Do You Read Newspapers?
As I am preparing to head to a meeting with some SGA members and a USA Today representative to discuss the SGA-sponsored Newspaper Readership Program (the free papers supplied in the entrances to The Commons and residence halls), I stumbled upon this article, and it piqued my curiosity.
Katy Pape, an intern with NPR’s research department, came across the Pew “State of the News Media” study, which reported that 23 % of people aged 18-24 reported reading a newspaper the day before they were asked. Pape was skeptical that these 18-24 year olds had the same definition of “newspaper” as those asking the questions.
Pape ended up securing the raw survey data and examined the wording of each question posed to the respondents, wanting to make sure “that Millennials were not mistaking ‘noticing a pile of newspapers at Starbucks’ for ‘reading a newspaper.’”
Pape found that respondents were reminded while answering the questions that, for the purposes of this survey, “reading a newspaper” meant picking up a paper copy and reading it (electronic copies, newspaper websites, tablets, and mobile devices did not count).
To Pape’s surprise, 18-24 year olds were actually touching paper and reading the content printed on it. 22 percent of that segment of the population polled read a paper at least every other day (compared to 40 percent of all adults).
So, I’m curious:
1.) In terms of “print media” (newspapers that do publish paper copies), do you read (or at least skim) a paper copy at least once every other day?
2.) Regarding SGA’s newspaper readership program, do you take advantage of this? If so, which paper do you find yourself reading the most? If not, how can it be improved, in your opinion?
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