Young adult audiences have increasingly gravitated toward online sources of news and information, write Dunja Antunovic, of Bradley University, Patrick Parsons, of Pennsylvania State University and Tanner R. Cooke, of Pennsylvania State University.

The article looks at the processes of news consumption among college students. By using five focus group interviews with 34 students the researchers explore how they go about obtaining news. The study identifies a three-stage process of consumption that includes the following: routine surveillance, incidental consumption, and directed consumption.

Through routine surveillance students became exposed to news by checking news on their phone etc. and the originating sources of news were often established news organizations. They also received news incidentally from social media for example. For more detailed and in-depth reading and viewing of news students turned to live television coverage or explored the topic of interest on the web using their laptop. This is called the directed stage.

Results show that regardless of device, students reported consuming content from traditional media sources.

The article is published online before print by Journalism. It can be found here.

Picture: Buried in their smartphones by Oleg Dulin, licence: CC BY-ND 2.0