Generational Differences in News Literacy

Abstract

This study proposed the concept of 'news literacy' as a basis for analyzing the difference in news literacy between the younger generation and the older generation. Specifically, this study proposed a news literacy model based on previous research and empirically examined how the younger generation and the older generation differ in the three dimensions of news literacy: the knowledge structure, the personal locus, and the competencies and skills. To accomplish the purpose of the study, this study conducted an online survey of 862 adults, including the younger generation in their twenties, and the older generation in their fifties. The main findings were as follows. There was no significant difference between the younger generation and the older generation in the knowledge structure. The younger generation did not differ significantly from the older generation in the perception of traditional news information and awareness of the importance of news. However, the younger generation regarded contextual journalism and watchdog journalism to be more important compared to the older generation. Regarding the personal locus, the younger generation showed more tendency to use news for economic opportunity and education-related information than the older generation, but overall there was no significant difference in the motivation for news use. Finally, the younger generation showed a significant difference in each stage of news use, and it appeared that they use more diverse methods and strategies in news approach, analysis, evaluation, and sharing. In particular, it has been confirmed that the younger generation is a group of demanding news users who appreciate not only the journalism norm but also the pleasant user environment and optimized screen composition when evaluating the news. In other words, the younger generation used the news in more diverse ways and evaluated the news in a wider range of criteria when using the news. The results of this study directly contradict the prejudice that the younger generation is a group of ignorant and indifferent news users. The results show that the younger generation is not a group of news users with low news literacy compared to the older generation, but news users with news literacy composed of different competencies from the older generations. The results of this study are significant in that the multi-faceted generational differences in news literacy were identified through a news literacy model.