For years, the journalism industry has been plagued by scare stories warning us that fewer young people are consuming news.
Where Are the Young People?
The statistics tell a depressing tale: only 24 per cent of 18-to 24-year-olds in the UK consume news directly through a news site or app. The figure has fallen by almost 30 per cent since 2018. Increasingly, media outlets are attempting to reach out to teenage and young adult audiences to bridge this gap, whether through podcasting or being active on social media. But their efforts seem to be doing little to combat this worrying trend.
So why is that and what can we do about it? I’d like to suggest that it is children, not just young adults, that the industry should be focusing on. Research shows that children’s habits are cemented by the age of nine, and are unlikely to vary for the rest of adolescence. Early childhood, therefore, is the perfect time to develop a habit of reading the news, before teenage years become crammed with exams or personal matters. This should increase the likelihood of a younger person continuing to read the news throughout their adult life. However, little is being done to encourage this behaviour with the opposite appearing to be happening.
There is currently a dearth of news services that are catered towards children and tweens in the UK. CITV, ITV’s flagship kids’ news programme, was cancelled just under a year ago and CBBC Newsround is not as influential as it could potentially be. Major news outlets in the UK have either disregarded or simply forgotten child audiences — and continue to be surprised when those children grow up and spend time on Netflix or social media, rather than on news apps which have previously never been a part of their everyday life.
Innovators in Children’s News
BBC Director-General Tim Davies acknowledges that ‘children want to understand events and the world around them.’ So the issue isn’t that kids don’t want to read the news; the problem is that there are not enough organisations trying to engage with them. Media Cubs aims to solve this. Co-founded by Manchester-based journalist Kirsty Day, it runs clubs and workshops that allow kids aged 4 – 16 to participate in a variety of journalism-related activities, from reporting to interviewing. Kirsty explains how Media Cubs was inspired by her two sons, Archie and Jack:
‘It started when they were in primary school and it didn’t feel like they had the opportunity to explore creative outlets outside of class,’ she tells me. ‘Archie and Jack inspired me to provide children from all backgrounds with a place to … create, debate, and navigate the news.’
Just last summer, Media Cubs worked with over 1,200 young people in Greater Manchester. For the children — or mini-reporters, as they are known — involved, they get to have a hands-on approach to news in an actual TV studio and newsroom, with opportunities both in front of and behind the camera. As for other young people across the UK, getting to see current affairs content being created by people their age encourages them to develop a lifelong habit of engaging with the news. Being based in the North West also contributes to providing news outside of London, something which has been championed by companies like the BBC and ITV, whose main operations are based in Media City, Manchester.
Confidence is Key
While these workshops undoubtedly inspire some mini-reporters to become journalists in the future, the main aim of Media Cubs is to help young people ‘build confidence.’ Providing children with real-life media opportunities, from interviewing public figures to publishing work with regional media outlets, increases their ‘future social mobility’ and improves job prospects. This is because all of Media Cubs’ campaigns are entirely directed and presented by the mini-reporters, many of whom come from average social backgrounds. The same can’t be said for the journalism industry itself. Only 11 per cent of journalists in the UK are from working-class backgrounds, while 59 per cent are male and 94 per cent are white. Regardless of whether they decide to pursue a career in media, mini-reporters can walk away from these workshops with soft skills like public speaking and communication, which employers desperately want but many young people today lack.
‘We believe that young people from all backgrounds have a place in newsrooms and should feel confident that their views matter,’ says Kirsty. ‘Mini-reporters leave our programmes able to speak confidently to adults, each other, in front of peers and the camera.’
She adds that helping children to develop and flourish is one of Media Cubs’ greatest achievements:
‘There have been so many individual ‘wins’ as we call them, working with young people,’ she says. ‘We often hear that … they didn’t know that a job in media was something they could do and now they want to work in the industry, or they say they would never grab a mic and be in front of a camera and then we see them doing it — and not only doing it, but asking people in power questions and holding them to account.’
One particular highlight has been a campaign the mini-reporters ran during the Covid-19 pandemic called Raise Your Hand, where the young people sent letters to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ask him questions that they didn’t feel had been properly answered. While Downing Street did not allow this, it ultimately attracted media attention. ITV reported on their campaign and Manchester Council allowed the mini-reporters to have billboards up across the city. Kirsty said that she was ‘really proud’ of what the children were able to achieve amidst the difficulties of the pandemic. Looking into the future, the mini-reporters’ next major project will involve working with Forestry England on a ‘Countryfile-style report’ led by young people.
Media Cubs is a shining example of the power of children’s news. By making current affairs accessible to young audiences, children can become more confident in expressing their views, more knowledgeable about the world around them, and more discerning of misinformation. And, most importantly, they’ll continue to engage with the news into adulthood.
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