MYTH FOUR: Young adults don't read newspapers.
Patrick O'Boyle is a graduate student in the University of Southern California's Strategic Public Relations program at the Annenberg School for Communication.
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If media researchers are to be believed, 30-somethings like me are far more interested in television, blogs and YouTube than in dirtying our key-tapping fingertips with a newspaper. But to those who subscribe to this oft-repeated media myth, I offer this advice: Don't believe everything you hear — or read.
The Ketchum/USC survey indicates that at least half of us 18 to 34 rely on newspapers for information, hardly an inconsequential figure. Newspapers are great. I subscribe to The Wall Street Journal for the excellent coverage and because I get a kick out of those expressive, hand-drawn renderings of politicians, business leaders and other personalities. I read The New York Times for its eclectic variety and all-around approachability; nearly every page has something to interest me. For long, in-depth articles with a California angle, I turn to my local Los Angeles Times. And whenever I visit another city or country, I always pick up a local paper to get a feel for the place.
In today's world of media conglomerates and political spin, though, it's necessary to diversify one's news sources. I surf news Web sites for the up-to-the minute reports that news junkies like me crave. Radio offers a fascinating world of international news and political commentary. And television provides the moving images that other media cannot. But what these media do not give us are the little things that make newspapers so appealing: easy portability, texture, the smell of printer's ink, crossword puzzles. And many from my generation hope that the venerable newspaper never truly becomes the anachronism that some already have decided to label it.
