Are millennials and Gen-Z using memes as their primary news source?

Welcome to an era where news is no longer a drama-filled news hour of pointless debates and shouting anchors. Instead, it’s funny, edgy, ironic, satirical, and sometimes downright tragic. The best part? It’s quick and often humorous, all thanks to memes. Behind the news studios and reams of newsprints, news is slowly changing in ways that few of us could have anticipated a decade ago. It has moved from any kind of recognisable format to the quirky and wacky world of memes. For the millennials and generation Z, memes are slowly emerging as the primary news source.

It’s a drastic change in formats, different from anything that has come before. What began as eloquent and long passages on newsprint shifted slowly to the hectic pace of TV. Arguments on paper were replaced by impassioned debates on primetime. Then came the shift online where news was often just a click away. Anything you wanted to know was accessible at any time of the day. But since change is the only constant in life, are we now witnessing another turn in the saga? Is it the era of News 4.0 where memes rule the roost?

The numbers sure seem to say so. A growing trend is now emerging of people accessing their news through social media platforms where memes are very often the favourite means of sharing. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic seems to have hastened this trend. A study by the international news agency Reuters on news consumption during the pandemic in six countries, found that most people accessed news through social media and internet searches. Interestingly, the pattern held true even if social media was seen less reliable than news outlets in news coverage. The lion’s share was taken by Instagram, followed by Snapchat, and TikTok. These are platforms where memes are often the preferred way to share messages.

There are no comparable studies in India, but anecdotal evidence and the domination of social media in the country would suggest that this could be truer here than any other place. A number of news stories suggest that memes have emerged as the favoured way for communication in the 18-24 demographic and grows stronger as we go down the age totem pole. Another indication is the increasing number of users in meme creation apps. The third indirect indication comes from the penetration of social media in India. Not only are more and more Indians using social media, they are also spending more time at it. A survey by the smartphone brand Vivo, in association with Cybermedia Research, found that the average Indian spends one-third of their waking hours on their phones with millennials spending an average of five hours in a day on their phones. Of this, 50% of the time is spent on social media. 

In other words, we are already in the next phase of news delivery. It’s not newspapers, TV or online news. Now it’s all about memes. And what a platform it is! As a medium, memes are distinctly different from any other outlet we have seen before. The biggest distinction being that there is virtually no news organisation behind it. While there are other ways people share news on social media, the content is almost always a news headline or a snippet, which originated from a legitimate news outlet. Another distinct feature is its top-down approach. This is not news which trickles from the top. Instead, it is bottoms-up where the news meme originates from the creator, spreads to his/her network and then gets noticed by the authorities.

Memes fit the format that is most popular with the young demographic. The message is short, not more than 60 words and framed in a witty manner, which makes it more interesting. People are swapping memes on every current event under the sun, from the recent Bihar elections to IPL, coronavirus, and shows on OTT platforms. Purists would insist that this is rarely news. Memes typically hit the web hours after the initial event has taken place, which means that it does not meet the strict criteria of coverage as it happens. But to many people who are not as keen to gobble news as it occurs, memes are the first mode of information about the events of the day. Hence, it is news in the most fundamental way, as the first source of information on current events.

There are, of course, some drawbacks of memes as a news source. There is a higher potential for misinformation as there is an absence of journalistic ethics involved. People can bring their prejudices and misconceptions to factual reports. But these are still days of infancy for news memes. With their rising popularity, it is only a matter of time till news outlets take up the charge. This will help regularise the content and bring more reliability.

So get ready for this new phase of news, one that is driven by people. This is content which is generated by the people, of the people, and for the people! Democracy has never had it so good.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of www.buzzincontent.com and we do not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)