Module Title: Skills for Study 1Assessment Title: EssayAssignment Title: Television is the most important source of news for young people today. To what extent do you agree?Word Count: 955 words

1. EssayThere 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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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. ReferencesBBC, 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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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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