Young adults are stirring away from traditional media, which is being called a radical media shift in our culture. Young adults between the age of 16 and 24 are repelling TV, radio and newspapers and replacing the old media with online services. Today, the generation of young adults has been named the “networked generation.” Research has shown that they are embracing new technologies a lot faster than the general public. It has been reported that on average they are spending at least three hours a week online. “Seventy percent (compared to 41% of the general population) have used some kind of social networking site, such as My Space, and one in five have their own website or blog. Half of the group owns a games console and/or an MP3 player” (BBC News). Ofcom's study proposes this online lifestyle may have played a role to the plummet in television viewing; young adults today watch seven hours less TV per week than the average person.
The decreased utilization of “old” media amongst young adults has been powered by the advances of online networking. Kay Withers, a research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), said: “There have been lots of studies showing the younger generation are shifting away from traditional to new media, but at IPPR we are seeking to understand why this is and what this means. We want to find out what it means to turn away from newspapers and public service broadcasting and to find out the types of news sources they are now favoring”. This radical media shift has had a significant effect on media regulation, public policy and in politics.
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