How the meme became the gateway to news: the good news about the new information habits of young people

News is no longer sought out deliberately. They simply appear in the daily flow of digital conversations, filtered among memes, comments, and social media posts. This silent but profound shift in how young people access information is documented by Francisco Albarello and his research team in “Transitions: Emerging Information Consumption Among Communication Students in Latin America,” a study that offers a fascinating snapshot of how the region’s information ecosystem is being redefined.

What an earlier generation experienced as a conscious decision—the act of “getting informed”—has become for current students a more organic and accidental process. And this has deep implications not only for traditional journalism but for society as a whole.

From intentional to incidental consumption: when news finds the youth

One of the most significant findings of the research is that communication and journalism students in Latin America perceive that news finds them rather than them actively seeking it out. This perception, known in academic literature as “news find me perception,” is no longer exclusive to this age group: it is increasingly widespread.

The dynamic works like this: they get informed “accidentally” while chatting with contacts. In this context, information is a secondary result of the relationships they establish through digital platforms. Messaging a friend, seeing a comment from a family member, finding a meme someone shared—and in that process, they discover the news without having the explicit intention to inform themselves.

This shift from intentional to incidental consumption directly influences the public agenda. Young people mainly learn about topics that emerge in their personal conversations, which means the habit of consciously searching for information about public affairs beyond their immediate interests is gradually fading.

Social media as new media: crisis of intermediation or redefinition?

There is an interesting paradox: although social media have become de facto news media—displacing traditional platforms as the main access channel—they are not a terminal crisis for professional journalism. Rather, the ecosystem is undergoing a complex redefinition.

The research reveals that students mainly access news through platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. But here’s good news: the profiles they follow are predominantly media outlets and journalists, not influencers or celebrities. Even more significant: many prefer to follow individual journalists rather than official media accounts because they perceive journalists as able to report with greater freedom beyond the constraints of their employers.

Media brands, far from disappearing, have assumed a new role. When something interests these young people or they want to verify information received via social media or even a meme, they deliberately go to the websites and apps of recognized media outlets. These brands continue to function as references of quality and credibility in this expanded ecosystem. In other words: they access news through social networks but validate and deepen their understanding via established media.

How smartphones fragment but also deepen news reading

The device used for consuming news fundamentally shapes how these news are processed. Smartphones have made reading fragmented: quick scrolling, interrupted texts, constant interruptions. But here, nuance is needed.

It’s tempting to conclude that the small screen only produces superficiality. However, when there is genuine interest, young people employ sophisticated strategies. They stop at headlines that catch their attention, click on links promising depth, or turn to Google to find more information when they feel something requires more context.

They don’t just read texts. Images are crucial for capturing attention. And when they want to truly deepen their understanding of something they care about, they turn to YouTube: audiovisual videos are the content they consume most extensively. Thus, “cognitive depth” on screens doesn’t disappear; it simply reconfigures. It’s not a slow, paper-like reading but a dispersed, fragmented, quick reading that integrates multiple formats, sources, and information simultaneously. And this isn’t necessarily superficial, although it can lead to lower-quality readings if it favors scrolling over reflection.

Curiously, many old reading strategies are being recycled on new devices: just as before, we only read headlines, summaries, and lead-ins in print newspapers; now, young people do something similar on screens, but modulated by their personal interests.

The meme: from viral joke to legitimized informational tool

Here lies one of the best pieces of news about how habits are evolving. The meme, far from being a mere viral frivolity, has consolidated as a microgenre of information with very specific functions in this ecosystem.

The students interviewed demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of memes: they see them as an entry point to news, not as the news itself. A good meme requires well-developed skills: not only the ability to understand humor but also to synthesize a news story in a few words, select the right image or template. A good meme is, at its core, a visual communication and narrative exercise in a concentrated form.

When they find a meme about a topic, it often prompts them to seek the full information on social networks or news sites to avoid losing the context. The meme acts as an informational catalyst. And an important clarity: they value memes especially when they are “organic,” emerging naturally from the moment, not when they are forced or artificially constructed.

In contrast, humor in traditional news programs tends to diminish their rigor from their perspective. But in streaming shows— which exploded as spaces for news circulation during the pandemic— humor serves a different function: it generates closeness with the producer, leveraging the informal style inherited from YouTube.

Avoidance of negative news: a format issue, not disinterest

A recurring finding in this research aligns with global trends: according to the Reuters Institute 2024 data, about 39% of the world’s population actively avoids news. Latin American students are no exception: they tend to reject news about the pandemic (especially considering how sensationalist TV coverage was), police reports, wars, and social conflicts.

But the analysis reveals something deeper than mere disinterest: the rejection isn’t just about the topic but about how the media treat it. When an event—a police incident, social unrest, a health crisis—dominates the agenda with sensationalist strategies, it generates active rejection. Students avoid those news stories partly as a resistance to how they are presented.

