Gen Z, Social Media, and News: Implications for the Future of News Engagement, Journalism, the U.S., and Democracy

Gen Z, Social Media, and News: Implications for the Future of News Engagement, Journalism, the U.S., and Democracy is the third book in a trilogy that captures the intersection of generation change and news landscape transformation. This change began in the early 1980s with the birth of Millennials, continued with Gen Z’s arrival beginning in the late 1990s, then intersected with the news landscape’s transformation that accelerated in 2004 with Facebook’s emergence and Apple’s 2007 unveiling of the iPhone.

Born 1997 through 2012, Gen Z is the first generation to grow up when the news engagement socialization process that we took for granted is virtually non-existent. And because Gen Z engages with news on social media where disinformation is pushed, it’s unknown how informed Gen Z is and what that means for the future of news engagement, journalism, the U.S., and democracy. A national survey conducted with Gen Z, Millennials, and older generations addresses these issues and more.

Paula M. Poindexter is a professor of journalism at University of Texas at Austin. In addition to publishing six books, she has been a news reporter, producer, and a Los Angeles Times executive. As the 2014 president of AEJMC, she founded News Engagement Day. Her Ph.D. degree is from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.