Shrinking Violet: Hot Branded
Every year, NYU's introductory journalism class conducts a survey of the undergraduate student body. This year, the survey was focused on interest in the presidential election and voting in general. Barack Obama, who recently visited campus, did well. But I was less interested in who NYU students might vote for -- after all, the 18-25 demographic is historically the least likely to vote, much less show up to primary caucuses -- and more interested in news brand awareness at the school with the most popular brand name in higher education.
Top Five News Organization Mentions:
Specifically, I was interested in the question "Name the top news or information source to which you turn to learn about the campaign." It's no mystery that one of the reasons companies are throwing money at Facebook is to calcify brand identities amongst youth who will carry those prejudices through life. And while NYU undergrads chose mainstream outlets like the Times and CNN by a broad margin, those were just two of 109 publications mentioned by the 77 percent of respondents who listed one or more brand names. Read more...
(click on graph for complete data)
Looking at the parabola of the graph above, you might recognize the distribution of Chris Anderson's "Long tail." While my other boss, in reiterating a popularly held opinion, pointed out that the greatest beneficiary of the niche content theory has been Mr. Anderson, I have to admit that the survey provides compelling evidence that the Wired editor isn't entirely full of shit. Yes, mainstream "objective" sources dominate, but there is a shift toward broader range of publications with smaller audiences.
Think how this graph would have looked in 1994, when I first showed up at NYU. The major dailies, alt weeklies, a few magazines and the broadcast and cable stations would have been all that anyone on campus knew. Yahoo didn't have a news portal, and Google didn't exist -- and both of those sites direct readers to hundreds of other sites like Gothamist, Truthout, Wonkette, the Huffington Post, Perez Hilton, Wikipedia and Barely Political (which, along with aggregators like YouTube, Digg, Facebook and Reddit were all mentioned as sources by students).
Sitting in class two weeks ago when the results were first presented, dozens of students tittered when it was announced that nearly seven percent of those questioned didn't know what the iPod Touch was. The question implied: "What rock must those troglodytes be living under?" That a third of the students who did recognize the brand would trade one for next year's vote didn't get any laughs. Thankfully.
Troubling was that, for the variety of reading, celebrities still stood strong. Anderson Cooper, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Maher and Oprah Winfrey were all mentioned specifically -- as were relatively dimmer lights Robin Meade and Tyra Banks. Comedy Central, represented by The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report, was the third most popular news source. How did Stewart fare versus Colbert? 95 to 71 in media mentions, but Colbert won thanks to another 42 mentions inspired by a write-in presidential candidacy impeccably timed to coincide with the WGA strike.
So while NYU students prefer Obama-flavored executive privilege, and who's to blame them, the Facebook generation won't mint any candidates this year (though they will provide all sorts of hot foot soldiers), while you can count on the boomers to support Clinton. But these are the same kids who will be producing Hollywood movies, running Florida real-estate scams and managing hedge funds when Jeb runs.
Hence, there's plenty of reasons to stay cynical, yet Obama supporters should feel a bit better about their chances against Bush frères in 2016 or so.
Top Five News Organization Mentions:
- CNN: 33%
- NYT: 28%
- CC: 6%
- Fox: 4%
- BBC: 4%
Specifically, I was interested in the question "Name the top news or information source to which you turn to learn about the campaign." It's no mystery that one of the reasons companies are throwing money at Facebook is to calcify brand identities amongst youth who will carry those prejudices through life. And while NYU undergrads chose mainstream outlets like the Times and CNN by a broad margin, those were just two of 109 publications mentioned by the 77 percent of respondents who listed one or more brand names. Read more...
Looking at the parabola of the graph above, you might recognize the distribution of Chris Anderson's "Long tail." While my other boss, in reiterating a popularly held opinion, pointed out that the greatest beneficiary of the niche content theory has been Mr. Anderson, I have to admit that the survey provides compelling evidence that the Wired editor isn't entirely full of shit. Yes, mainstream "objective" sources dominate, but there is a shift toward broader range of publications with smaller audiences.
Think how this graph would have looked in 1994, when I first showed up at NYU. The major dailies, alt weeklies, a few magazines and the broadcast and cable stations would have been all that anyone on campus knew. Yahoo didn't have a news portal, and Google didn't exist -- and both of those sites direct readers to hundreds of other sites like Gothamist, Truthout, Wonkette, the Huffington Post, Perez Hilton, Wikipedia and Barely Political (which, along with aggregators like YouTube, Digg, Facebook and Reddit were all mentioned as sources by students).
Sitting in class two weeks ago when the results were first presented, dozens of students tittered when it was announced that nearly seven percent of those questioned didn't know what the iPod Touch was. The question implied: "What rock must those troglodytes be living under?" That a third of the students who did recognize the brand would trade one for next year's vote didn't get any laughs. Thankfully.
Troubling was that, for the variety of reading, celebrities still stood strong. Anderson Cooper, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Maher and Oprah Winfrey were all mentioned specifically -- as were relatively dimmer lights Robin Meade and Tyra Banks. Comedy Central, represented by The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report, was the third most popular news source. How did Stewart fare versus Colbert? 95 to 71 in media mentions, but Colbert won thanks to another 42 mentions inspired by a write-in presidential candidacy impeccably timed to coincide with the WGA strike.
So while NYU students prefer Obama-flavored executive privilege, and who's to blame them, the Facebook generation won't mint any candidates this year (though they will provide all sorts of hot foot soldiers), while you can count on the boomers to support Clinton. But these are the same kids who will be producing Hollywood movies, running Florida real-estate scams and managing hedge funds when Jeb runs.
Hence, there's plenty of reasons to stay cynical, yet Obama supporters should feel a bit better about their chances against Bush frères in 2016 or so.
