Running Head: A Study of College Students News Consumption

A Study of College Students News Construction

Milan Richardson, Josh Davis, Alphonso Johnson, Mahogany Hutchins

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University

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Introduction

The purpose of this study is to explore some of the different variables that influence

college students news consumption. The study seeks to answer the research question, ​Has the use

of social media as a news outlet displaced and discredited news organizations and journalists

alike?​ The goal is to analyze the demographics of social media outlets and how college students

interact with breaking news dispersed via social media to determine whether or not there is a

substantial difference in age groups consuming news.

The improvement of web-based life stages, for instance, Twitter, as a genuine stage and

wellspring of news. Web-based life can make content commonly open in just seconds (Neilson,

2014) . This examination will study the use of online life masterminds as a medium to scatter

breaking news to general society, and if customers bolster web-based life as a news source over

communicate news.

The study shows college students consume news from social media outlets far more often

than any other age group. After reviewing ten scholarly articles focused on news consumption,

college students daily interactions with social media, and how news outlets tailor their news to fit

the ever changing scope of news and media; this literary article encompasses all the important

information gathered from the articles.

Analyzing the facts and data presented this literary article speaks to the knowledge

gained and compares the value of all the articles in reference to the research question stated

above. Out of all the articles examined this literary article examines four particular articles. Each
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of which considers the research question from a different point of view. Furthermore, through the

process of researching, there were a few counterpoints and opportunities for rebuttal in the

articles used. In this literary review, there will be a close examination of all points of view for

each article with unbiased analysis. We then classify the trend topics on the basis of the active

period and the tweets and show that the majority of topics (over 85 percent) are headline or

persistent news.

Review of Literature

The goal of this research is to study the power of Twitter as a medium of information sharing.

People subscribe to various forms of mass media: radio, television and newspapers. They are the

immediate beneficiaries and consumers of the news produced by the established media. People

on Twitter don't always get information directly from them, but often via retweets. This method

was one of the first quantitative studies of the Twittersphere and the first step towards exploring

the greatest potentials of this platform ​(Neilson, 2014)​. This study helps to identify influentials

on twitter based on the follower-following topology. Ranking by retweets shows in a new

perspective the influence of other media. The study analyzed the tweets of top trend topics and

reported on the temporal behavior of trending topics and user involvement. A closer look at

retweets shows that any retweeted tweet will reach an average of 1,000 users, regardless of how

many followers the original tweet is. Once retweeted, a tweet is retweeted almost instantly,

which means that information is rapidly disseminated after the 1st retweet (Haewoon Kwak, 15.)

The research compared the trending topics of Twitter with other media, namely the headlines of

Google Trend and CNN. Google search is the most popular internet service that people use today
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to for information. The search keywords represent users ' topics and popular keywords represent

hot trends, although Google Trend's detailed mechanism is unknown.

How college students consume and share social media is becoming a common question

for researchers all over the world. Each year technology advances and so does social media

platforms. Some problems that companies and organizations are starting to run into is the fact

that the growth of social media is constantly changing and it is also changing the way millennials

consume and share the news. This leads companies to strategize on new ways to enhance their

social media platforms and instructs them on how to reach the younger crowds. On social media

sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, millennials/students receive numerous amounts

of news reports in many different forms but rely on concrete media such as CNN or FOX for

clarity. For example, College students at North Carolina A&T typically use the social media

platform Twitter to gain information not just about the institution but also for crimes and alerts

for the surrounding community. In order to receive the buzz that each company needs, it will

have to revamp all forms of social media platforms to be more interesting and more interactive to

gain the attention of millennials now and those to come. Most of this research comes from the

idea that adults ages 18-34 do not visit news sites or either read a printed newspaper nowadays.

