Apathetic or Excluded? Young People, News and the Electronic Media

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to provide an empirically detailed account of how, and to what extent, young people in the UK use the media, both old and new, to access news and current affairs. This is done by summarising those examples of detailed empirical research into this subject which have been published over the past ten years, and the conclusions which the researchers have drawn from their work. Young people’s use of the new media is a subject of considerable speculation and assertion, much of it ill-informed. This makes it all the more vital to try to form a clear picture of the way in which young people actually use the media to access news and current affairs.