An investigation into the Modern News Consumption Habits of Students and their Adoption of Twitter as a Mainstream News Outlet.

Abstract

This research presents the findings of a qualitative investigation into the modern news consumption habits of young people, with a special focus on role of Twitter. The adoption of Twitter by global news media outlets, journalists and political and cultural figures has transformed the platform into arguably a global news machine. Although recent empirical work has explored the impact of social media as a whole on individuals news seeking behaviours, to this point little attention has been made to focus solely on Twitter, and its perceived role in the new media environment. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Uses and Gratifications (Katz et al. 1974), we explore student’s perceptions and motivations of use of Twitter as a news source. Our findings suggest that convenience and personalisation are amongst the main drives behind choosing Twitter as a news source. Moreover, the findings point to significant alterations in young adult’s news habits during times of political uncertainty.