Millennial Generation Journalists

From the desk of Elaine Schoch...

I used to teach the Introduction to Public Relations course at the University of Colorado in Boulder and I would have one to two courses focused specifically on new media – blogging, RSS feeds, writing for search, basic SEO for PR, etc. - and how businesses needed to incorporate these into their communication tools. It always surprised me how many students didn’t know what an RSS feed was or that they didn’t read blogs. (Although, they did teach me about Facebook and MySpace, so perhaps we’re even.) After explaining what an RSS feed was and what blogs were they all changed their tune to “oh, I know what that is, I read those all the time”. So, when I came across this study by the Society for New Communications Research Symposium comparing "Millennial Generation" journalists (18-29 years old) to more tenured reporters (50-64 years old) it made me think about my students who were striving to become journalists (they were only taking PR to learn about the ‘other side’) and the reporters I would ask to come and speak to my class about how to work with reporters once they got into PR.  

The report delves into how Millennial Generation journalists are adopting new media and social tools more readily and seeing their value, especially in terms of collaborating with their peers and strengthening their relationships with their audiences and the people in the areas they cover. This really isn’t a surprise given the fact that this age group has more or less always lived in the Internet Age. What’s surprising to me is that more tenured reporters aren’t as active. Thinking back to my class as CU the biggest gripe from reporters speaking to the soon-to-be PR pros was not to email/call them too much. I wonder if they’re on Facebook now?

Here are a few keys finding from the report:

• 100% of Millennial respondents (i.e., 18-29 year-olds) believe new media and communications tools are enhancing journalism, versus 40% in the 50-64 demographic.
• 87% of 18-29 year-olds believe bloggers have become important opinion-shapers, versus 60% of 50-64 year-olds
• 87% of 18-29 year-olds confirm that new media and communications enhances the relationship with their audience, versus 42% of 50-64 year-olds
• 48% of all respondents use LinkedIn, and 45% use Facebook to assist in reporting
• 68% of all respondents use blogs to keep up on issues or topics of interest
• 86% of all respondents use company websites, 71% use Wikipedia, and 46% use blogs to research an individual organization 

Comments

[Elaine Schoch]

Good to hear from you! You posed a great question. I don’t have data from Pew but did come across a study Rubicon Consulting did earlier this year regarding particiaption in online communitites - http://is.gd/cSZF. Unfortunaly, it’s not broken out by age but there are some interesting points in this report, a few include:

Most Frequent Contributors:
-They're more ethnically diverse;
-More technically skilled
-More likely to be single
-More likely to work in technology, entertainment, or communication companies
- Younger than typical web users. Half of the web's most frequent contributors are under age 22

Another report from Netpop Research found:
-76 percent of all U.S. broadband users actively contribute to social media sites in one form or another
-29 percent contribute regularly to social networking sites
-the typical social networker is female (57 percent vs. 43 percent), between 18 and 29 years old, employed (55 percent) or a student (23 percent), and single (48 percent).
-broadband subscribers who don't contribute to social networks tend to be male (57%), married (57%), and older.

Check out a previous post I did for more data points on who’s using blogs:
http://www.104west.typepad.com/104_west_partners/page/3/

[Ef Rodriguez]

I remember being in one of your PR classes at CU. Good times.

I would love to see a stat, whether from Pew or elsewhere, that addresses the percentage of millennials that leave comments on blogs or news articles. It's one thing to turn to the web for information and rhetoric - it's another to join in and mingle with others. I think that kind of engagement is necessary and edifying.

Great post, Elaine.