Media Consumption in an Evolving Digital World: Millennials and Digital Natives' Consumption Habits and Implications for Legacy Media in East Africa

"The biggest puzzle for media executives today is the bulging youth population that is characterised by unique and fluid consumption and lifestyle characteristics."

This report shares the findings of a study commissioned by the Media Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University's Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC) that seeks to explore the media consumption habits of millennials and Generation Zs (Gen Z) in East Africa. The purpose of the study is to assist legacy media houses to better meet the needs of these audiences in an effort to remain viable in the context of developing economies and the dominance of digital media. The report presents findings from Kenya on the needs and aspirations of millennials and Gen Zs (also known as digital natives), the content they consume, their media consumption habits, the platforms they prefer, content payment behaviours, and their perception of legacy media.

As explained in the report, "the last 10 to 15 years have seen the emergence of a generation whose [media consumption] behaviour is not only unique, but also more attuned to the nuances of the evolving digital world, a situation that presents new dynamics. Studies have shown that young media consumers, especially the Gen Zs and the digital migrants (millennials), are ardent consumers of the media that gratifies their needs for progress and enjoyment, and that digital natives tend to be more experienced with interactive content with a stronger positive effect of perceived interactivity. The perceived interactivity by these digital natives is good news for the advertising industry as it consequently leads to positive attitudes and adoption behaviours among the digital natives." As these studies on interactivity and the two themes of progress and enjoyment have only focused on developed markets, this study was conducted to look at this issue in the context of the developing world, where media organisations are facing unique challenges in their efforts to remain viable.

In particular, the objective of the study is to determine how legacy media organisations can attract the young generation that has grown up with choices, different formats, platforms, and the distractions and diversions of digital media. The study provides data broken down into five themes:

1. Identity of millennials and Gen Zs in East Africa - looks at the status, identity, values, education and career aspirations, social networks, recreation, and hobbies/passions of millennials and digital natives.
2. Nature of content millennials and Gen Zs consume - includes preferred format and characteristics of content, motivation for content choices, and behaviour around paying for content.
3. Media habits and behaviour of millennials and Gen Zs - looks at which channels are most used.
4. Platforms relied on to consume media content - looks at what specific social media, newspapers, television, and radio channels or brands are used for different kinds of media content, the elements that attracted people to this brand, and how different media channels could attract more audiences. It also explores what the most trusted media platforms are.
5. Perception of legacy media - explores how the youth perceive legacy media by sharing the results of a survey that interrogated whether news content on different legacy media was considered relevant, trustworthy, balanced, appropriate, and suitable.

The study adopted three approaches: (1) quantitative methods - specifically, a survey questionnaire with the Gen Zs (18-24) and millennials (25-35) comprising a representative sample of 1,200; (2) qualitative methods that involved focus group discussions (FGD) with youth; and (3) digital tracking of the respondents to establish consumption patterns and content consumed.

The following are some of the findings from the study in Kenya:

• Millennials are ambitious and serious about wealth creation and see the media as not doing enough in terms of providing content that addresses this. In terms of needs, the youth require information that addresses their need for making money, saving money, becoming financially independent, and satisfying the needs of family/friends.
• The top three motivations to consume news are to gain awareness of current issues/affairs, to be knowledgeable, and to attain their personal goals in life.
• The key characteristics that rank highly in their consideration of the content to consume are attractiveness of content, availability and reliability, relevance, affordability, and how interesting the content is.
• Close to half (48%) of all the surveyed millennials and Gen Zs have paid for content; a third of those who reported paying for content have paid for political and current affairs content, and slightly more than a third indicated they have paid for entertainment-related content.
• The key factors that millennials and Gen Zs consider when subscribing or paying to receive/access news media content include how interesting the content is, affordability, relevance, attractiveness, and availability/reliability.
• TV tops social media as the most relied-on platform, and the top four elements that attract millennials and Gen Zs to the choice of TV news brands they consume are credibility and reliability, how educational and entertaining the content is, updates on current affairs, and the competence and professionalism of journalists.
• For radio to attract more youth to its content, stations should work on having more educational and empowering content, make content more entertaining, and work on content that is big on current affairs.
• In addition, newspapers need to work harder to attract advertising about job opportunities, something radio and television cannot offer effectively, if newspapers want to attract young audiences.
• TV is the most trusted media, but most millennials and Gen Zs consume news and media content on mobile phones, which calls for strategies to target millennials and Gen Zs with content that is native to mobile phone consumption.
• Mainstream/legacy media platforms like TV, radio, and newspapers, as well as digital and social media platforms, seem to complement each other as sources of news and media content. Social media is often the first point of contact, where news alerts, notifications, and pop-ups will lead audiences to legacy media platforms for more information and context. Such consumption habits point to the need for legacy media houses to consider producing news and media content in formats that reflect young people's preferred spaces and platforms for news consumption.

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