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Commuting on public transport has always provided a timely opportunity to evaluate changing forms of media consumption. Seventy years ago, you would have seen a sea of heads buried in it Newspapers. About 15 years ago, eyes were glued to screens. At first glance, the picture today looks similar, but this misses a nuance. Previously, these screens tended to display words; Now you'll catch a glimpse of the crisp blip of an endless stream of bite-sized videos.
The latter transformation may seem more subtle than the first, but I'm not sure that's true.
Printing has been in decline for decades, but the decline in consumption of any written news at all is perhaps underestimated. The proportion of US adults who read news articles online has fallen from 70% to 50% since 2013. The share of Britons and Americans who now do not use traditional news media at all has swelled from 8% to about 30%. while decrease Printing was already a problem for newspapers' bottom lines, and declining news consumption was a problem for society.
Social media dominates now. Today, U.S. adults under the age of 50 are more likely to get their news directly from social media channels than from news articles in print or online, according to the latest Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reports. Digital news report. Trends in most other countries are similar.
These shifts have serious consequences, some of which we are only beginning to appreciate.
At a basic level, the move from articles of a few hundred words to 280 characters in the 2000s meant a shift from even the modest amount of detail and accuracy of a standard news report to a world of oversimplified snapshots. You can't look at the trade-offs and complexity.
This isn't just about short forms. Instant feedback in the form of likes and number of shares quickly taught people that the content was generally the best performing Exaggerated and hostile Instead of being moderate and precise. The emerging media landscape became unfavorable to the educated centrist establishment, but a boon to populists and radicals.
The final stage of the digital media transformation, the rapid rise of short form videoIt can be said that this is a step of greater change. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram now dwarf Facebook, X, and Bluesky among young people, and the same shift is underway among adults.
These platforms are fundamentally different. Text-based social media still favors mainstream journalism, in part because pithy writing helps — and broadcast time rewards news. With the focus on video, the scales tip the other way. On TikTok and Instagram, the currency is charisma, energy, and delivery: being first is less important than being hyper-engaged.
This is further demonstrated by Reuters data showing that even as social media began to cannibalize news sites, it was more Prominent news accounts On text-based social media platforms, journalists and news organizations were still mainstream. In the world of video, people are more likely to turn to influencers and content creators than traditional sources, not only for lifestyle content but also for news.
This is the other thumb on the scale for political outsiders. Emerging media are by definition less comfortable with corporate politicians, and independence from big brands also means they are free to host and publish what mainstream media does not allow. Research shows the newest class of influencers in the news Lean slightly to the right In terms of their policies, but even those who have different policies Anti-establishment.
Shifts in how people listen to the news are part of the same pattern. Podcasting, where the norm is private listening via headphones, is a very different beast from radio, whose culture and content were shaped in an era when a couple or family might listen together in the car or the kitchen. This facilitates more fragmented landscapes and greater comfort with controversial outputs. It's much easier for the often rebellious digital media “Manosphere” To thrive in this world of the old world.
In form and function, tone and internal incentives, the emerging media landscape in 2024 is very different from 2014, let alone 2004 or 1994. It would be strange indeed if this did not have an impact on our politics.
