Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon has said news providers must adapt rapidly to reach a Gen Z audience which consumes information in a radically different way from previous generations.
Mahon cited new research that analysed the news consumption habits and views of 3,000 people and found many of those aged under 27 not only have very different video viewing habits from older people but are also more likely to lack faith in democracy.
UK adults spent on average more than five hours a day watching video in 2024, with Youtube making up 34% of viewing time – rising to 64% for 16 to 27-year-olds.
Those aged 13 to 27 (defined as Gen Z) were found to have a much higher trust in friends’ social media posts (58%) versus 28 to 65-year-olds (37%). This younger age group are also more likely to trust social posts shared by influencers (42%) compared to those aged 28-65 (8%).
Gen Z consuming ‘individualised, personalised’ news feeds
Mahon told a Royal Television Society event on Thursday: “For Gen Z, social video has been their primary cultural compass. But it has been individualised.
“Through personalised feeds, they see not only different information from earlier cohorts and certainly from their parents, they also crucially never see quite the same things as their peers.
“It’s vital to stress one perhaps obvious fact: they will not revert. Young people will not adopt the behaviour of older generations as they age. Just as I will not start going to the shops to buy a physical newspaper, Gen Z will not stop watching YouTube or start getting their information from News at Ten.
“However the way Gen Z do get their information is creating immense issues for them. The combination of extended plasticity of views and the personalised information flow has had profound effects. They’ve grown up with access to vast amounts of information. But being informed for them is, in essence, a matter of personal choice, not a shared understanding.
“Gen Z faces growing uncertainty in who and what to trust, struggling to reconcile issues of bias, impartiality and truth in such an information-saturated environment.
“They demonstrate a much ‘flatter’ pattern of trust in media than older generations – that is, they gather information widely, valuing friends, influencers and traditional media alike. There is no hierarchy of validation.”
Young Britons more likely to favour military rule
The research said the way Gen Z consumes information may be affecting several factors about their worldview, including:
- 52% of 13 to 27-year-olds think the UK “would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament or election” versus 40% of 40 to 65-year-olds
- Fewer young people think democracy is a “very” or “fairly good” way of governing the UK (73% versus just under 90% for older generations)
- Young people are more likely to think the UK would be a better place if the army was in charge (33% versus 18%)
- Young people are more likely to think “the entire way our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution” (47% versus 33%)
- And they are more likely to have an “individualistic view of the world” where one person’s success means another’s loss.
Mahon said the research made clear that many people “are grappling with the idea of truth itself. It is harder than ever to separate fact from fiction.
“In short, the way in which Gen Z learn to judge fact, fiction and fairness as they grow older may become the defining issue of our age.”
She added: “What are the dangers arising from all this? You could say there is no crisis at all. Young people have never been particularly high consumers of serious news. Society has always worried about new developments in the distribution of information, but overall has been liberated rather than limited by the introduction of writing, of the printing press and of all technologies since.
“But I would argue that we are now at a point where we need to think much more urgently about the risks. Because Gen Z curate their own understanding of ‘the truth’ in ways that exacerbate a gender division and undermine the value of democracy.”
Mahon argued that the “huge amount” of Tiktok viewing in the elections in the UK and US last year meant consumers were getting “fragments, not detail” and that in general young people are getting news “in snippets and by happenstance”.
She added: “It is important to remember that there are four ways that the change in consumption by platform impacts what is consumed: short form means less detail; speed means less context; the algorithms move the salacious faster to the top of feeds; solo viewing reduces socialisation of points of view, thus reducing the likelihood that radical or socially destructive perspectives will be questioned.
“But this environment is not giving Gen Z the tools or knowledge to interpret and navigate the world. Decision-making and comprehension often requires detail and context that take more than 30 seconds to explain. Unsurprisingly, Gen Z feel less and less able to trust what they read or see.”
News industry ‘must think bigger’ than just adapting content for platforms
Mahon said the UK still has time to “resist sliding into an American news swamp”.
She said news providers must adapt what they do: “First, we have to rapidly change how we make things, where we publish them, and how we promote them… We need to move from text to video, from long to summary, from our networks to theirs, and to be always entertaining and accessible. All while working to retain impartiality.”
Although providers like Channel 4 News have already done a “huge amount” of work on constructing “thumb-stopping content” that is different from broadcast packages, she said “we need to think bigger than adaptation”.
Mahon said the “global platforms are dominant”, are not classified as publishing businesses, and can change their algorithms at any time to “brush aside or skip over our news output in favour of news made up in someone’s living room”.
She therefore suggested a trustmark could be introduced as “an indicator of factual, trusted accuracy for content that emerges from professionally-produced, regulated media” so platforms and users can see what has been created by journalists following editorial codes holding them accountable.
She also said there should be regulation for public service media to be prominent across social platforms using their algorithms.
The Media Bill has already introduced legislation to make content from the likes of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 easy to find on smart TVs. She said it is not just a matter of principle on social platforms, but of making sure public service media can make money as well.
Finally Mahon said the impact of generative AI needs to be considered, suggesting AI companies could be forced to pay to license content for their large language models and put a focus on validated public service content.
“We could go further and think about that for other publicly-funded, transparent data subject to oversight and independent verification, that kind of data as an input might give us outputs that shape the kind of society we want to live in rather than one that feeds off spin, propaganda and sometimes stolen copyright,” she added.
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