Keep Up to Date on Youth Media, Technology, and Culture Research

Understanding how tweens and teens are engaging in media and technology as well as how they relate to larger cultural issues is key to developing station strategies, programming, and content. In an ever-shifting landscape, it’s important to keep an eye on emerging research on the lives of youth, how they engage with media, and what they care about.

Check out emerging research from these organizations to keep your finger on the pulse of youth audiences:

• The Pew Research Center. An organization conducting and publishing a wide range of research on teens and youth, including trends on political stances, education and workforce experiences, and media use.
• Common Sense Media. A nonprofit with a dedicated research arm conducting an annual census on tweens and teens as well as reports on issues such as media use and privacy.
• Youth and Media Project. An interdisciplinary initiative of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the project conducts research on youth (ages 12–18), their use of technology, and the ways that digital media is changing their cultural, economic, and civic lives.
• AP-NORC. A collaboration between the AP and the NORC research center at University of Chicago, the initiative has a dedicated series of studies focused on political views and media trends of young Americans.
• National Center for Education Statistics. A clearing-house of data from the Federal Department of Education tracks trends in education, and can be particularly helpful for stations actively working with school districts to help understand local youth demographics and educational attainment outcomes on both the district and school level.