Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News

186 Pages·2005·3.151 MB·English

by  David T. Z. Mindich

Tuned Out:

Why Americans Under

40 Don’t Follow the News

DAVID T. Z. MINDICH

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Tuned Out

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Tuned Out

Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News
DAVID T. Z. MINDICH
New Yo rk Oxford

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

2005
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mindich, David T. Z., 1963–
Tuned out : why young people don’t follow the news / David T. Z. Mindich
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-19-516140-8 (cloth alk. paper)—ISBN 0-19-516141-6 (alk. paper)

1. Press—Influence. 2. Newspaper reading. 3. Broadcast journalism. 4. Television and
reading—United States. 5. Mass media and youth. 6. Youth—Books and reading. I. Title.
PN4731.M49 2004
302.23�083—dc22 2004046938
Printing number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my parents, Leonard Mindich and Margot Zucker Mindich,

who followed the news and walked in the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery protest.

And to my brothers, Jeremy Mindich and Dan Mindich,

who attended in utero but would have also walked willingly.
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Contents

Preface ix

1. A Generational Shift 1

2. How Tuned Out Are They? 18

3. Talking with Young People I: Striptease News and the Shifting

Balance Between Need and Want 34

4. Talking with Young People II: Who Follows the News and Why 60

5. Television, the Internet, and the Eclipse of the Local 77

6. The Decline of General News and the Deliberative Body 95

7. Conclusion: How to Tune Back In 112

Appendix A: People Surveyed or Interviewed for This Project,

2001–2003 128

Appendix B: Format of the Standard Interview 130

Appendix C: Responses to Questions 11–21 132

Bibliography 134

Notes 143

Index 161

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Preface

The thesis of this book, that young people have largely abandoned traditional
news, was not one that I pursued. Instead, it came to me, like a news flash, as I
was teaching a class one afternoon in January 2001. On that day, the first of the
semester in Media Law and Ethics, I distributed an informal quiz to test stu-
dents’ background knowledge of the law. I had reason for optimism. These par-
ticular students were among the best and brightest in a top department in a se-
lective college. And it was an excellent time to ask students about politics and
the law: The Supreme Court had just halted the 2000 presidential election and
the hearings to confirm John Ashcroft as attorney general were well underway.
The results were startling. Of 23 students, 18 could not identify even one
Supreme Court justice. Only one could name the attorney general nominee.
Most revealing of all, four wrote that the attorney general nominee was Colin
Powell; it is likely they homed in on the word “general,” reflecting a total ig-
norance of what an attorney general is or does. Later, as I conducted interviews
with young people across the country—from New Orleans to Boston to Kansas
City to Los Angeles to Burlington—I discovered that this first group of stu-
dents was not less informed than their peers; in fact, they were more tuned in
than most.
Young people have always had a lot on their mind that has nothing to do
with news. But in the 1950s and 1960s, young people were nearly as informed
about news and politics as their elders were. This has changed dramatically.
This book will show that the average 20-something is getting far less news
from newspapers, television, radio, and, yes, even the Internet, than you could
ever imagine. In addition, more 30-somethings are getting less news than ever
before, too. The decline in news consumption, which has taken place over the
past four decades, has produced two generations of young adults who, for the
most part, have barely an outline of what they need to make an informed de-
cision in the voting booth.
The decline in news consumption begs a number of interesting questions.
What makes some young people tune out and some tune in? How has the bal-
ance between entertainment and news shifted over time? What are young peo-
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