1. Module Title: Skills for Study 1
Assessment Title: Essay
Assignment Title: Television is the most important source of news for young people today.
To what extent do you agree?
Word Count: 955 words
1. Essay
There are various news sources in the world such as newspaper, radio, TV and the Internet, and
therefore, people are curious to follow news, as BBC, et al (2006) stated that 72% of people as well
as 67% of younger people who aged 18-24 years old catch up on current affairs vigorously on a
daily basis. In this backdrop, although some people contended that young people prefer to use the
Internet as a primary news source rather than other media, as Johnson (2006) stated that amongst
under 36 years old people, “the local newspaper, local television and national TV newscasts play
lesser roles in their newsgathering” (Johnson, 2006), this essay utterly agree with the idea that
amongst young generation, TV is the most important news source today, defining people who are
late 10’s to early 30‘s as a young people, which roughly correspond to the Generation Y that were
born in the 1980’s and 1990’s according to Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.). The supporting reasons will
be presented from perspectives on accessibility, informativity and reliability.
TV is an accessible media all around the world. Papathanassopoulos, et al (2013) found out that in 6
out of 11 nations, which consists of Australia, Canada, Colombia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan
South Korea, Norway, United Kingdom and United States, TV was the most regularly watched
news source amongst respondents who aged 18-34 years old, surpassing newspaper, the Internet
and radio. Also, they pointed out that this could be because TV had the broadest coverage
worldwide in general, especially aside from the Internet. It could be explained by following facts;
Colombia, which showed lowest score of internet usage for news purpose in the study, had a
relatively low internet population rate at approximately 54% whilst Norway, which showed the
highest score of that, had a relatively high internet penetration rate at 86%, according to Internet
World Stats (2012). Furthermore, European Commission (2012) reported that an inaccessible rate of
media amongst young people in the EU as follows; The proportion of respondents who had never
used TV among 15-24 years old age cohort and 25-39 years old age cohort was 2% each whilst
counterpart of the Internet was 2% and 8% respectively. This proves high accessibleness of TV
today, which could be one of the inevitable aspects as an important news source.
TV is an informative media. Papathanassopoulos, et al (2013) stated that TV allowed people to be
well informed. This came from his research which concluded that high level of TV exposure
enabled interviewees to gain much knowledge of hard news whilst interviewees who relied on only
internet for collecting news were recognisably uninformed, regardless of generations. It could be
because people are passive, and therefore receive sufficient information when they watch a TV
news whilst they are active, and therefore they are likely to select personally desired information
and possibly overlook some socially valuable information when they use the Internet. In addition to
that, in general, people are able to remember and retrieve what they saw successfully through visual
capability, according to Freitas (2012). Meanwhile, Cauwenberge, et al (2014) revealed that young
generation’s perception regarding TV viewing. Amongst respondents who aged 15-34 years old, the
media that were used to catch up the most important current affairs was TV news, followed by
newspaper and online news site. This would show understandability of TV, which could be chiefly
led by limited broadcasting time. Since TV news programs is inflexible and has a limitation in
broadcasting slots, they prioritise the most important current affaires in the world and make them as
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2. much precise and clear as possible. Therefore, it could be reasonable that this approach allows
people to understand news and be informed, and concurrently TV is an informative media, which
could be one of essential aspects for an important news source.
Young generation regard TV as a trustworthy media. BBC, et al (2006) founded out that people all
over the world trust TV, as 82% of over 10,000 adults who aged over 18 years old from 10
countries, which consists of United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, India,
Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia and South Korea, agreed with that national TV is a trustworthy media,
followed by national and regional newspapers at 75% while news website resulted in 9th place at
38%. Also, 56% of them named TV as the most important news source, followed by newspaper,
internet and radio at 21%, 9% and 9% respectively. In terms of young people, they showed similar
result, as 46% of males who were living in urban area and aged 18-24 years old mentioned TV as
the most important news source while 15% of them selected the Internet as that. This could be
because fundamentally freedom of the media is legally secured in vast majority of countries, which
enable media to cover current affaires in the world today accurately. In addition, since TV is a
visual-oriented media, people can gain much more information than the other media which consists
of literal and verbal contents such as newspaper, radio and the Internet. Thus, TV is considered to
be reliable, and it could be indispensable for an important news source.
To sum up, for people who are between late 10‘s and early 30‘s, TV is an accesible, informative and
reliable media. This is because firstly, TV is widely accepted regardless countries especially aside
from the Internet. Secondly, TV is sure to provide socially required news and it leads appropriate
knowledge about current affaires among them. Finally, they trust in media, especially nationally
broadcasting TV. From these supporting reasons, this essay side with the idea that TV is the most
important news source amongst young people.
2. References
BBC, Reuters and The Media Center (2006). Poll: Trust in the Media. Available at: http://
news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_05_06mediatrust.pdf (Accessed: 26 March 2014)
Cauwenberge, A. V., D’Haenens, L., Beentjes, H. (2010). Emerging consumption patterns among
young people of traditional and internet news platforms in the low countries. Observatorio Journal,
4(3), pp335-352.
European Commission (2012). Standard Eurobarometer 78. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/
public_opinion/archives/eb/eb78/eb78_en.htm (Accessed: 26 March 2014)
Freitas, J. D. (2012). Why Is Memory So Good and So Bad? SCIENTIFIC AMERICA [Online].
Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-memory-so-good-bad/ (Accessed: 27
March 2014)
Internet World Stats (n.d.). Available at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/ (Accessed: 27 March
2014)
Johnson, P. (2006). Young people turn to the web for news. USA TODAY [Online]. Available at:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2006-03-22-media-mix_x.htm?csp=34
(Accessed: 27 March 2014)
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3. Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.). Generation Y. Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
definition/english/Generation-Y (Accessed: 27 March 2014)
Papathanassopoulos, S., Coen, S., Curran, J., Aalberg, T., Rowe, D., Jones, P., Rojas, H., Tiffen, R.
(2014). Online threat, but television is still dominant. Journalism Practice, 7(6), pp690-704.
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