*NEWSBITES
MANNHEIM - "The Internet is crushing all other media…" That or something similar is the operative assumption as most experts look at the future of television, radio, books and newspapers.
But that conventional wisdom is upended by the latest edition of an annual study just presented in Mannheim by pedagogical media research center Südwest. Young people avail themselves of all media, the study says. In fact, reading newspapers and books right now is ‘in.’
Some 1,200 subjects aged 12 to 19 years of age participated in the study called "im-Studie 2011 "Jugend, Information, (Multi)Media." Results show that 44% are regular readers – up from 38% in 1998. Girls read more books than boys. Surprisingly, e-books played virtually no role, with only 1% saying they read them. Roughly 42% of participants said they read a daily paper, with 18% reading an online edition. Asked about credibility of sources, daily papers came in first, followed by television, radio and only then the Internet.
However, the Internet was by far and away the most frequently used medium – 89% said they used it daily or several times a week. Participants said they spent more than two hours a day online (virtually the same as in 2010) and also watched TV on average for 113 minutes. And 78% (up from 74% in 2010) said they listened to the radio regularly.
The Internet was mainly used by the young people for communication, particular via social networks: 78% are members of social media sites, the most popular of which is Facebook. Use of Facebook nearly doubled to 78% over the previous year. The previous favorite, SchülerVZ, a German site for school kids, was only used by 29% of participants.
According to the researchers, one positive sign was that more and more youngsters are wary of giving out too much information about themselves on social media. Four-fifths have limited the availability of their data to friends only. And finally, the average number of social media “friends” is 206.
Read the original article in full in German
Photo - Time.Captured.
*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations
