Credit: James Clapham for Business Insider
Kelsey Russell, a 23-year-old TikToker in New York, is on a mission to pull off what media executives have struggled to do for decades: Persuade young people to buy newspapers.
The grad student posts several videos a week in which she flips through print pages of The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other legacy publishers to summarize stories. The broadsheets, blanketed with Russell’s notes and highlights, are something of a nostalgic prop for her roughly 88,000 followers, some of whom may have watched their parents flip through physical papers but never touched one themselves.
Before finding a news niche, Russell spent years building a TikTok following by posting restaurant reviews and travel vlogs. Today she often blends her peppy commentary on news she thinks young people care about — such as healthcare and climate — with lifestyle content. In a November post, for example, she began by […]
The lack of journalistic standards and editorial control has been a long complaint of legacy media. There is some legitimacy to this complaint. The lack of editorial gatekeepers is both a strength and a liability. The forces of manipulation have discovered the power of this, and so distort coverage for political advantage. It will take awhile for consumers to value appropriate editorial involvement again. It will be up to the news sources to demonstrate fidelity to the facts and the public interest. Both these values have been sorely lacking in mainstream media, hence “Weapons of mass destruction” lies among others. I obtain most of my news from sources I individually subscribe to. I still subscribe to legacy newspapers; however, but one must line the birdcage with something.
Not only is this younger generation ignorant about factual news, it knows so little about history! They can’t even name the three branches of government and probably have no idea who some of the top political people are. Well, that’s what happens when schools stop teaching civics!
Terri Quint