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Is it any wonder that teenagers don’t read the daily newspaper, when there are so many alternatives to traditional print media available to them? And just as most savvy teenagers choose to build their own music playlists from songs downloaded from their favourite p2p network, and burn mixed mp3 CDs of their favourite artists, why wouldn’t they choose to receive the news of their choice from new media sources on the Net?
Editor and Publisher magazine reports that on Tuesday the Newspaper Association of American will release a study examining the ‘emotional attachment’ (or lack thereof) that teenagers have to newspapers. In part, the report says teenagers don’t want news that is ‘dumbed down’.
Vancouver’s Province newspaper should take note, and stop pandering to teens with their multi-page spreads of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. Hint: take teens seriously, don’t talk down to them when reporting the news, provide more human interest stories on adolescents across the globe, report considerably more on the environment (a perennial concern of teens, as it should be for all of us), as well as on ‘new media’ and tech ‘gadgetry’, and cut the bullshit — teens know when they’re being lied to.
