Hi Julia - Yes, you are right. Millennials are not setting aside the the same amount of time to watch full broadcast news shows like generations before them. Also, the advent of DVRs and Tivos are allow people to watch shows (or parts of shows) whenever it is convenient to them.  A survey of general social media habits of 18 to 35-year-olds that New Knowledge did last year found they tend to use YouTube, Facebook, Reddit and Twitter the most to access general news. When it came to science news specifically, they uses the latter three the most. That said, we know there are users who do use Tumblr routinely, and we are exploring the best ways to effectively engage those users on that platform. 

Hi Albert,

Thank you for your interest! I’ll jump in here, as I work for NewKnowledge Organization and we’re conducting the research for the project. 

Our data collection this year has focused on using surveys and focus groups with millennials all over the country to understand what attracts them to STEM news stories, keeps them engaged, and encourages learning. We’ve found that a story’s personal relevance is particularly important for this age group. In today’s digital world with so many different types of media competing for their attention, millennials want their STEM news to establish why it’s important right at the beginning of the story or else they will lose interest quickly. Stories about innovations in technology are particularly popular because this group is tech-savvy and can readily see the personal relevance of stories about virtual reality headsets, new cell phone apps, or social media algorithms etc. That said, storytelling techniques, such as the use of metaphors are effective at drawing them in, even when the topic is unfamiliar. For example, a metaphor that related melting icebergs to ice cubes in a glass was especially “sticky,” with many people who watched the story readily repeating the metaphor afterwards.

Regarding format, NewsHour’s shorter Facebook style videos that include graphics and humor are very popular with millennials. Our focus group participants said that they would be most likely to share stories in those formats because they’re easily digestible and appeal to a broad audience. If a short video like that catches their interest, they’re likely to go online and seek out more information.

As for metrics, we do track Google analytics to understand which stories are the most popular and engaging. Data analysis is still underway and we are excited to share those findings this summer!

Cool, thanks so much for the insights, and yea, storylines and metaphors are powerful! Onward and upwardd

I’m not sure we can speak directly to the cause of shorter attention spans, but we have found that millennials are particularly concerned with getting news quickly and efficiently. Our focus group conversations also suggest that millennials feel “bombarded” by news and with so much out there, they’re likely to switch among stories until something catches their eye -- as Julia mentioned, many use Reddit or other news aggregators that compile stories from multiple sources, which help them to do just that.

We’re definitely interested in digging deeper into your point about other ways of sharing and have started compiling data on social media discussions generated in response to posted STEM stories. Our survey data, however, show that people are much more willing to share STEM news by word of mouth than online and we plan to spend more time investigating other forms of sharing in the next year. Thanks for the questions and your interest!

Adding a few thoughts to support my colleague Dr. Su-Jen Roberts. It would seem that the challenge is not attention span, it's that volume is making a more discriminating consumer. New media users are more concerned that the content get to the point, make the story relevant, and then elaborate efficiently. Our tests show that media-savvy early career adult transmedia learners are making faster decisions to turn off content that doesn't get to the point quickly. If the media piece gets to the point fast, highlights relevance, it's more likely to get more attention. We're also starting to wonder about how situating the implications of STEM information into humanities deliberations might be perceived as more engaging.  Realize we can't spell out all of our preliminary findings here, but it's what we're thinking about.

Hi Andrea - You bring up a great point. The 'bubble' problem is something many media organizations are confronting right now. Here at PBS NewsHour we try to strive for a unbiased coverage of a range of topics. Perhaps that will help our followers discover content on subjects that they are not normally familiar with. But in general, we know millennials find stories with good visuals, unique metaphors and clear messages on the personal impact of science to be more engaging. While we've not looked into this specifically, I'd imagine that would promote sharing and perhaps land content on pages of individuals who might not otherwise see it. 

Thank you for your response! Again, this work is very exciting. Tracing how users are sharing within their networks seems like a nice next step for exploring how your project can begin to work towards expanding millenials' media horizons and to better understand how we consume and respond to our many streaming feeds.

Hi Anne -- we're working on some manuscripts now, but in the meantime, you can check out our Year 1 Report that we produced last summer. We used Year 1 to solidify our research methods and instruments and collect preliminary data; the more substantial results have come out of our Year 2 work. That report will be out this summer and published on the resources page of our website, so please check back in a couple months!

Millennials do access news a bit differently than middle and high school students -- different social media platforms tend to appeal to different age groups. We're working on another NSF-funded project with PBS NewsHour that focuses on engaging youth in making STEM news stories. We have collected only a little bit of data on how youth get their news, but do know that they are very interested in making stories for Snapchat and Instagram, which gives them an easy way to share with their friends.