Younger Israelis seem more eager for civic participation than their older peers, regardless of what news they consume. Sagit Dinnar, of the Open University of Israel, and Hillel Nossek, of Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee, studied the matter through so-called Q-sort methodology. It involved asking 36 Israelis to sort various news sources according to their importance. The participants also completed a survey and an interview on their news habits and civic activity, e.g. participation in protests.

Young adults (between 18 and 34 years old) were overall more active than the 35-60 or +61 year-old groups. The young adults’ news repertoires were more dependent on “new media” sources, but this does not seem decisive for their participation, Dinnar and Nossek conclude.

There were two things that appear to connect the three age groups, the authors note. First, all age groups seem to equally consume the television news on channels 2 and 10. Second, all age groups seem equally keen to share news in face-to-face conversations.

The article “News repertoires, civic engagement and political participation among young adults in Israel” was published by the journal Communication. It is available online on the publisher’s website (abstract free).

Picture: Untitled by Dean Moriarty.