Lo que ya enseña internet a los medios

Los principales ejecutivos de los mayores diarios del mundo están reunidos en Goteborg a raíz de la 2008 Wan Congress. Los medios que asistieron a Suecia, viajaron no sólo con la intención de sacar conclusiones sobre lo que le espera al papel (anticipar el final aún es aventurado), sino también tratando de saber qué hacer con las audiencias jóvenes. Esas que hoy consumen contenidos diferentes (para la lógica periodística tradicional) en plataformas flexibles, dinámicas y, en algún sentido, fuera de los parámetros establecidos para definir el conocimiento. De hecho, un estudio de la University of Southern of California, afirma que el 80% de los jóvenes mayores de 17 años usa internet como fuente de conocimiento, mientras un 63% de los padres cree que el uso intensivo de la web es dañino. No sólo eso, un 54% de los 2.000 jóvenes entrevistados participa en comunidades online y tan relevantes son para ellos, que el 40% utiliza al menos una vez al mes internet para mantenerse informado sobre su organización, que en muchas casos corresponden a entidades vinculadas a causas sociales. Mientras los medios no entiendan que las audiencias jóvenes no son personas ajenas al conocimiento ni a la información (un 60% dice usar la red para buscar noticias) sino que lo consumen de otro modo y lejos de la ortodoxia de la industria y la profesión, es muy complejo que logren generar el sentido de comunidad necesario para atraerlos. El siguiente es un resumen del estudio.

Estudio Center por Digital Future
Are Americans becoming more concerned about the role the Internet plays in children’s lives?
The 2008 Digital Future Project has identified several sobering trends in views about going online -- in particular in adults’ opinions about Internet use by children.

"In general, opinions about the Internet remain overwhelmingly positive," said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. "But after seven years of tracking the impact of the Internet, we are also seeing evolving trends which show that adults view some aspects of going online by children to be as troubling as their use of other media -- or even potentially dangerous."
The 2008 Digital Future Project found that:

* The percentage of adults who said that the children in their households spend too much time using the Internet reached 25 percent of respondents -- an increase for the third year in a row and the highest percentage yet reported in the seven years of Digital Future Project studies.

* A small percentage of adults (13 percent) said that the children in their households spend less time with friends, but that percentage increased for the third year in a row -- another new high for the Digital Future Project

* The number of adults who said that the grades of the children in their household has declined since the household started to use the Internet has grown for the second year in a row.

* In a new question for the 2008 study, more than half of adults (53 percent) said that online predators are a threat to the children in their households. Only 24 percent of adults with children in their household disagreed with that statement.

* In another new question, almost two-thirds of adults (63 percent) are uncomfortable with the children in their households participating in online communities. Only 15 percent of adults are comfortable with children participating in online communities.