JIM Study 2018 published

20 years of research on media use by young people. Changes and trends presented in a well-founded and fact-based way.

The triumphant advance of Netflix and Co. among young people continues

Half of twelve- to 19-year-olds regularly watch shows, series and movies on Netflix (47%), and one in five uses Amazon Prime Video (22%). This means that the proportion of regular Netflix users has almost doubled compared to the previous year (2017: 26%). Another winner among young people is Spotify; for the first time, music use via Spotify recorded a higher proportion of regular users than music use live on the radio.

Long-running Internet offerings and games

Digital gaming options via computers, consoles and mobile devices also play a central role in young people's media repertoire. Almost three out of five young people regularly play digital games. Also, for the first time in 2018, a completely new game, "Fortnite," appears directly in first place among the most popular games (see klicksafe infographic below); the title was named by one-fifth of young people. And which online offerings excite young people so much that they make it into the top 3 of their favorite Internet offerings (see klicksafe infographic below) ? The list is clearly headed by the video portal YouTube, which almost two-thirds of young people consider to be one of their three most important Internet offerings.

These are some of the results of the current JIM Study 2018, which was published yesterday at an anniversary event in Stuttgart. For 20 years, the Medienpädagogische Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs) has been investigating the media use of young people in Germany with the JIM study (Youth, Information, Media).

Tagesschau and daily newspapers with high trust bonus among young people

Trust in news offerings was also examined as part of the JIM Study 2018. Here, young people were able to give various news offerings school grades in terms of their trustworthiness. The Tagesschau or Tagesthemen of ARD enjoy the highest level of trust among young people, with 84 percent of young people awarding a grade of 1 or 2. In second place, with 77 percent, are the regional print dailies and public radio stations (75 %). The daily news coverage of ZDF (Heute or Heute Journal) is trusted by 71 percent of those surveyed. Focus online and Spiegel online are in the middle of the pack in this assessment, with half of the young people giving these offerings a rating of 1 or 2 in each case. Private radio stations are rated as trustworthy by just under half of the young people. ProSieben Newstime, the news service of the e-mail provider Web.de and RTL Aktuell, each trusted by a quarter of young people, follow at a considerable distance. The Bild newspaper brings up the rear with 15 percent each for both the print and online offerings.

Professor Andreas Büsch, head of the Clearing House for Media Competence of the German Bishops' Conference at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, emphasized the uniqueness of the JIM study: "The esteem in which the JIM study is held by academics and practitioners alike is a result of its quality: it is a solidly representative survey - something that can by no means be said of all studies in the field of "youth and media". There is no other study in this field that has been providing such reliable data on the age cohort for 20 years, thus enabling long-term observations in addition to the respective cross-section," says Büsch.

Research essential for youth media protection

For the President of the Media Authority in Baden-Württemberg (LFK), Dr. Wolfgang Kreißig, research is important in order to focus the work of media supervision even more strongly on the lifeworld of young people. "We are now reaping the fruits of our long labor. Because now innovation cycles are also becoming visible through the JIM study. We can see where young people spend their time and what risks they face there," said Kreißig, who is also chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM). "Due to the changes in media use, media policy is also called upon to create further legal frameworks in order to provide the supervisory authority with up-to-date regulatory instruments."

Dr. Marc Jan Eumann, Director of the Media Authority of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate (LMK), sees empirical studies, such as the JIM Study, as an essential basis for fact-based decisions: "The successful cooperation of the media authorities in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as the Südwestrundfunk (Southwest Broadcasting Corporation) has now guaranteed a unique database on the media use of young people in Germany for 20 years. The data collected by the JIM Study not only reveals changes and trends, it also helps to react to developments in today's media landscape in a well-founded and fact-based manner."

"As a public broadcaster, we have a mandate to reach all social groups and age groups with our offerings. For 20 years, the JIM Study has provided us with reliable and important information on how young people consume media," emphasized SWR's Baden-Württemberg State Director Stefanie Schneider.

In the afternoon, various media literacy projects from LFK, LMK and SWR were presented that are aimed at the target group of young people.

The JIM (Jugend, Information, Medien - Youth, Information, Media) study series has been conducted annually since 1998 by the Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest in cooperation with Südwestrundfunk. The representative study maps the media behavior of young people in Germany. For the survey, 1,200 young people between the ages of twelve and 19 were interviewed by telephone in early summer 2018.

The Medienpädagogische Forschungsverbund Südwest is a cooperation of the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg(LFK) and the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation Rheinland-Pfalz(LMK). The study is conducted in cooperation with Südwestrundfunk(SWR). The PDF of the current JIM study (as well as all JIM studies since 1998) is available at www.mpfs.de .

  • To the JIM Study 2018
  • klicksafe infographic: The most popular internet offers among young people, according to JIM 2018(PDF)
  • klicksafe infographic: The most popular digital games among young people, according to JIM 2018(PDF).