The Influence of News Media on Millennials

By Chris La Bella

A 2014 study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that millennials are the most liberal generation. Around half of individuals between the age of 18 and 34 identify as Democrat, compared to the 34% who lean Republican (Kiley, 2014). With this said, a major area of interest nowadays is the relationship between news media and millennials. As news media change in nature, adapting to developing platforms like social networks and such, their influence on the public continues to expand. Now, everyone has heard the notion that the media has a liberal bias, but there may be a connection here. The fact that millennials, a generation with profound knowledge and consumption of media, are primarily liberal may serve as proof that news media serve as a catalyst of liberalism.

 

One thing to consider about news media is their growing presence in our everyday lives through services like Facebook and Twitter. These social networks follow us around in our pockets at all times, making them ideal platforms for news media to tap into as 91% of millennials keep their phones less than a meter away (Wallace, 2013). In fact, Facebook exceeds every other source for political news with 61% of millennials using the site over sources like CNN, Fox News, or local TV (Mitchell, 2015). Facebook and Twitter have a strong grip when it comes to providing users with information, and with that power comes the ability to promote a certain agenda. If one takes a minute to consider the “suggested” posts that he or she has come across recently, perhaps it was a NowThis Election or Politico video critiquing Ted Cruz or explaining why Bernie Sanders and socialism is great for America. Maybe it was Buzzfeed’s patronizing post titled “18 Things Donald Trump Has 100% Actually Said.” The main idea here is that news media are using highly popular mediums like Facebook to promote a liberal stance. And, these sites are letting them. Unsurprisingly, there aren’t metrics showing the number of suggested posts supporting liberal candidates and policies compared to conservative ones. If there were, the number of conservative posts would be very minimal. In our digital age where social media has become a vital aspect of life for our generation, of course the constant bombardment of liberal notions through suggested posts can persuade individuals (especially those lacking interest in politics) into thinking a certain way. This way of thinking just happens to be liberal.

 

At a basic level, comparing the amount of liberal and conservative networks on television will demonstrate a similar idea. While young independents and conservatives can turn to Fox News (only) to receive trustworthy political information in their eyes, liberals have a range of options with networks like CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC. Obviously, the more networks promoting a similar agenda, the greater chance of individuals adopting a certain ideology as a result. This seems to be the case for millennials. The fact that there is only one somewhat conservative network, compared to the handful of liberal networks, demonstrates that the media is liberal by nature. And, news media only show signs of growing more and more “progressive.” Consider how many conservative commentators and authors have stopped appearing on Fox News alone. Individuals like Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, and Michelle Malkin rarely appear on the network anymore; a network that has the image of being ultra conservative. If this was truly the case, then wouldn’t these right wing individuals continue to offer their political insight regularly? Instead, they have been replaced with more center-left analysts, diluting yet another conservative source of information with liberalism. Happenings like this may then account for the fact that Republican millennials express less conservative values than do their elders according to research by Pew Research Center (Kiley, 2014).

 

Lastly, the liberal agenda radiating from the majority of news media may come from the simple fact that more journalists identify as Democrats. According to a 2013 survey by Indiana University, 28.1% of journalists said they were Democrats compared to just 7.1% of journalists claiming to be Republican (Thompson, 2014). Keep in mind that 18% identified as Republican in 2002. With this said, the influx in liberal content makes perfect sense then. A decrease in conservative individuals working in news media means there is more liberal content circulating. Therefore, the audience of news media, specifically the millennial audience in this case, is prone to accept the liberal slant as a “normal” perception since there are more sources preaching the same belief. While the liberal agenda may not be completely forced on individuals, it seems to inherently exist within news media, further demeaning conservatism as the years go on. Thus, millennials may serve as a prime example of a generation purely influenced by the intensifying liberal agenda within temporary news media. Let’s see how things turn out for Generation Z.

Works Cited

Kiley, J. (2014, September). The GOP’s Millennial problem runs deep. In Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/25/the-gops-millennial-problem-runs-deep/

Mitchell, A., Gottfried, J., & Eva Matsa, K. (2015, June 1). Millennials and Political News. In Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.journalism.org/2015/06/01/millennials-political-news/

Thompson, D. (2014, May). Report: Journalists Are Miserable, Liberal, Over-Educated, Under-Paid, Middle-Aged Men. In The Atlantic. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/report-journalists-are-miserable-over-educated-under-paid-middle-aged-men-mostly/361891/

Wallace, B. (2013). Here come the... millennials. The Enterprise, 43(5), 2. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1443488597?accountid=13381