NEWS CONSUMPTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA

In comparison to the noughties, where the thirst to hear about the latest drama regarding A-Z list celebrities could only be quenched by a weekly tabloid fix, the development in technology means that this information can be searched for, absorbed and subsequently discussed, all on a mobile device. This evolution means that millennials are consuming their news and entertainment in continuously more contemporary styles, so apps are consistently innovating themselves to accommodate this.

Due to this online innovation, weekly magazine sales are on the decline. In 2017, tabloids such as Look magazine was at a declined readership of 31% and similarly, Now dropped by 21% according to Press Gazette. In contrast, factual magazines are performing at a rate exceeding that of recent years. 

The ability to access this genre of information from one’s smartphone is essential to younger audiences, however, it is not enough to simply replicate the information that is available in printed magazines onto a digital platform. With social media apps such as Twitter and Facebook and accredited news sites hosting online applications users are accustomed to receiving news in bite sized chunks straight to their phone, so do not have the motivation to search online on traditional tabloid sites. The BBC News app is one of a select few applications that isn’t social media that I have downloaded on my phone. My friends and I will receive the breaking news alerts simultaneously, giving the impression of feeling more connected to what is going on in the world, without having to actively search for updates. Clearly others feel just as fulfilled with their news consumption too as the BBC News app is rated as No #2 in News in the Apple App Store. The innovation of ‘alerts’ when it comes to reading and news is vital to boost engagement as it integrates well with the way users interact with their phones.

However, it is not just traditional news channels and platforms that are accommodating the market for information consumption; some apps are introducing options to explore news stories and tabloid gossip from within the same app that you may use for social interaction with friends – a genius marketing idea that keeps consumers and users all in the same place and minimises competition.

An example of a ‘new-age’ app reinventing themselves from their primary function to house news and information is the photo sharing application, Snapchat. In 2015, Snapchat had over 100 million monthly active users, with 71% of those users under the age of 25 (User Testing, 2015). The platform launched in 2011 as a photo sharing platform; however, in January 2015, Snapchat released Discover.

If you are new to Snapchat, or simply want to understand how best to use the app to its full potential then this is the process to find news and gossip...

1. Open Snapchat on your mobile device.
2. Swipe left on the camera to visit the Discover page.
3. You will see a selection of: stories of those you follow, popular stories from celebrities and interactive news and entertainment articles.
4. Tap on the story you want to watch.
5. Scroll down to exit the page.
6. Swipe left to return to the camera setting.

This innovation allows for a multifunctional medium to engage with its younger generation of consumers and consequently promote the consumption of information in a fun and interactive way. The balance between the content offered, integrating stories from celebrities, peers, news outlets and tabloids sites should make approaching more serious news articles less intimidating and could make users more likely to visit. By including insightful material in an otherwise fairly shallow platform, Snapchat is contributing to a contemporary culture of reading and consequently aiding the path for a younger generation of intellectuals. This is so long as the news being absorbed is accurate though, right?

In recent months, stemming from the highly controversial US Presidential Election, the term ‘fake news’ has been thrown around the online world, depicting the overload of information and the lack of questioning its legitimacy that can occur on the internet. Create a controversial or shocking title and many reading will read and share without giving it a second thought; what starts out as an innocent action to spread the word turns into an unwitting propagation of inaccurate information.

Facebook’s popular function of ‘sharing’ has resulted in the platform being berated for allowing fake news to spread. The frequency with which such bogus headlines infiltrate social media and the internet is alarming, as over half of the population claim to regularly see fake news on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. However, in a response to concerns that this would be the case with Snapchat’s new discovery feature, the platform’s CEO commented that social media fuelled ‘fake news’ because content designed to be shared by friends is not necessarily content designed to deliver accurate information. As snapchat is targeted to each individual, with no intention of being shared with others, the platform successfully hosts news and entertainment on a social media site.


This attitude is encouraging for the foreseeable future in the adoption of information distribution by applications. Rather than fighting the future of consumer habits, those brands that simply adapt their established techniques to stay relevant are the ones that will survive and define contemporary cultures of reading.

This post was written in collaboration with Emma Fleming, Publishing with English student at Loughborough University.