Young Americans between 18 and 29 years of age have a very different relationship with political news and media consumption than older cohorts. Having grown up immersed in smartphones and social media, navigating digital environments comes naturally to this group—so does consuming content across a wide range of platforms.

Public opinion research shows distinct patterns of news consumption among young Americans: they often rely heavily on social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. While generational differences in media preferences are nothing new, recent research reveals a notable shift with a growing number of young people turning to news influencers on social media, rather than traditional journalists, to stay informed about politics. from. 

The implications of these emerging news consumption behaviors among young voters, however, are not yet fully understood and warrant closer examination. As the first generation to form political beliefs and develop political identities largely in digital and influencer-driven spaces, young voters’ views about democratic institutions and processes may differ in important ways from previous generations. Yet, these dynamics remain critically understudied, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of how political attitudes are shaped today.

Our Project: Tracing the Sources and Patterns of News Consumption Among Young Voters in the U.S.

In an era of fast-changing media habits and the widespread use of digital platforms, it is essential to understand how young voters in the U.S. access, interpret, and react to political news in order to promote civic participation and informed voting. To examine this issue, CES is developing a research initiative that uses a mixed-methods approach to study the full range of information sources—from legacy media to online channels— and how young voters interact with election-related content.

The project has three core objectives: 

1. Identify Key News Sources: Catalog the primary platforms and sources young voters rely on for political information.

2. Assess Information Engagement Patterns: Examine how young voters interact with these sources, including frequency, depth, and type of engagement.

3. Evaluate Influence on Political Opinions and Behaviors: Investigate how news consumption influences young voters’  political views and participation.

This research will be conducted in three phases. In the first phase, participants will respond to a series of questions through video submissions, allowing them to describe in their own words how they consume political information related to elections and voting. By enabling participants to freely share their insights through video, this format provides us unique insight and an in-depth look not just into what young voters are consuming, but also how they frequent and how they interact with it. 

The second phase will leverage the qualitative insights gleaned from the first phase to inform our research design. Drawing from responses provided in the video responses, we plan to design a nationally representative survey to empirically evaluate and test emerging hypotheses and observe broader trends in media consumption habits and political behavior. 

Finally, the third phase will measure the impact of real-time media and advertising campaigns across platforms. By tracking exposure and influence with a cross-platform media measurement design, this study enables us to directly observe how media and advertising campaigns shape young voters’ political engagement and views. 

The use of qualitative and quantitative methods will allow our research team to develop and investigate questions that reflect not only what content young voters are exposed to and engage with, but also how they connect what they are seeing to politics and elections. 

Aliza Lifshitz is a Research Assistant at CES and a part-time MPP student at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She holds a BA from Barnard College in New York. Aliza is also the founder of the Youth Advisory Project, an initiative dedicated to supporting and establishing youth advisory councils within government.