Youth and media

The “Youth and Media” regional project aimed to analyze the situation of young people in media in 11 countries in Southeastern Europe. The project, in addition to Kosovo, has been developed in parallel in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.

 

The project is funded by the Open Society Foundation and is coordinated by Metamorphosis and the “Youth Forum for Education” from Macedonia.

The research part in Kosovo has been conducted by LENS as a partner in this project.

The purpose of the project was to research the presence of young people in the media, their needs and needs for information, usage habits and portraiture that is made to them in the media.

 

During the research that was developed online, more than a thousand complete questionnaires were collected from people of age group 15-30.

Kosovar youth seem to be well equipped with technology. According to their answers, almost all of them have a TV and have a laptop computer, while among the highest percentages in the region (80.3%) is that of people who use smart phones.

 

The percentage of women who have a computer (86.0%) is slightly higher than of males (84.8%).

Whereas having a laptop is more common in highly educated people, those who have monthly income higher than € 1,000, and those living in urban areas.

The use of television also increases with age and level of education but it is slightly higher among males. While looking at the youth’s preferences regarding content provided by the media, it has been noted that in parallel with entertainment programs and movies, news and information programs continue to remain among the most frequent choices.

 

According to preferences, the most attractive programs for young people have resulted to be films, news and information, documentaries, music, technology ë computers, sports, culture, youth programs, nature and environment, etc. (for accurate figures consult the detailed report together with tables).

Almost unanimously, young people have stated that they feel left out in programs and information on the economy and business. The research also took into account the responses of media and media organizations in Kosovo.

 

The results of this regional study were presented at the e-Society conference held in Skopje on 7-9 February 2014. The full report for Kosovo and the comparative one for the countries of the region has been published and can be consulted here (seeyouthmedia.org).