American teenagers are interested in key news stories

75% of teenagers watch TV news at least once per weekIn an effort to better understand which news stories resonate with today’s teenagers, StageofLife.com, a blogging community focused on literary and free educational resources, gave a survey to students across the country. The results show that 84% of teenagers pay attention to the news and 42% still read the newspaper.

StageofLife.com surveyed 389 of its site visitors from April 1 to 30, 2013. Based on a Researchscape assessment of the questionnaire and methodology, this survey is only slightly likely to be representative of U.S. consumers in general: the results should be considered qualitative or directional in nature.

Teenagers are stereotyped for spending a lot of time on the TV, but some of that might be constructive: 36% of respondents watch TV news at least once per day.

• 51% of respondents follow the news by watching network TV
• 48% watch the news on cable TV
• 47% get knowledge about current events from friends
• 43% use news websites

North Korea, Gay Marriage, and Gun Control Legislation were the top 3 news story topics that most interested respondents. Surprisingly, Obamacare and China’s battle against pollution interested teenagers more than the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

For more information on this survey, refer to Gay Marriage, Gun Control, and North Korea Top List as Most Important News Stories to Teenagers According to StageofLife.com National Student Poll.

Author Notes:

Jeffrey Henning

Jeffrey Henning, IPC is a professionally certified researcher and has personally conducted over 1,400 survey research projects. Jeffrey is a member of the Insights Association and the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers. In 2012, he was the inaugural winner of the MRA’s Impact award, which “recognizes an industry professional, team or organization that has demonstrated tremendous vision, leadership, and innovation, within the past year, that has led to advances in the marketing research profession.” In 2022, the Insights Association named him an IPC Laureate. Before founding Researchscape in 2012, Jeffrey co-founded Perseus Development Corporation in 1993, which introduced the first web-survey software, and Vovici in 2006, which pioneered the enterprise-feedback management category. A 35-year veteran of the research industry, he began his career as an industry analyst for an Inc. 500 research firm.