Gen Z and Public Media: One Zoomer's Take

I want to start by making something clear: this is not some out-of-touch op-ed accusing the kids of eating too many avocados. I’m not just writing about Gen Z; I am Gen Z. I was born in 1998, which makes me part of the growing cohort of elder Zoomers who are coming of age and joining the workforce. We can increasingly be found everywhere – tech, finance, healthcare, and even public media.

But you wouldn’t guess that from membership data. A CDP case study of our Member Services Bureau shows that just 1% of donors are 20-29 years old. Even if we include millennials, only 5% are 30-39. Put simply, our donors do not include young people.

This is odd, though, because the data show Gen Z and public media make a perfect match. Gen Z represents a diverse group with an eagerness to embrace new ideas and possibilities—something public media could help provide. So, what gives? As a Zoomer in public media, I’m going to give my best idea for how to get more Gen Zs viewing and giving. To do that, I’ll challenge two myths about Gen Z, and describe two realities I see in their place.

Myth: We’re Not Interested in the Content

We’re often caricatured as TikToking time bombs of digital anxiety, who can’t sit still long enough to watch TV. And the data agrees with that—eMarketer finds we’re constantly on social media and that we watch the least TV of any age group. Maybe we simply can’t sit through a full episode of “NOVA.” But a closer look shows this doesn’t fit. Pew has shown that the most popular social media among Gen Z—by 28 points—is YouTube, showing our love for video. My generation adores podcasts, and we pioneered the three-hour video essay. We have the attention span to love public media.

Reality: Bring the Content to Us and We Will Watch

Gen Z doesn’t just use social media to find new content, they use it to watch new content. Because of this, smaller, more authentic content delivered digitally is the best way to reach us. This is emphasized in interviews with Gen Zs done by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Youth there noted that we should treat social media as a distribution method instead of just a marketing tool. This could be an opportunity to leverage existing content in a new platform, a model that's seen success at PBS Digital Studios on YouTube where 82% of viewers are under 45. Bring it to us and we will watch.

Myth: We’re Just Too Cheap to Support Public Media

Okay, so if it’s not our attention spans, is Gen Z just cheap? Are we ad-blocking, content-pirating digital hooligans, viewing what we want without regard for supporting creators? I don’t think so. The American Press Institute shows that 51% of Gen Zs age 16-24 pay for or donate to media. Additionally, Gen Z is well-versed in emerging methods of supporting their favorite content—Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon show us donating billions of dollars. We’re willing to pay for the content we like.

Reality: Acquiring Youth Donors Requires New Approaches

CDP data is showing that different acquisition strategies appeal to different age groups. Take, for example, canvassing, where we find the average donor is DECADES younger than the average for public media. Canvassing yields almost three times as many donors in the 20-39 age range. New acquisition methods like this show promise for reaching a younger demographic, and I’m hopeful we can find more. On the digital front, for one, there’s reason to believe that smaller posts that follow trends and emphasize peer-to-peer shareability will succeed among Gen Z. We need to recognize that youth donors are supporting the media they love. The roadblock for adding them to our files will simply require new strategies.

I love what public media has to offer: local education, entertainment, and journalism funded by the people. But I would never know that if I didn’t work in this field because the channels for acquiring youth donors and distributing content to them are severely under-explored.

Once upon a time, it was thought that young children would never be a prime audience for public broadcasting, but that was proved resoundingly incorrect by innovation among public broadcasters, to the point that public broadcasting is now inseparable from the idea of children’s programming. Can we prove ourselves wrong again? CDP’s data is one piece in the puzzle of young donors in public media, and I’m excited to see what the future could hold if we follow it.