NEWS AND THE ‘ON-DEMAND’ GENERATION -Spanish University Undergraduates: Consumption of and Engagement with News Content

Abstract: Trustworthy and accessible news content is fundamental to democracy and demanded by groups within social spaces of varying structures. News outlets have always, and continue to be in a state of development, adapting to social changes and accommodating the advances new technologies afford the structure of the industry of news.The aim of this thesis is to research the news consumption habits of Spanish undergraduate students at a time when the print newspaper industry, for many years the key disseminator of news relied upon by the general public, is in a state of financial crisis and its future, in its current form, is in jeopardy.Using a quantitative survey of 144 students and supported by a linked theoretical framework of News Consumption, Social Space and Uses & Gratifications, the study illustrates a generation of news consumers with a healthy appetite for news, whose cultural, economic and social capital are manifested via the diverse portfolio of news media they elect to consume from. Adopting a gratifications approach reveals that the efficiency and comfort mobile devices provide users for news consumption is one of the determining factors when deciding upon which forms of news disseminators respondents wish to engage with; user agency takes precedence over the notions of trust felt for the integrity of journalistic publications.The study provides a unique insight into the news consumption habits of Spanish undergraduate students enrolled in private university education, which although not representative of the wider population, is a study of an increasingly significant social group in Spain, their news consumption choices and the relation to the social space they inhabit.