Welcome to our June Special Edition Series on how local newsrooms can adapt to changing news habits.
This week’s action: Show why one recurring coverage area matters.
The latest study from the Media Insight Project, The evolving news landscape: Comparing media habits and trust between teens and adults, offers valuable insights on where people turn for news, who they trust and what information they seek out (or avoid). And it’s unique in that it surveyed both adults and teens as young as 13.
The study’s findings likely align with news engagement behavior you’re already noticing at your news organization or hunches you have based on young people you know, but the data across age groups shows these shifts cannot be written off as a passing trend that younger generations will age out of.
This month, we’ll make that research actionable for local news leaders, offering a tactic you can try each week, supported by the study’s findings.
Don’t assume trust; demonstrate it
What the survey says: American teens and adults view local news as most trustworthy, though few Americans have a great deal of confidence in any of the four news sources in the study — local news, national news, independent creators and AI chatbots.
Older Americans tend to have greater trust in traditional news organizations. In contrast, younger Americans show similar levels of confidence in both traditional outlets and newer sources, like independent creators and AI chatbots.
What it means for local news: Trust in local news organizations isn’t a given, especially among younger audiences. You can’t assume that your community will automatically give you more authority than other news sources.
Try this
Start here: Choose a recurring coverage area and identify one area where you assume your audience knows why this topic matters to them, why this update is important or why they should keep paying attention.
Take action: In a story, newsletter, video or social post from that coverage area publishing this week, more clearly communicate the topic’s relevance or stakes for your audience.
Reflect: How did that revision improve clarity? What did you learn about your newsrooms’ assumptions about trust?
Dig deeper
- From the study: Strengths and weaknesses of news sources
- How Public Source made community-centered journalism a newsroom-wide effort
- API’s community listening workbook
The Media Insight Project is a collaboration of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the American Press Institute, Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the Local News Network at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
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How local newsrooms can adapt to changing news habits
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The American Press Institute, with support from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, awarded $20,000 in grants to five news organizations to support projects that engage youth through news coverage, community listening or outreach.
We have an opportunity to facilitate civic discourse within our communities in a way that’s mutually beneficial. But if we don’t do this work thoughtfully — if we show up with a rigid agenda and our own goals — it can cause more harm than good.
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