Getting Personal: Does Traditional Journalism Fit into the Net Generations Media Mix? Mike McKean, Convergence Faculty Chair Missouri School of Journalism November 2005

The Net Generation: Who are They? Born in or after 1982 Gravitate toward group activity 8 out of 10 say, Its cool to be smart. Focused on grades and performance Busy with extracurricular activities Identify with parents values Respectful of social conventions and institutions Fascination for new technologies Racially and ethnically diverse Source: Howe and Strauss, 2003 as summarized by Educause V.P. Diana Oblinger at the Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute, University of Missouri-Columbia, April 2005.

Interactive, citizen-centered content created and delivered on the internet, 3G mobile phones, digital music players, and handheld videogame systems offers rich alternatives to news and entertainment presented by local, national and global media corporations.

Remixing the Media New survey shows 57% of U.S. teens are content creators Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, Nov. 2005Pew Internet & American Life Project

Remixing the Media: Mashups create new music by combining old tunes. DJ Dangermouse makes mega-hit by merging rapper Jay Zs lyrics from his Black Album with music by The Beatles from their White Album. This is a clear copyright violation, but The Grey Album spawns many imitators, both professional and amateur.

Remixing the Media: Playlisting lets patrons act as temporary DJs. They hook their MP3 players (such as the iPod shown on the right) into a clubs sound system. This way they can share their favorite music mixes (also known as playlists).

Remixing the Media: Photoshopping allows people to make new images by combining or manipulating original photos, drawings and graphics in creative ways using Adobe Photoshop or similar editing software.

Photoshopping contests are very popular on sites such as Worth1000 & Flikr From Worth1000.coms Politicians in Drag 2 competition

Remixing the Media: Podcasting democratizes radio. Inexpensive audio tools make it easy to create a podcast. Integrated software such as iTunes or specialty programs like iPodder make it easy to organize and download your favorite programs.

Remixing the Media: Blogging, until recently a text-driven form of first-person reporting and opinion, now features visuals on the popular site postsecret.blogspot.com.

Remixing the Media: Content creation and management tools becoming easier, smaller, cheaper

So what does the remix culture have to do with journalism? Recent studies indicate young people prefer these new communication channels to the older ones for news as well as entertainment.

Newspaper Readership Declining Source: Crosby, Online Journalism Review, 4 Mar 04

TV News Viewership Declining Source: Crosby, Pew Center for the People and the Press, 2000

Campaign 2004 and the Youth Audience Survey says year olds get political news regularly from: Local TV26% Newspaper 23% Internet20% Comedy Shows21% Source: Pew Center for the People and the Press, 2004Pew Center for the People and the Press Host John Stewart parodies politics on The Daily Show.

The future of the U.S. news industry is seriously threatened by the seemingly irrevocable move by young people away from traditional sources of news. Merrill Brown, Carnegie Corporation, April 2005

Young People Rate Strengths of Media Source: Carnegie Reporter, Carnegie Corporation, April 2005Carnegie Reporter Local TV News Network TV News Cable TV News InternetNewspaper Trustworthy21%19%21%10%9% Up-to-date19%13%24%29%4% Offers news I can use 37%11%10%20%9% Useful way to learn 15%11%14%41%8% Entertaining23%12%18%20%4% Provides news only when I want it 12% 6% 9%49%9%

Young Peoples News Sources: 2007 Source: Carnegie Reporter, Carnegie Corporation, April 2005Carnegie Reporter Net rating: those who say more likely to use minus those who say less likely

So what do we do to keep traditional journalism relevant to the Net Generation? Teach current and future journalists new digital skills Teach current and future journalists a new, citizen-centric attitude Teach current and future journalists to incorporate their stories into the personal media mix of more citizens

Traditional journalists need to adopt a new set of values as well as a new set of tools to cope with the public's growing ability to mix and manipulate personal and public media.