Social + Search + AI: What next for young news consumers?

Good to see Prof Colleen Murrell and Mark Little on the stage again talking about my now favourite subject - #news. They were joined yesterday by Susan Daly and Amy A. Ross Arguedas in a panel discussion hosted by Sinead Crowley to discuss the findings of the Reuters Digital News Report Ireland 2024. #DNR24

Much of the themes correlated with THINKHOUSE 's 'Future of News' event last Tuesday - e.g. news avoidance (fatigue) due to news overload and what it means for the reinvention of news in more accessible, relevant formats; social media platforms and formats changing consumption behaviours, the need for transparency especially around AI usage in news generation and the rise of explainer media from trusted news content creators and curators.?

While the report has tonnes of relevant information for anyone in media, marketing and the business of news, here's a perspective on what I think could be a major emerging behaviour in terms of young people's news consumption behaviours...

Social + Search + AI:?Ask + Be Served

It’s now official that the majority of Irish people get their news from online sources - the report highlights that for the first time ‘online, excluding social media’ (33%) has overtaken TV viewing (31%) as ‘the main source’ of news. Older age groups are more likely to navigate directly to a news site with 62 percent of those aged 65+ accessing news in this way, compared to 24 percent of those aged 18-24.

37 percent of 18-24 years claim social media as their main news source, compared to just 3 percent of 65+. When it comes to news discovery, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok topped the polls for the under 35s.? The ‘discovery of news’ in this way, suggests, according to Prof Colleen Murrell, a “certain passivity or potluck approach as most social media platforms have deprioritised news”.?

Paradoxically, as Prof Colleen Murrell points out, the next top choices were ‘using a search engine for a keyword for the name of a particular website’ (39%) or ‘using a search engine for a keyword for the name of a keyword about a particular news story’ (37%), both of which point to a more active searching model. This suggests a certain 'search' behaviour is currently common among 18-24 year olds when it comes to news consumption. Now consider this in an A.I. era. with the growing popularity of search chatbots integrated into social media.

Will we see growing numbers of young people accessing news in 2025 by asking an AI chatbot on social media to serve up real-time news? I think so.?

This has some key implications for young news consumers, news producers and social media giants.?

1. The thing that chatbots currently are most prized for (answering personalised Qs at top-speed) is also where their biggest vulnerabilities lie. Currently, chatbots can’t be relied on to deliver fact-verified information given the questionability of their news sources (some sources themselves may be A.I. generated news websites of which Newsguard has identified 957 such sites). Young people’s media literacy skills and behaviour around source checking will need to go into overdrive.?
2. Likewise, transparency in the process of news creation and distribution will become even more important. Even if more young people claim to be comfortable with news produced mostly by AI (24 percent of the under 35s are comfortable with news produced by artificial intelligence (AI) with some human oversight, versus 12 percent of those 35+), a significant number - 28 percent of under 35s - still claim to be uncomfortable with having news produced mainly by a journalist ‘with some AI input’ (this rises to 32 percent for 35s and over).?As Susan Daly highlighted, "disclosures around the use of AI will have to be handled with real care."
3. News producers and Social Media are going to have to grapple with new commercial models - if Meta is serving up news from The New York Times via its chatbot, then surely The New York Times deserves to be compensated, right? But of course Chatbots will likely be accessing multiple sources, so the news industry might, as the panel discussed, have to consider “collective action” in its bargaining power.?

Loads more insights for another article - but well done to all involved with the data gathering, report writing and publication. The full report can be viewed here - https://www.cnam.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240607_DNR-2024_DMB.pdf