Rethinking the Canadian Youth Audience for News
Published for 2008, RIPE@2008Philip Savage
Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
Abstract
This paper draws attention to a range of recent data on broadcasting and internet media use by young Canadians from a range of quantitative and qualitative studies, which try to determine if youth new media use provides a model for how broadcasters – especially the CBC – may meet changing audience expectations. The new “mediascape” notion of youth interaction with a range of digital and other media is place within the current policy debates enunciated in the latest Canadian Parliamentary study in CBC and new media, released in early 2008. Politicians suggest that youth models of new media use should shape the direction of public broadcasting, but an examination of the range of news media usage shows that while youth in Canada differ to some degree from the older cohort, their mix and approach to on-line media have some similarity with older groups.