Students Catching Political Fever

The heated political rhetoric and captivating ideas of the presidential candidates is generating a lot of buzz among students. Here are some of the impressive initiatives that involve young people reporting and blogging about the election process.
• Daily Kos: University of Washington professor David Domke is leading a group of UW students in reporting and blogging around the elections. They’ve reported in Washington state and Idaho and are now blanketing Texas. Their coverage has caught the attention of the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and the Huffington Post. See http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/4/04242/68517 for more.
• Collaborations: Two teen initiatives, What Kids Can Do (Providence, R.I) and Y-Press (Indianapolis), have teamed up on campaign coverage and plan to blog together for the next 10 months. See http://www.whatkidscando.org/youth_on_the_trail/y-press_intro.html for the first posts.
• New America Media: NAM's YO! Youth Outlook has been posting a youth media blog-a-thon for the past few weeks. It includes a call out to other youth bloggers to join in on the action. See their blog at http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=89b2ad995e5cce45a27514fdd7312838.
• The group Mikva Challenge sent a group of teenagers to New Hampshire to cover the primaries there. The reporting they did is posted here (http://mikvainnewhampshire08.blogspot.com).

Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, with Ethics and Excellence in Journalism funding, will be conducting research later this year to identify techniques and strategies news organizations can use online to deepen teen interest in serious news. MMC is looking for recommendations about web sites that should appeal to young people interested in following the ’08 election. Contact Vivian Vahlberg at v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu. The upcoming research is a follow-up to MMC's "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," report, which was funded by McCormick Tribune Foundation.

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"If It Catches My Eye"

Northwestern University's Media Management Center has just published a new report, "If it catches my eye: An exploration of online news experiences of teenagers." For those interested about how teens use the internet this is must reading.

The in-depth study examined a diverse group of 65 Chicago-area teens. In summary, it found:
+ That news isn't that important to teens right now. Following news on politics, government, public affairs, etc. is stressful for teens. It reminds them of the peril in the world.
+ Local news sites aren't on their radar screens. Teens are seeing news that pops up in front of them from large Internet portals and news aggregators; they're not going out of their way for news.
+ However, teens do show interest in news in certain circumstances. In interviews for the study, they repeatedly used the phrase “I will read it IF IT CATCHES MY EYE.” Teens will read about a variety of news topics – if the subject interests them or if there is stimulating video, pictures, humorous or weird news, etc.

The report goes on to discuss the characteristics of sites that teens turn to most often for news AND to make recommendations to news organizations on ways to attract teens.

To see the full report go to http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/research/teeninternetstudy.pdf

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Dialing in to Local TV News

When it comes to local news in Chicago, one channel is as good as another, at least according to more than 1,400 TV-news viewers in the Chicagoland area. This finding, among others, was revealed in a new study "The Local TV News Experience: How to Win Viewers by Focusing on Engagement," conducted by the Medill School of Journalism and Media Management Center at Northwestern University.

The study - released on July 20 - reported that a majority of respondents felt that "No program causes its viewers to react or feel differently than others," according to an analysis by Broadcasting & Cable magazine (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6463856.html&referral=supp). The study provided examples from newscasts on local channels for analysis. The goal was to give TV news directors "tools to increase local news viewing by enhancing viewer engagement and provide broadcast leaders insights to help them think strategically about the position of the station and its role in the local community," according to the study.

In general, the study found that viewers had higher confidence in the integrity of TV news as compared to newspapers. It also noted that stations could benefit from increased diversity in newscast soundbites, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

To view the complete study, visit: http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/localtv/

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McCormick Tribune Scholars: Future Leaders Coming Up!

Faculty from the Media Management Center and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have announced the two newest McCormick Tribune Scholars: Jillian Crawford and Suneel Gupta. Crawford and Gupta, media management majors at Kellogg, will receive full tuition for three academic quarters. The Scholars Program was created by the Foundation in 2005 in recognition of our 50th year anniversary and we'll be granting 20 merit scholarships to Kellogg media management students and 60 merit scholarships to graduate students at the Medill School of Journalism during a 10-year period.

Both of the 2007 recipients are off to a busy start this summer: Crawford will be working at the Disney Internet Group as an intern for international strategy and business development, while Gupta is giong to research made-for-mobile television and films at Sony Pictures in Los Angeles.

For more information on the program: http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/blogs/mike/2007/05/crawford-and-gupta-named-mccormick_07.html

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