Gen Z’s social media use and global communication

Abstract

Generation Z (Gen Z), also named digital natives, is the first to have been born after the mass-adoption of the Internet, especially the social media. Through all kinds of international digital platforms, Gen Z has more access to a vast number of diverse information than previous generations. Interconnected onworldmedia platforms, Gen Z has become a generation doing Internet-based communication from a young age. Exposed to global communication platforms, especially global social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok etc., how Gen Z’s perceptions and attitudes are shaped by online content from all over the world is important to study. However, either studies about Gen Z’s online media use and their perceptions of another country or comparative studies across countries are scarce. Furthermore, studies focus on Gen Z’s media use in a global context, especially news consumption, is of vital importance to the understanding of the world. Our journal, OMGC, made some efforts this year to fill this gap. We organized a preconference at the 2023 Annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Toronto, Canada. In his keynote speech of our preconference titled, “Zoomers, Millennials, Gen X and Boomers? The News Finds Me Perception as aMedia Effect Equalizer and Implications on Global Communication,”Homero Gil de Zuniga proposed a model of media use of young people. He argued that in a social media age, Generation Z, instead of searching for news, rely on “news finds me”. In addition, two panels, “Media Use and Gen Z’s World View” and “Children and News: Lessons Learnt and Future Directions” as well as 14 papers with topics such as the effects of social media use and international news on Gen Z’s world view, politics and Gen Z’s media use, artificial intelligence and Gen Z, digital activism and Gen Z, and cross-generational comparisons were presented at the preconference. See our full preconference program at https://omgc.shisu.edu.cn/8e/63/c12420a167523/page.htm.