file in Media Relations & Strategic Communications. Brett Kurland is a professor of practice at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the director of its Strategic Initiatives and Sports Programs. His focus is journalism, multimedia and sports journalism. He teaches sports writing classes as well as co-leading Cronkite’s Multimedia Sports Reporting, which helps students cover spring training and Cactus League training for media partners. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News

Brett Kurland was named an assistant dean at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication in December 2021.

As assistant dean, Kurland oversees the school’s 11 capstone professional immersion programs, Cronkite’s signature faculty-led, student-powered experiences in which students learn by doing. These hands-on experiences include daily news and sports operations, a strategic communications agency, a content creation studio, and an innovation and entrepreneurship lab. Kurland also leads training and onboarding for faculty associates, helping them learn everything from school policies to best practices in teaching.

He also helps lead the Cronkite School’s bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in sports journalism, including oversight and management of sports journalism curriculum, course design, hiring, training, and supervising faculty, and managing student award submissions.

Kurland, a professor of practice at Cronkite since 2014, is the lead instructor for Multimedia Journalism Skills, a foundational, intensive first-semester class for all Cronkite graduate students pursuing master’s degrees in mass communication, master’s degrees in investigative journalism and master’s degrees in sports journalism in which students learn how to write, capture and produce photo, video, audio, social, and web content.

2000s Class Notes Featured Class Notes

David Plazas (MSJ00)

Portrait of David Plazas, Engagement & Opinion Editor, at the Tennessean in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, April 6, 2022.

In June 2023, David Plazas (MSJ, ’00) received the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Editorial Writing. Plazas, the Opinion and Engagement Director of The Tennessean, advocated for LGBTQ+ rights in a state whose lawmakers have been intent on restricting them. SPJ has granted this prize since 1932 to recognize excellence in journalism.
https://www.spj.org/sdxa22.asp

Books

The Blues Brothers

Daniel de Visé (MSJ90)

In the first half of this exhaustively researched, highly informative book, de Visé, the author of King of the Blues and Andy & Don, provides an in-depth profile of the upbringing and career arcs of the film’s stars: the immensely talented, overgrown child John Belushi, who needed constant stimulation and elicited among his friends and colleagues the need to protect; and the quieter, highly intelligent Dan Aykroyd. The author also describes the rivalry-rich, drug-fueled evolution of 1970s comedy in the forms of Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon, and Chicago’s Second City group, all of which laid the groundwork for the movie. Gleaned from primary research and interviews with Aykroyd and director John Landis, among others, the narrative details the relationship between Belushi and Aykroyd, the sincerity with which they immersed themselves in the blues to live out their fantasies of fronting a great band, and how they overcame accusations of cultural appropriation to revive and amplify the careers of talents such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway. The book is also the definitive scene-by-scene account of a film—ambitious and over budget, panned by most critics of the day—that endures as a well-written and directed comedy doubling as a loving homage to a uniquely American genre and its capital city. A complete portrait of a classic film and the zeitgeist of its era.

MAGAZINE