How News Outlets Should Maximize Youth Post-Election Civic Engagement

The following post excerpt is from my weekly column on millennial journalists in Editor & Publisher:

Champions of civic engagement are particularly anxious this October, as the presidential election peaks and the anticipated boost in participation by otherwise aloof millennials will prove to be fact or fiction. Beyond the obvious implications of voter turnout, we're all wondering: Will the enthusiasm we saw in campaign '08 translate to a lasting investment in social consciousness, including engagement with the news?

I addressed this question Friday at Northwestern University, which announced the creation of its Center for Civic Engagement at a series of panel discussions on the role of new media and participation this election season. The Washington Post's Peter Slevin kicked off the conversation by handicapping the MSM-netroots divide from editorial and business perspectives. RealClearPolitics' Tom Bevans addressed the emergence and influence of niche blogs, which was further explored by HuffPost's Chicago bureau editor, Ben Goldberger. Vivian Vahlberg of NU's Media Management Center also contributed the results of their survey on millennial engagement, which I recently wrote about in a previous column.

We discussed many important topics, including whether consumers are overwhelmed by limitless choices and the blurring line between context, analysis and opinion, as well as the opportunity for print organizations to own from the outset deeper content that is traditionally thought of as second or third-story material. The most compelling imperative from my perspective, however, is the need to maximize the growing role of opinion leaders in the youth market.

Given the inevitable fragmentation of the MSM market and the inundation of "breaking news" in our daily lives, the need for a reliable filter has never been more prevalent. In most social networks - online and offline - there is typically a handful of influencers who lead their peers in suggesting valuable news bits and facilitating activism. For better or worse, these individuals have become our default editors, aggregators and points of distribution.

Read whole post on Editor & Publisher here.