Generational Change in News Consumption
Signe Opermann
Department of Culture and Communication, Södertörn University, Sweden
Correspondence: signe.opermann@sh.se
Cross-generational workshop YECREA/COST,
April 11, 2012, Brussels
Keywords: Estonia, generations, media use, media technologies, news media, Sweden.
Abstract
Background
The upcoming PhD thesis focuses on the interests, practises and tendencies of news media
consumption and the role of news in the formation of media generations in Estonia and
Sweden. The dissertation will be written within the framework of the research project
“Audiences in the Age of Media Convergence: Media Generations in Estonia and Sweden”,
led by Prof. Göran Bolin (Södertörn University).
One could presume that people from different age groups relate to media content and media
platforms differently. It is often argued that young people are keen on adopting innovative
solutions and applying all new features connected with mobile technology and the Internet.
The main hypothesis of the research project is that, in spite of this oft-repeated claim, it might
not be technology, in itself, what distinguishes younger people from older, but rather the
actual ways in which the media are used or perceived.
One way to explore these questions is in terms of “media generations”. Generational theory
prescribes that media users will bring with them experiences and habits developed during
their formative years, i.e. 17 to 25 years of age (Mannheim, 1928/1952). Moreover, these
mediated experiences will relate to media technology in diverse ways.
Previous studies (e.g. Volkmer, 2006; Bolin & Westlund, 2009) also support this contention,
although with slight modifications. In their work Bolin and Westlund analyse the radio/print
generation (born in the 1930s), the TV generation (born in the 1950s), and the mobile
technology generation (born in the 1980s). Additionally, the work-in-process includes even
younger media users, born in the 1990s and labelled as “digital generation” (Papert, 1996;
Herring, 2008) who has experienced the “broadband society” (Colombo & Fortunati, 2010)
since birth.
Research questions
The preliminary research questions are the following:
 What kind of news and how often people from different generations consume mostly
in a diverse media landscape?
 What media people prefer to follow routinely for news coverage, both for overview
and background information?


How widely and for what functions the media technologies and platforms are used
among different media generations? Could the adoption of new solutions be
considered more age-specific “peculiarity” or may be interpreted as certain
generational pattern?
To what extent consumption patterns of media news differ among the coevals in
Estonia and Sweden?
Current phase of research
Department of Culture and Communication of the Södertörn University has carried out
explorative surveys on media production, media structure and media use in South-Stockholm
region, in Sweden and Estonia (2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010).
The sample of the last survey “Changing Media Landscape” (fall 2010) included 1082
Estonian-speaking and 418 Russian-speaking inhabitants of Estonia between the ages 15-74.
In Sweden, the questionnaire was distributed to 3000 respondents between the ages 15-85.
The survey was based on a 27-page self-administered questionnaire with a total of 650
variables divided into following units: media usage, information channels, mobile phones,
computers and Internet, culture related hobbies, interest in other countries and cultures, etc.
In the process of preliminary data analysis, the dynamics of following main news media
channels has become apparent in accordance with birth year of respondents of the inquiry.
All charts indicate clearly to a principal change in the age structure of the audience that is
shifting towards the older users (over 60 years old) in traditional channels, such as daily and
weekly newspapers, television. For the youngsters (under 20 years old) and young adults
(under 30 years old), the Internet has become a primary source for information and
entertainment.
Therefore, the issue of generational shift in media usage and news consumption comes under
the discussion, insofar as the resent studies, both in Estonia (Vihalemm, 2011) and Sweden
(Carlsson & Facht, 2010), affirm the correlation between age and media usage.
A series of focus group interviews will be carried out in sufficiently homogeneous groups,
with people from different generations, during November-December 2011 (at least two
groups per age cohort).
The aim of the focus group interviews will be to specify people's relation to the news media
and media technologies through their early, as well as contemporary media memories and
media habits, in order to grasp the generational experience.
In conclusion, the focus of this upcoming thesis is rather on the news media audience, not so
much on the news production. The work concentrates on the mechanism how the news
consumption has changed in times when the transformation of news content from paper
format to the electronic platforms is evident, when the possibilities to get news have
multiplied and the structure of news has considerably changed.
References
Bolin, G. & O. Westlund (2009). Mobile Generations: The Role of Mobile Technology in the
Shaping of Swedish Media Generations. International Journal of Communication vol. 3, p.
108-124.
Carlsson, U. & U. Facht (eds.). (2010). MediaSevrige 2010. Statistik och analys. Nordicom,
University of Gothenburg.
Colombo F. & L. Fortunati (eds.) (2011). Broadband Society and Generational Changes.
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Herring, S. C. (2008). Questioning the Generational Divide: Technological exoticism and
Adult Constructions of Online Youth Identity. In Buckingham, D. & J. D. and C. T.
Mannheim, K. (1928/1952). The Problem of Generations. Essays in the Sociology of
Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Vihalemm, P. (2011). Trükimeedia tiraažide ja loetavuse muutumine 2008-2010 (The
Changing Readability of Print Media 2008-2010). Eesti Akadeemilise Ajakirjanduse Seltsi
aastaraamat 2009/2010. (Yearbook of Estonian Academic Journalism Association 2009/2010).
Tartu: Tartu University Press, pp. 12-19.
Volkmer, I. (2006). News in Public Memory. An International Study of Media Memories
across Generations. New York, Washington etc.: Peter Lang.