Generation 2030 avoided the news the most frequently and was less interested in the news compared to all the other ages. The caution is required because of the concerns that this issue could worsen the inclination of Generation 2030.

The "Digital News Report 2022 Korea" (report), which "Korea Press Foundation" announced on October 31st, shows that the news avoidance of Generation 2030 was the highest. "News avoidance" means avoiding the news on purpose, and the trend is expanding in the modern media environment where news options are given to consumers. The percentage of news avoidance "frequently" was 9% among the twenties, 6% among then thirties, 5% among then forties, 4% among then fifties, and more than 5% among then sixties. Generation 2030 avoided the news more frequently and positively.

This phenomenon is likely due to the fatigue and helplessness caused by the media distrust or excessive information, mainly due to the political bias of the news media. When we asked respondents, who had responded that they had experiences avoiding the news, about the reasons why they avoid them, 42% chose that "The news is not trustworthy and politically bias”. 39% chose "They deal with certain topics, such as politics and ・COVID-19," and 28% chose "The news gives negative effects to my mood." Pusan National University (PNU) student Gang Sin-Young (Dept. of Molecular Biology, 20) said, "I watch the news with caution. They convey content from a biased perspective, even if it is based on facts, and report the wrong contents like a truth."

Generation 2030's news avoidance is related to the increasing news indifference. The proportion of news-indifferent people, which has steadily increased, was 13%, and especially the percentage of respondents under 35 years of age was 21%. It was more than twice as high. An anonymous PNU student A (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 19) said, "Because of COVID-19, there are so many duplicated articles related to COVID-19, and many media report this with different information. I became distrustful of the media. Now I don't see the news because there are a lot of articles which are not related to me, in my opinion."

The twenties percentage of the respondents that said that their main route to digital news is "social media," was also the highest. According to a report, it was found that Korean users watch the news through "search engines such as portals and news collecting services," while those who are in their twenties were lower than other ages. However, the percentage of twenties watching news through "social media" was the highest. Park Ga-Yeong (Dept. of Media & Communication, 21) said, "It is convenient to see articles from various media outlets through portals or social media, and it is good to see the current trends for communication with people. I usually use portals or social media because they show the articles that readers like through the algorithm."

Experts worry that Generation 2030's high avoidance and indifference to news and watching the news through social media can increase the bias of Generation 2030. An Soo-Chan (Semyung Graduate School of Journalism, Prof.), who had to write up a commentary on a report, said, "Much of the information distributed on social media is made for propaganda, publicity, and advertising purposes, so there is a lot of distorted and exaggerated information. If this phenomenon continues, individuals may create reality in a distorted way and lead to biased choices, and society may not circulate."

Prof. An said that Generation 2030 needs "a little bit of attention and effort" to get information on the basic facts and life. He also said, "We need a little attention to avoid politically biased media, and we can find non-political-biased media with a little effort. It is important to find 2~3 non-political-biased media and see them often."

Generation 2030 also mentioned the change in the Korean media. Media must also develop ways to breathe and restore trust with the 2030 generation. Kim Seong-Gu (Dept. of Civil Engineering) said, "I think it would be good if the articles with similar contents or stimulated titles are reduced, and see more articles based on various agendas. I think young people will be more interested if reporters report high-quality articles based on deeper coverage." Ms. Park also said, "I hope there will be more readers-experiential news content and interactive articles, which are digitally organized with not only news articles but also a lot of coverage data, and develop it as an article in the form of storytelling.”

Reporter Sim Se-Hee

Translated by Choi Ye-Won