David Mindich speaks on youth and the news
Tim Manni
Issue date: 3/22/05 Section: News
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Last Tuesday night professor and author David T.Z. Mindich spoke at Philips Autograph Library about his book "Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don?t Follow the News."
Mindich is the chair of the journalism and mass communication department at Saint Michael ?s College in Vermont and is a former assignment editor at CNN. He believes young people are turning their backs on the mainstream news. "America is seeing the greatest decline in informed citizenship in its history," he said.
Mindich insists he?s "not knocking people under 40," and said he turned 40 only a few years ago himself. He said, however, that young Americans are knowing, caring and voting less.
Mindich blames the many young Americans who are not involved with news and politics for giving the power of choice to the few who are paying attention.
The grim result, Mindich said, will either be a country led by uninformed leaders or a country in which we allow others to make decisions for us. "We the people are the ultimate check on power," he said.
Over the past forty years there has been a steady decline of news consumption, whether watching or reading. Younger Americans are not picking up the habit in their twenties, the time when The New Yorker Magazine said most lifelong habits are formed.
Mindich argues that young people are no less articulate and intelligent than they were 40 to 60 years ago, when young people were "nearly" as informed as their elders. Today, network news is not appealing to the younger generations.
Peter Jenning?s broadcasts are intermediately filledwith Fixodent and Nexium commercials. "Watch the commercials," said Mindich, "it?s almost like opening the medicine cabinet of an elderly couple."
Recently Mindich canvassed the country interviewing everyone from mid-western farmers to southern middle schoolers. His discoveries revealed 96 percent knew who Alicia Keys was, yet, a bleak seven percent knew the three countries President Bush labels as the "Axis of Evil," something that has defined Bush?s foreign policy for the past four years.
Mindich is the chair of the journalism and mass communication department at Saint Michael ?s College in Vermont and is a former assignment editor at CNN. He believes young people are turning their backs on the mainstream news. "America is seeing the greatest decline in informed citizenship in its history," he said.
Mindich insists he?s "not knocking people under 40," and said he turned 40 only a few years ago himself. He said, however, that young Americans are knowing, caring and voting less.
Mindich blames the many young Americans who are not involved with news and politics for giving the power of choice to the few who are paying attention.
The grim result, Mindich said, will either be a country led by uninformed leaders or a country in which we allow others to make decisions for us. "We the people are the ultimate check on power," he said.
Over the past forty years there has been a steady decline of news consumption, whether watching or reading. Younger Americans are not picking up the habit in their twenties, the time when The New Yorker Magazine said most lifelong habits are formed.
Mindich argues that young people are no less articulate and intelligent than they were 40 to 60 years ago, when young people were "nearly" as informed as their elders. Today, network news is not appealing to the younger generations.
Peter Jenning?s broadcasts are intermediately filledwith Fixodent and Nexium commercials. "Watch the commercials," said Mindich, "it?s almost like opening the medicine cabinet of an elderly couple."
Recently Mindich canvassed the country interviewing everyone from mid-western farmers to southern middle schoolers. His discoveries revealed 96 percent knew who Alicia Keys was, yet, a bleak seven percent knew the three countries President Bush labels as the "Axis of Evil," something that has defined Bush?s foreign policy for the past four years.