Link between Newspaper Use during Youth and Civic Engagement in Later Life

Young people who used newspapers in school and read newspaper content aimed at teens are more likely - when they become adults - to volunteer, vote and otherwise engage in civic expression, according to a study by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Foundation, reports MarketingCharts.

The greater the number of newspaper influences in a young person’s life, the greater the likelihood of future civic expression, voting activity and volunteer work, according to the study, “Lifelong Readers: Driving Civic Engagement,” NAA Foundation said.

The study focused on three main areas: voting activity, civic expression and volunteering time and money.

Respondents who remembered having three newspaper influences when they were younger - newspapers in the classroom, as homework assignments and exposure to teen content - were significantly more likely to engage in voting activity than those who had no exposure to newspapers.

Of the 25- 34-year-olds who said they used newspapers growing up:

• 61 percent voted in the 2006 local election, compared with 44 percent who voted but said they had had no exposure to newspapers during youth.
• 27 percent were engaged in the 2006 local election, saying they tried to convince others to vote for or against a particular political party, wore a campaign button, or placed a sign during the 2006 election (vs. 19 percent of those with no newspaper exposure).
• 24 percent said they donated money to a candidate or an organization supporting a candidate (compared with 13 percent of those who donated but had no newspaper influence).
• 72 percent voted in the 2004 presidential election (compared with 58 percent who voted but had no newspaper influence).

MarketingCharts provides additional findings about newspapers’ influence on Civic Expression and Volunteering Time and Money.