Millennials, Gen Zs: Give us credible content on digital media 

January 1, 1983, is considered the official birthday of the Internet.

The generations that have come after such as Millennials (born between the 1980s and late 1990s) and Generation Zs, well-known as Gen Zs (born between 1997 and 2012) have fitted into the Internet world to explore, wow, and grow.

A new report by Aga Khan University’s School of Media in East Africa shows half of the youth spend at least nine hours daily online. Titled Media Consumption in an Evolving Digital World: Millennials and Digital Natives’ Consumption Habits and Implications for Legacy Media in East Africa shows that most youth consume news online.

According to the study, 45 percent of the respondents get news and entertainment from social media followed by TV (32 percent), radio (14 percent), newspapers (3 percent) and personal blogs at one percent. But this content should be credible and trustworthy. 

“Social media platforms are preferred because they allow millennials and Gen Zs to consume content while at the same time contributing,” the study says. 

However, they are only using the digital platforms for alerts that they end up confirming on legacy media that “a majority” say are “credible, reliable, and trustworthy and balanced”. This means that while clickbaits may work, they don’t produce loyal readers one the millennials and Gen Zs realise that they are short on credibility.

“Only social media sites with a tradition for posting credible information are trusted not to warrant verification on legacy platforms,” it says. 

Whereas 52 percent of the youth pay for content online, the top three mentions by the respondents indicate that 61 percent would want the media to cover more content on making money, financial independence, and savings in that order of priority.

The report indicates that 21 percent of the youth want information impacting them with new experience while 14 percent want content on stability in education.

They are more inclined to jobs, making money, entrepreneurship, and education. These, they have revealed in the survey, should be interesting, attractive, available and readable, relevant, affordable, brief and straight to the point, and progressive.

Studies have shown that young people can pay for content in four key instances, including brand closeness, unique content on careers, personal interest, and specialist knowledge that they cannot get anywhere else

Factors that influence the choice of media include clickbait, peers, well-known journalists, sources, and online influencers.

“However, the consideration of the journalist who has written the stories and the reputation of the media house/company airing the story speak to news media organizations’ brand reputations and credibility as a key factor in the choice of content millennials and Gen Zs consume.”

Tuko leads in the order of media sites they prefer at 25 percent followed by Youtube at 21 percent. They are way ahead of the rest that follow, including Standard Digital at six percent; Opera News (6), Nation Digital (4), Mpasho (4),  Citizen Digital (4), Gmail App (2), Ajira (2) and Quora (2). 

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