This project consists of two papers.
How News Found the Avoiders: The Changing News Routines of Infodemically Vulnerable Young People in England During Covid-19 (Journalism Studies)
This article examines how young people (18-24) in England who experience social inequality consumed news during the first national Covid-19 lockdown. Described as "infodemically vulnerable" due to their reliance on social media for news, I draw on 25 interviews to consider if this underresearched population was exposed to harmful information. Contrary to fears, participants maintained a constant awareness of essential Covid-19 information throughout this period. They used substantively different consumption practices as the lockdown progressed. Initially, interviewees turned to trusted information from broadcast media news, replacing their dependence on social media. This was short-lived, as participants later avoided television news due to its impact on their wellbeing and frustrations that coverage did not relate to their lived experience. The paper demonstrates how structural factors, like age and inequality, can act as catalysts for selective news avoidance. Avoidance, however, did not result in interviewees missing critical updates. They adopted a "News Finds Me" perception, whereby individuals remained informed indirectly through relatable information from trusted contacts received on private messaging applications. Rather than being exposed to an infodemic, this article shows how accidental exposure to news on social media provided information perceived as more useful and representative of their lived experience.
Download here.
"They Don't Understand What it Means to be Poor": How Social Inequality Shapes Young People's Experience of News and What it Means for the Future of Political Journalism
Against a backdrop of austerity, Brexit, and growing fears surrounding the spread of misinformation and polarisation on social media, this paper analyses how young people in England who experience social inequality in their daily lives use social platforms to consume news. Drawing on 25 interviews, this study explores the individual-level, everyday experiences that shape their news habits.
Interviewees do not feel represented by the political reporting of legacy news media. They do not see their experiences, communities, and interests reflected in public debate. As a result, some actively avoid "traditional" media, especially the BBC. This is not driven by a lack of trust but a rejection of story selection and storytelling techniques, such as the formalism, distance, and objectivity with which political issues are reported. Instead, participants find representation on social media platforms from a mixture of alternative media, activists, influencers, and networked contacts. Instagram and other visual social media platforms are particularly popular, providing exposure to issues and perspectives that participants did not feel were given appropriate coverage in professional news media.
These findings illustrate how young people who experience social inequality have different preferences for political journalism. In line with literature on the emotional turn in journalism (Wahl-Jorgenson, 2019) and the informalisation of politics (Wouters, 2007), they seek political information that amplifies accounts of lived experience. More significantly, this is representative of a broader disconnect with institutional politics; interviewees feel alienated and express low levels of political efficacy. This paper further examines how theoretical contributions in journalism studies, such as engaged journalism, solidarity journalism, and solutions journalism, could offer vital innovations for newsrooms to help them engage this audience.