Traditional media losing Switzerland's young adults: study

A University of Zurich study revealed on Monday that an increasing number of Swiss teenagers and young adults are shunning traditional news sources, preferring instead to inform themselves via social media sites.

The Research Institute for the Public Sphere and Society stated in its annual edition of the Quality of Media yearbook that the number of 16 to 29 year olds who use traditional media sources including print, radio and television recorded a decrease since 2009, with 56 percent of those polled in 2015 stating never to consult subscription newspapers compared to 35 percent six years prior.

More and more young people are using social media sources as the only means by which to gather information, despite analyses showing that news items used on such sites are often short, emotionally-loaded and event-driven.

The study furthermore indicated that the willingness of readers to subscribe online and pay for information remains weak while online advertisement is also suffering from fledgling results.

With information sources facing financial difficulties, the study noted that many become prone to economic and political influences, while a general decrease in the quality of media content has been recorded since 2010. Endit