This study investigated how younger and older cohorts used news to meet their needs. It used diaries and focus groups with 25 New Zealanders to examine their news sources, characteristics of news they valued, and factors influencing their consumption. Using content analysis, this information was analysed through the lenses of news values and uses and gratifications theory. The findings showed news maintained a critical role in giving people information they wanted to know. Younger participants spent more than half of their time consuming news from non-traditional news sources and valued timeliness and shareability of news. Older participants generally used traditional news sources and had greater interest in elite persons, local news, and news that elicited emotion. Participants emphasised news credibility, suggesting veracity and live news are potential new news values. However, this study suggests personalised news consumption will disrupt the direct journalist/audience relationship and impact understanding of news value frameworks.
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Kirsty Anderson (2024) studied this question.
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