Young people are active news consumers, with particular attentiveness to breaking news
The survey data provide a broad challenge to the notion that younger adults in the digital age are uninterested or are turning away from news about the world. Across a range of metrics—frequency, enjoyment, variety of topic interests, and more—younger adults are high news consumers. But there are some important differences by age.
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While younger people may be slightly less attentive to news on a daily basis, they are more attentive to breaking news.
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Americans age 60 and over are somewhat more likely than the youngest adults, age 18-29, to say they enjoy keeping up with the news, although significant majorities of both groups do so (93 percent for those age 60 plus vs. 83 percent for those age 18-29). It follows then, that older Americans watch, read, or hear the news more often than the youngest cohort. Adults age 18-29 (59 percent) are significantly less likely than adults age 30-39 (75 percent), 40-59 (77 percent), and 60 and older (89 percent) to say they consume news at least once a day. But again, for majorities across all age groups, news consumption is a daily habit.
Older adults are also more likely to report reading, watching, or hearing a news story in-depth in the last week. Fully 54 percent of adults age 60 and over said they’d done so compared to just 1 in 4 young people 18-29, a third of adults 30-39, and 43 percent of those 40-59.
But while younger people may be slightly less attentive to news on a daily basis, they are more attentive to breaking news. Indeed, the youngest adults are more than twice as likely (55 percent) to follow up in-depth on breaking news as they are to report going in-depth in the last week on any news story (25 percent). Adults age 60 and over are less likely to report going in-depth on breaking news than on news generally.