Planning to have a rest of your career? Might want to read this report

If you’ve got more than a few months ahead of you in a journalism career, it’s a good idea to stay current on trends in media, especially trends in how people use the media. Because whatever you know to be true now is likely to change quickly, and often.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) has just published its third annual digital news report, which has some insights into what’s going on out there.

Here’s a blog post about it by Roy Greenslade in the Guardian. You can
download the full report here, or read the executive summary and key findings here.

Some interesting points from that executive summary by Digital News Report editor Nic Newman:

• The use of smartphones and tablets has jumped significantly in the past year, with fewer people using their computers for news.

• Facebook is by far the most important network for news everywhere. Although Twitter is widely used in the US, Spain, and the UK, it is far less influential in many other European countries. Google+ is emerging as increasingly important for news, along with messaging application WhatsApp.

• European respondents remain strongly committed to news that tries to be neutral (or impartial) but Americans are more interested in hearing from brands and reporters that are open about their own views and biases.

And here’s a key point that Greenslade makes in the Guardian:

Smartphones, which are favoured by young people, are encouraging users to consume news more frequently throughout the day, thereby reducing the dependence on appointment-to-view television and printed newspaper issues.

The readers and viewers of tomorrow prefer to receive news through mobile devices and consequently tend to “snack” more in terms of both the time spent on sites and the type of content they consume.

Bone up on these findings … and be prepared for them to be made obsolete by new findings within a few years.