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The 41 million Gen-Z

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voters could make a difference
in the expected razor thin election.

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As media reporter Aidan
Ryan found out, meeting them

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where they are isn't politics as usual.

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Well, thank you so much for coming in.

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Thanks for having me.

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The globe surveyed 150 local Gen-Z
residents and interviewed a couple dozen

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about how they say they are
getting informed about the 2024 election.

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What did you find out?

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Well, I found out that the youngest voters

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are going to a lot of different sources
to get information about the election.

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many are still going
to traditional sources,

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you know, seeing getting New York
Times, breaking news headlines.

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same thing with the globe.

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but they're also getting
a lot of information

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on social media,
particularly TikTok, Instagram, Twitter,

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and even platforms like Twitch,
which is the streaming site.

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so a lot of these younger voters are

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a few of them,
even said that they do seek out,

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news from traditional sources,
but they're seeing the most political

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content on places like TikTok.

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So this is all algorithm based.

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So are they literally clicking through,
trying to search and look for news,

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or is it just what pops up while they're
searching around for other stuff?

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It's a lot of the latter.

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I think a lot of younger voters,
are going to places like

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TikTok and Instagram for entertainment,
to catch up on their friends,

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but they're also being served a lot
of political content on those platforms.

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so you can see a kind of funny
meme or video on TikTok.

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And then the next, post is,
the Harris campaign, which is,

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putting out a lot of time on

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TikTok and other social media platforms
to put up clips of Harris.

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It could be news influencers
who are kind of this new age of,

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journalist
slash personality slash influencer

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who are, you know, doing their own news
reporting, or coverage on these platforms.

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it runs the gamut.

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I mean, in some ways, it's similar

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to TV, where you're going to come on
and turn it on to be entertained.

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Maybe you flip through and see
a news channel, maybe you catch some news.

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Obviously a different experience.

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If you went to Boston globe.com, went to
politics or went to whatever else section,

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and you're actively seeking it out,
but algorithms are driving it.

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How is does this new era of media
consumption change politics?

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Yeah, well, it changes.

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I mean, I think when you go to a place
like the globe or The New York Times

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or a traditional journalism outlet
to get that information, you know, there

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are, rules and ethics and kind of a,

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you know,
a guide to kind of how to do that work.

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It's journalistic.

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That's not always the case
in this new area of media.

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you could have,
anyone can set up a TikTok account

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and make videos to stream to, people
across the country and across the world.

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and so I think what it means for politics
is that the

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sources of information
today are just so much more varied,

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so much more fragmented
than they used to be.

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You can get information
that is completely biased

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and doesn't go through
kind of normal journalistic standards.

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but still think that that is and that's
what can be your primary, source of news.

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Oh, put you on the spot.
But you're a military reporter.

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I know you personally enough
that you have a soft spot for politics.

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You probably thought about what
this election might what might happen.

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are you surprised by anything
that you thought was going to happen?

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For example, more disinformation

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that we, you know, we were prepared for it
more I, that we thought we'd go awry.

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You think surprise you?

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I think, you know.

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It happened or didn't happen,
I guess I should say.

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I think when it comes to disinformation,
I think, you know, and talking

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with researchers,
I'm talking with academics

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who and experts
who study this kind of work.

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I think one of the biggest concerns

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still is disinformation
coming from political elites.

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It's coming from
candidates. It's coming from,

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you know, what is

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being beamed into the onto their phones
and living rooms across the country.

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I think that is still, I think AI is still
a little bit premature.

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I think there's been so much hype
about that in the news.

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but I still think that, you know, from
just talking and doing that kind of work

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and talking to experts,
the misinformation, disinformation.

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It's it's it's J.D.

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Vance making up a story about Springfield.
Ohio.

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It's not about AI creation of something
that didn't happen.

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I think that's still a big concern.
I mean, there certainly are concerns.

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And there's been cases
even here in New England, the robo

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there in the primary, with,
you know, the pretending to be Joe Biden.

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I think, you know,
we've seen cases of that,

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but I think those are much smaller
versus the,

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you know, false narratives
that are being peddled,

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by candidates and by.

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Yeah, like the example of JD
Vance. Correct.

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This is so interesting.

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And it's going to be really interesting

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to see what happens on the actual election
as we get closer.

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Media reporter Aiden Ryan,
thanks for joining us.

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Thanks for having me.

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