Global youth in the US

Zia Daniell Wigder | February 27, 2008, 01:56 PM

I ran one of my videoconferences this past Monday between young women in Tunisia and New York: the topic this week was the media. There were sophisticated discussions about balanced news coverage and freedom of speech, as well as lighter conversations on reality TV and social networking.

Interestingly, all the Tunisian participants read and listened to US-based news sources on a regular basis (most had a preferred candidate in our presidential elections); equally interesting was that the American participants were also regular consumers of news sources outside of their own country.

It’s tempting to write off these news habits as atypical since our participants are all full-time students of international affairs, yet what’s surprising is that their behavior not that unique. Indeed, among both 18-24 year-olds and 25-34 year-olds in the US, some 21 percent had consulted English-language online news from other countries monthly or more frequently. Seven and eight percent respectively had consumed English-language online entertainment from other parts of the world. Foreign-language content consumption was lower but not insignificant.

Interest beyond US borders is not limited to adults, either. Though not as global as their young adult counterparts, over 12 percent of online teens are now consuming content from outside of the US on a regular basis. US teens may have been maligned recently over their lack of knowledge of literature or history, yet a number are branching out beyond their borders when it comes to their online activities. And unlike the adult globaphiles, these teen globaphiles do not skew male: they’re evenly split between girls and boys.

For a more in-depth look at the evolving global teen marketplace, stay tuned for our upcoming report on this topic.