I decided to search on youtube "where college students get their news" and here is what I found. (Thank you to a classmate for stirring my interest!)
Take a look at it... do you find it surprising? Do you have the same answers? What sorts of answers do you think we would get from Yeshiva University Students?
What I thought was interesting the most was that 1. not one person mentioned an actual newspaper 2. the girl interviewed said "watch the news"- she did not even acknowledge the fact that news could be read 3. the first answer of where news is found is on facebook (I overheard someone say today that they find out about Mubarak's resignation from facebook statuses).
This is an epic find! It is as entertaining as it is sad that these are our peers and future leaders of America. My favorite one was the guy who gets his news from autotune the news (http://www.youtube.com/show/autotunethenews) Once again, great find.
ReplyDeleteYep - this really says it all. No one even thinks about newspapers anymore.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we all know that this is the reality for a large number of students across American college campuses. For those of us you even occasionally read news articles on online newspaper websites, the approaching reality of charging for such services will certainly increase the phenomena mentioned in this video. I think YU and other campuses should attempt to have the local newspapers available to students on campus in order to help prevent this growing trend.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even sure having newspapers on campus would help, because to me it seems like one of the reasons behind this phenomenon has to do with the ever-increasing amount of technology available to the average person. Nowadays we can get everything instantly- so if you can look something up online and read a quick headline about it, why would you pick up a newspaper? I agree that people should be picking up newspapers and should be following the news, I just think the problem goes deeper than not having access to printed newspapers.
ReplyDeleteOur culture definitely assigns a certain amount of prestige to the written word--an actual book is often held in higher esteem than an ebook; I suppose it makes sense that we might do the same with newspapers. But what makes news written in a newspaper so much more legitimate than news published online? Isn't it also possible that websites and phone applications, if used properly, might actually allow for more up-to-date, perhaps even more accurate news? On the flip side, isn't it also possible that news written in a newspaper can be just as biased as news published elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteI think that by assuming that because news is written in a newspaper it is somehow better news, is falling into a dangerous trap. We should judge news based on the content, not the medium. Perhaps if we embraced online news, tv news, and other types of news, we might be able to bring news to a wider audience, including college students.
The worst is when people tell me they get their news from Jon Stewart - I mean, really? that's like getting your news from SNL Weekend Update.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
Also, these people are clearly morons.
ReplyDeleteA college student's life can get busy but there is no reason why you can't take five minutes out of your day to read the headlines and keep up with what is happening around you. The sad thing is that we are so occupied with other things that we have to make a true effort to be in the know.
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