How might we empower Gen Z to consume credible and engaging news?
Partnering with CNN, this ongoing 8-month student-led project aims to innovate strategies to engage Gen-Z audiences.
The project is currently in Phase 1; Research and Ideation. The next phase of the project; Design and Testing, will being in May 2024.
Project Overview
The rise of peer-to-peer networks and influential news personas on social media has shaped public opinion and news consumption.
The goal of this project is to understand how these patterns of news consumption can be leveraged and supported without compromising on the integrity of the information shared.
THE TEAM
Rhea Chandy
Shubham Jumde
Karina Ruiz Garcia
Sugandh Agrawal
Faculty
Dasami Moodley
SOLO RESPONSIBILITIES
Study Design
Research Workshop Planning
Participant Recruitment
How did we do it?
For phase 1 of the project, we set out to study the interconnected dynamics between Gen Z audiences and the larger media ecosystem.
We did this through extensive user research, comprising of co-design workshops, expert interviews and secondary research.
Results
Two robust alternative design directions, both informed by insights from user research. Ready for take forward into design ideation.
From secondary research, we discovered that young audiences are key segment of digital news consumption. CNN itself captures the attention of 25.8M young adults in the age category 18-34 (roughly 35% of US online viewership)
Consuming news before age
18 years
is a positive predictor of news consumption for 7+ years.
Interest in politics develops during adolescence & stabilizes by the age of
20 years
Adolescents are most likely to increase their political & societal interest before age
15 years
The medium is the message - the rise of the opinion leader
Increasingly, young users are leveraging TikTok's powerful algorithm to discover content aligned with their preferences.*
77%
Teens today get news and headlines from social media.**
75%
Teens feel that the news media has no idea about what the lives of people their age are really like.**
The deepest personal connection comes from real individuals who present the information instead of faceless websites.
We set out to learn about Gen Z audiences' news consumption behaviour
Influence of social media
What are the distinctive interaction patterns associated with news consumption on social media compared to legacy media?
Influence and Impact of Opinion-Leaders
Why are people turning to alternative opinion-leaders as opposed to other news sources?
Our secondary research informed the assumptions that shaped our hypotheses
1
Young audiences consume news through peer-to-peer networks because they find them more engaging and trustworthy.
2
Young audiences consume news through opinion leaders because they find them more engaging and trustworthy.
Research Methodology
Methods used
Expected Outcome
1
Secondary Research
Desk Research and Literature Reviews
2
Hands-on Workshops
Learn about immediate reactions to news formats and analyze consumption patterns through a 45-minute long workshop experiment and a week-long diary study
Tested Hypothesis + Qualitative Data
3
In-depth Interviews
In-depth interviews with Opinion Leaders and Journalists to understand the news media landscape
Context from SMEs
(Subject Matter Experts)
Cnn Companion
Contextual media literacy companion that can be pulled out when needed
Integrate media literacy tools to enhance deep news consumption
There is a opportunity here to support and enhance those discussions by integrating media literacy tools into these platforms , for example, by providing additional context directly within the chat interfaces or provide this context as users scroll through their feeds
Deep Scan
Bookmark
Family Hub
Audio Story
Background scanning
Listen to the news
Save it for later
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