Data also suggest that social networks are exposing millennials to more news than they were

initially seeking. Overall, just 47 percent who use Facebook say that getting news is the main

motivation for visiting, but it has become one of the significant activities they engage in once

they are there. (Tucker-McLaughlin, 2014)

Twitter is a top social media outlet that allows commentary and sharing of small

fragments of information from a variety of sources. The outlet has been recognized as an
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important tool for spreading urgent news in the events of natural disasters, while also providing

polling and organizational information for political events. The amateur news sharing through

Twitter has become so great that the websites of major news sources like the New York Post

began listing media from Twitter users as “eye-witness accounts” which has now become a

common practice. The model of this social network provides a platform in which information

can be instantly provided, shared, and expound upon. It is said that this new form of

para-journalism provides journalists and users a more complex way of understanding certain

angles and subjects.

Micro-blogging is defined as a “new media technology that enables and extends our

ability to communicate, sharing some similarities with broadcast” (Lewis, & Kay,2009). It

allows users to share small doses of information to followers from a variety of sources. Studies

show that Twitter users tend to be more engaged with the news. Though Twitter was created for

people to share how they’re feeling through SMS, small changes in its early development

fostered an open-ended, easy to use platform where consumers can discuss any and every topic

they desire. The use of hashtags and the @ mention were popularized by users early on which set

the tone for the way the app is used today (Hermida, 2010). This outlet finally merged the

activities of gossip and current event chatter with the world of journalism. Newsrooms quickly

caught onto this trend and it is now expected for media professionals to have some sort of online

presence in an effort to break stories quickly and concisely. Some seasoned journalists still

refuse to take Twitter seriously believing the information shared through it should not be seen in

the same respect as traditional media. They fear too much of the information shared is lacking

validity and only aims to gain major traction.

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Instead of being seen as the new main source of media researchers believe it should hold

its own category as a user-generated a system with its own standards and practices. An entirely

new aspect of journalism. As the idea of social media serving as a news platform arises it spooks

professionals that have been in the industry for a while because like any other new found method

it lacks guidelines. Social media allows everyone to voice their opinion and that opinion carry

over into other peoples echo chambers. In the journalism world a person's echo chamber is

similar to that of a social footprint. Who and what you follow on social media shapes your echo

chamber. So research proves social media users and those of whom engage heavily on social

media follow like minded pages and people. Thus altering a person's perception on breaking

news or particular topics. The article (Hermida, 2010) describes the lack of validity as a constant

surrounding of familiar and similar emotions and opinions. Social media is just now breaking

into the broadcast news relm as many social media users consider themselves professional

journalist because of how they consume their information off social media websites. This is an

attribution of larger news outlets utilizing their social media accounts to link their main news

source headline to their twitter account for conveniency purposes. Such patterns suggest that

social media are becoming an increasingly important means by which individuals are made

aware of and access news stories. Ultimately, there does seem to be a bit of a danger here in that

news organizations and the public are increasingly relying upon media platforms for the

production, dissemination, and consumption of news that possess few of the public interest

parameters or values that characterized legacy news outlets. Certainly, one could argue that the

systems of checks and balances that are inherent in this participatory, somewhat

de-institutionalized news ecosystem renders such concerns. However, it seems that any kind of
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rigorous assessment of this fundamental cost-benefit dynamic has not been conducted at this

point.

Conclusively, as a group, the information analyzed only further educates us on the use of

social media and news dissemination. Moving forward with this information we plan on

answering the question, “has the use of social media as a news outlet displaced and discredited

news organizations and journalists alike?” through the collection of data, interviews, social

media polls and other forms of scientific reasoning.

H1: The growth of social media will be positively associated with the way millennials consume
and share the news.
RQ1: “Has the use of social media as a news outlet displaced and discredited news organizations
and journalists alike?”
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Hermida, A. (2010). Twittering the news: The emergence of ambient journalism. ​Journalism

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Kushin, M. J., & Yamamoto, M. (2010, November 20). Did Social Media Really Matter?

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Students' Use of Online Media and Political Decision Making in the 2008 Election.

Retrieved January 27, 2019

Kwak, H., Lee, C., Park, H., & Moon, S. (2010, April 26). What is Twitter, a Social Network or

News Media?

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