Since they mainly get informed through their personal interests on social media, when media “impose” topics on their agendas—topics they didn’t choose to follow—it creates particular resistance. Group interviews repeatedly reveal feelings of “overload,” “annoyance,” “fatigue.” Students feel “overwhelmed” or “flooded with information.” This excess has a tangible negative effect on their emotional state, which is why they prefer to “escape” into their preferred entertainment or other topics of interest.

Media brands resist in the era of personalized algorithms

Although there is a paradox in how they consume news—accessing via social media but validating through traditional media—this paradox reveals something positive about the future of journalistic brands. They get informed through digital platforms, but when something matters or they want to verify it, they deliberately go to recognized media apps or sites, seeking the brand that certifies whether something is true or not.

This behavior is linked to their conversational context of information access. They hear about something through a recommendation from someone (a family member, a friend), and then check it at the media outlet. Or they search for the news on Google to see which outlet published it. In this sense, the journalistic brand continues to play a relevant role as a reference of quality information.

However, this is complicated by a parallel phenomenon: students report feeling “moderately informed.” It’s not that they are completely uninformed, but they feel informed about their topics of interest. They acknowledge that studying Journalism or Communication, and the insistence of their teachers on the need to stay informed daily, has fostered a certain interest or obligation to learn about topics that initially don’t appeal to them.

The turning point is crucial: in a world where “the topic matters more than the medium,” the university’s role as an institution that promotes breaking out of thematic bubbles is central. Media, on their part, face the challenge of creating content that intervenes in those bubbles, pulling interests beyond users’ tendencies to close themselves into personal agendas.

Algorithms and bubbles: the central role of critical literacy

Students show a remarkable awareness of how algorithms shape their access to news. The term “filter bubble” (popularized by Eli Pariser in 2011 and widely circulated) appears repeatedly in interviews. They recognize that personalization— that “tailored daily” Nicholas Negroponte envisioned in 1995 in his book “Being Digital”— is being intensified by algorithms that keep them in preference bubbles.

But while awareness exists, strategies to counteract these mechanisms remain mainly intuitive, not systematic. Here, the university can play a potentially transformative role. Classrooms can be one of the few spaces where students go beyond software algorithms to see another reality, to shape their algorithms so they also show them other perspectives.

Just as television screens weren’t a “window to reality” (they also cut reality), algorithms now replicate and intensify that problem, only now content personalization is unavoidable. The concept of “mutual domestication” between users and algorithms—proposed by researcher Ignacio Siles—offers an interesting way out: ensuring diversification of sources and topics through a more conscious and critical relationship with the tools that mediate our access to information.

Microcontents, visual literacy, and the future of communication education

The current research by Albarello’s team focuses on “microinformational contents,” and the trend is clear: there is a consolidated preference for short content, direct headlines, and visual formats. But this doesn’t mean that complex explanations have disappeared.

When there is genuine interest in deepening understanding, many turn to YouTube videos. For these young people, audiovisual images have become the place for long explanations. It’s not that they are incapable or unwilling to read lengthy texts; they simply don’t feel compelled to do so if they aren’t interested in what they’re consuming. It’s as if long explanations are a second informational level—available but optional. Something that was always in newspapers (reading headlines and summaries) but now is much more explicit: personal interest rules.

Again, the meme emerges as a revealing case. It’s a format that deserves systematic study. A good meme requires specific skills: synthesizing a news story, visual selection, understanding connotation. Memes are increasingly studied as a genre in academic conferences and specialized journals.

What does this mean for training future journalists? It means that contemporary media literacy must include critical reading of memes, considering the participatory and creative aspect of the audiences who generate them. Just as critical reading of photographs was once taught, now the same must be done with memes, recognizing them as products of collective creativity.

Students studying Communication and Journalism develop a particular role within their families and circles: they become informal “fact checkers.” They take on the obligation to stay informed to guide others who get their news via WhatsApp or less verified platforms. They develop a healthy distrust of incoming information and try to transmit this critical attitude to their contacts.

This is good news: communication education makes a visible difference. Students develop a clear awareness of how news is constructed, about the circulation of false information, and the need to verify everything. This awareness is increasingly necessary as news begins to be generated by Generative Artificial Intelligences—a trend that is emerging strongly in ongoing research.

Toward the future: microcontents, AI, and the need for critical readings

Previous studies (Mutations) and the current one (Transitions) outline a clear pattern: youth news consumption in Latin America is experiencing a miniaturization parallel to the acceleration of digital ecosystems. Microcontents dominate. But the rise of generative AI in news production presents an even greater challenge.

Developing critical news literacy when it will be increasingly difficult to distinguish human from artificial sources is perhaps the most urgent educational challenge. Future skills will not only involve consuming information critically but also producing it: using AIs as allies to enhance creative and analytical skills.

What emerges from this research is a generation that feels informed about what interests them but is aware of its limitations. They are developing tools to recognize algorithms, understand narrative constructions, and validate information. The role of universities, media, and society is to amplify this critical awareness, break personal interest bubbles without sounding like an imposition, and turn tools like memes into legitimate opportunities to learn how the contemporary information world works.