User:Kweon.angie/Sandbox

Newspaper and Age Demographic

According to the various statistics regarding newspaper readership in Canada, readership tends to be divided demographically. The statistics reveal that far more older Canadians read newspapers than younger Canadians. It looks like this is because newspapers have given up on younger audience or have tried but failed to gather younger readers. Thus, newspapers reflect the value of older readers but not younger, perhaps the critical reasons are that younger readers do not prefer newspapers because it have failed to compete with booming technological innovations; moreover, the content of newspapers has limitations in comparison with the technology, and it seems unlikely that newspapers can fulfill the interests of younger readers, who have been embraced the evolving technological revolution. Significantly, not only young readers have no interest and reluctant to read newspapers but also, they do not feel the need to read it.

Technological Change in Media

In this section, I will explain the influence of the technological development to the readership of newspaper, focusing on different demographic gruops. There will be some statstics that show the readership of newspaper and this data will be used to explain the impact of technology on the readership and the newspaper circulation. As a result of this technologcial development in communication, young readers, who have been embarced the technological development, are accustomed to easily access information; thus, there is a common census that information has to be free. This section will be mainly focusing to explain how the change in communication technology have caused the downfall in the rate of readership.

Decline in young readership in Canada

• Most of young generation personal computers or the majority of young people have experienced to use the computers.
  • Over the last years, most young people own the smartphone or the tablet PC or the laptop which make it possible for them to access information anywhere and anytime.
  • The statistics shows that the readership of the newspaper is gradually declining with the development of technology.
    • The newspaper circulation—which implies the circulation of the copies of newspaper from publication to the readers—has generally declined over the decade.

Younger reader's census about newspaper

• Thus, younger audience’s first source of information is not newspaper anymore.
  • There are so many ways to access the vast amount of information by browsing through the online-newspaper websites, using search engines in websites like Wikipedia and so on.
• Because young audiences have an easy access to information, their current census is that information has to be free, therefore, they are not willing to pay for the content/information.

• The mechanism of reading newspaper is burdensome to young readers.
  • Young readers are those who are accustomed to access information with few clicks in a short time. They think it is burdensome to read and buy the traditional paper-copied newspapers.

The Interests of Young Reader

Canadian newspapers have attempted to draw more younger readers in several times. However, despite their efforts of newspapers press, newspapers have failed to do so because the contents of newspapers have limitations to fulfill the interests from young readers. I will provide some cases where newspapers have tried but failed to attract the young readers. These cases will show the factors that prevent young readers reading newspapers. Also, I will explain why newspapers have failed to compete with technology, in terms of gaining popularity, due to its limit to provide wide range of information as the internet. For example, young readers are accustomed to easily accessing information; the internet, for instance, can provide vast amount of information.

• Because the certain numbers of contents are selected to paper-copy newspaper, young readers—who are used to browsing through the flow of information—would not perceive newspaper as the information source.
  • According to the Canadian Press, Canada’s youth is one of the hardest groups to attract as well as retain.

• However, newspaper want to grab the attention of the youth
  • Thus, many newspaper have come up with various strategies such as campaigns to attract younger audiences, however, there is no evidence that these efforts achieve something which implies that newspaper have not found a striking way yet.
    • Examples: newspapers introduced cartoon characters in newspaper
    • Examples: newspaper have been holding a campaign and promoting “those who read newspaper are smarter”.

The Sociological Factor

This section will focus on the sociological aspects to explain why newspaper readings are discouraged among young people. Some articles indicate that, disregarding the technologcial development, the downfall of newspaper readings is due to the education system. Unlike the old generations who perceive newspapers as one of the important communication sources, younger readers do not feel the need for newspapers. I could not be able to find a lot of sources that specifically talked about the sociology of newspaper readings; however, I am planning to do a more in-dept research focusing on how the newspaper reading during class time had affected the students in the past.

• Change in sociology factor.
  • Tradition education system valued newspaper thus, it promoted students to read newspaper in class
  • Previously, students perceived newspaper reading as natural, therefore, it created interest in politics for children.
  • However, nowadays the education system does not promote newspaper reading in class.

Reference

1. Livingston, Gillian (May 6th, 1999). "Newspaper target young readers". The Canadian Press.
2. Report on Business: Canadian (Sep 24th, 2009). "Canadian newspapers see rise in readership". The Globe and Mail.
3. Zerbisias, Antonia (Mar 11th, 2005). "Newspaper in the digital age: [ONT Edition]". Toronto Star.
4. The Canadian Press (Sep 26th, 1996). "Newspaper readership levels steady, survey says (Newspaper Audience Databank)". The Canadian Press.
5. Livingston, Gillian (May 6th, 1999). "Newspaper target young readers". The Canadian Press.
6. Zerbisias, Antonia (Mar 11th, 2005). "Newspaper in the digital age: [ONT Edition]". Toronto Star.
7. Zerbisias, Antonia (Mar 11th, 2005). "Newspaper in the digital age: [ONT Edition]". Toronto Star.
8. Perkel, Colin (May 14th, 1998). "Newspaper campaign hopes to snag younger readers [Canadian Newspaper Assn]". The Canadian Press.
9. Perkel, Colin (May 14th, 1998). "Newspaper campaign hopes to snag younger readers [Canadian Newspaper Assn]". The Canadian Press.
10. Schroeder, Ken (Feb 2005). "Education news in brief: make reading last".