First journalism Ver Steeg fellow examines news consumption in U.S. teenagers

EVANSTON, ILL. -- EVANSTON, ILL. – Stephanie Edgerly came to Medill to make an impact with her research, both in the classroom and out.

As a professor and the associate dean of research at Medill, Edgerly specializes in audience insight and how new media channels affect news consumption. Her most recent research, "Developing the habit: The socialization of U.S. teens into distinct repertoires of news consumption," published in the Journal of Children and Media, examined the news diets of U.S. teens.

“In today’s environment, we can’t consume all the news that we have access to,” said Edgerly. “So instead there are little subsamples that some people get news from.”

Edgerly studied these news diets in adolescents ages 13-17. She chose this demographic because of its position in the formative years of news habit development.

“I want us to turn the clock back even earlier and look at how children or teenagers specifically are starting to be socialized into news consumption or not socialized into news consumption,” she said.

The research measured four repertoires: the TV news consumer, the social media news consumer, the news omnivore, and the news minimalist. News omnivores refer to those who consume a wide variety of news sources, while the news minimalists display news-avoidant behaviors.

News omnivores were the least-populated group, with 10.3% of the country’s teens falling into this category. Social media news consumers made up 11.4%, and TV news consumers accounted for 21.1% of U.S. teenagers. The overwhelming majority of American teenagers, 57%, are considered news minimalists, consuming news infrequently or not at all.

Edgerly does not anticipate this number to change, but hopes it will inspire news companies and community organizations to think about new approaches to teaching news literacy. Edgerly found that teenagers who fell into the news minimalist category were more commonly at schools without a student news publication or news-related activities in the curriculum.

“We’re at a moment of reflection,” she said. “I hope this research helps call to action the fact that these educational interventions are so important.”

The research findings also serve as a reminder, according to Edgerly, “that not all teens who consume news are the same.” Edgerly encourages news companies to select one or two news repertoires and target a specific group, rather than U.S. teenagers as a whole.

Edgerly also hopes this data will be used to show parents the importance of modeling news consumption habits, saying that this behavior is “still one of the strongest predictors of a child consuming news.”

As viewing short-form content replaces watching nightly newscasts at dinner, and as newsletters become substitutes for morning newspapers, Edgerly said that the way parents model news consumption has not lessened in importance but instead shifted platforms.

“Make sure your news consumption is visible,” she said. “That could be difficult when we’re doing it on devices, but make sure your kids know that you are consuming news.”

In August, Edgerly was awarded the Dorothy Ann and Clarence L. Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellowship Award by Northwestern. This award honors tenured faculty members “whose work enhances the reputation of Northwestern nationally and internationally,” as well as providing a grant to support future research.

“I’m so grateful to have been given the award from the Provost’s office to support my research over the next five years,” said Edgerly about receiving this fellowship. “It allows me the flexibility to tackle some big [research] questions.”

Edgerly is the second Medill faculty member to receive this fellowship, and the first in the journalism department.

“I think it shows that the Provost’s office values journalism research, and I’m excited to put the money to good use,” she said.

The fellowship is already underway, and Edgerly said that she will be researching news users who primarily consume news from YouTube. She said the platform’s position as a news outlet as well as a social media platform may attract a unique audience.

“We don’t have a good understanding of how that platform functions,” she said. “To what extent are people using it like television, and to what extent is it very different, and more like a social medium?”

Edgerly is working with Northwestern undergraduate students through the Office of Undergraduate Research and said that she also hopes to integrate this research into her JOUR 317: Journalism Research Methods course.

“When I stand in front of journalism students, whether they’re undergrads or master’s students, and I get to talk to them about my research and explain my research findings, and we get to have discussions about what it means and how that might change what they do,” said Edgerly. “Then they leave my classroom and go out into the industry and do amazing things. It’s exciting to see how research and practice can inform each other.”