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27 March 2008
Interesting story in today's New York Times on how younger voters acquire news. This article highlights (1) the partial disintermediation of traditional media (e.g., because some content comes from sources like Youtube), (2) the increased power of the word-of-mouth second step in the classic two step model of diffusion afforded by e-mail/internet, and (3) how the medium facilitates grassroots mobilization. Excerpts:
According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one.
....
A December survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press looked broadly at how media were being consumed this campaign. In the most striking finding, half of respondents over the age of 50 and 39 percent of 30- to 49-year-olds reported watching local television news regularly for campaign news, while only 25 percent of people under 30 said they did.
....
The way consumers filter their news is being highlighted now that a generation of Americans is coming of age in the midst of a campaign that has generated intense interest and voter involvement. Exit polls in 22 states estimate that more than three million voters under the age of 30 participated in Democratic primaries this year, up from about one million four years ago.
Posted by David Lazer at March 27, 2008 8:10 AM