The average millennial gets 74 percent of their news from online sources, according to a study done by the Media Insight Project, a joint research initiative between the American Press Institute and the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. 

Only 4 in 10 millennials say it is important or very important to keep up with the news.

Justin Armburger, a part-time journalism professor at Kent State and art director at GIE Media, Inc., attributes the lack of print media usage in students to accessibility.

“You know it’s always there at your fingertips,” Armburger said. “You don’t have to really go out to a physical brick and mortar store to purchase a news publication. You know you have everything at your fingertips where you can literally learn about almost anything that you want too.”

Erin Kolke, a senior integrated mathematics major who relies mostly on social media.

“It’s not that I don’t care about the newspapers and print media; it’s just I don’t care enough to go and find a newspaper when I can just Google about it,” Kolke said. “Especially if it’s breaking news, people will be talking about it all over social media.”

Ariana Mantas, a sophomore marketing major, prefers online news to paper because of the number of different sources in one place.

“I don’t have to flip channels and wait for the news I’m looking for. I can search it and see all of the news channels that posted it,” Mantas said. “Even on Twitter, you can see people’s different perspectives and thoughts on news.” 

Armburger believes the world of online news keeps journalists on their feet, but also has problems. Breaking news is rushed out onto social media to be the first source to report it. Fact checking and verification is very important in the digital age, he said. 

As a student Kolke also finds herself falling victim to fake news online. She said that while it is important to stay up to date on the news, it has to be the correct news. 

Kolke said if she were to cross paths with print media every day, she would be more likely to pick it up, but she does not go out of her way to find it.

Despite the ease of online news, arm burger stressed the importance of print news. 

“I would hope, however, that students … or anyone younger would keep looking at print publications because there’s so much more, you know in terms of depth and nuance of actual stories that they can get from picking up a print source,” Armburger said.

Taryn Antolic is the student life reporter. Contact her at [email protected].