How to Interest Teens in the News? Catch their Eye

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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 01/22/2008

Want teens to read news online? It’s all in the way it’s presented, according to a new study from Northwestern University’s Media Management Center. The study, released January 8, demonstrates that teens rarely hit news sites for information. Instead, they gravitate to social networking sites and places where they can connect with others and read news only when it is literally placed in their path.

“Teens are not interested enough to go out of their way for news,” reads the report entitled "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers." “So whatever news pops up in front of them when they turn on their computers—usually the large Internet portals and news aggregators—is what they see.” News is also “stressful” to youth, noted researchers. Of the teens ages 14 to 17 that were polled, many noted that news reports made them feel unsafe and reminded them “of the peril in the world.”

For educators, this can be a barrier to teaching current events, where students need to be able to read and synthesize news. If teens are both unfamiliar with news sites and associate them with disquieting feelings, it can negatively impact the lesson.

Northwestern’s researchers offered some solutions. For their part, news organizations should aggressively seek teens by focusing on subjects that appeal to them and building tailored news feeds and free widgets that can be installed on MySpace pages, for example.
Schools can also do more to engage students. Educators can facilitate discussion about the feelings that news stories evoke and, where appropriate, provide reassurance, as well as opportunities to make change. Ultimately, interactivity, both on the Web and in their lives, may help bring students back into the news fold.