We ran a workshop at Speed recently for graduates on the Taylor Bennett Foundation. These are individuals born as the sunset on Generation Y and at the dawn of Generation Z.

During the session we discussed how the media industry has changed during the last three decades and the impact that this was having on the PR profession, and we explored how digital techniques were starting to be used by the PR industry to disintermediate traditional media.

This generation finds print shifting to online and giving way to social media, broadcast in rude health and a music industry that has an uneasy relationship with its consumers. It is more likely than any other generation before it to create, curate, publish or share its own media.

I set each the interns a piece of homework. I wanted them to create a diary of their media habits for a single day. The results are a wake-up call for any media owner.

Confessions of media addicts
The individual diaries read like confessions from a media addict self-help group. These young consumers spend most of their waking hours consuming countless sources of media, across multiple formats, often simultaneously.

“My media consumption starts the moment my alarm goes off on my phone; whilst I have my phone in hand, I check Twitter for the daily news.  I then go to Facebook and quickly have a look at what everyone is up to,” said Hayley Chow (@HYMChow).

Social media may catch the early riser seeking updates from a network of friends but Generation Y and Z remain avid consumers of traditional media. But their consumption is difference to any previous generation. Titles are grazed online rather than read in print.

“[I read] a variety of newspapers, usually The Guardian, but I’m not averse to picking up a tabloid or The Metro and […] I visit The Daily Mail website for celebrity tat. I read magazines, typically music or fashion, or some hip amalgamation of both. This is […] online rather than offline due to cost,” said Lynsey  Martenstyn (@Martenstyn).

Content, serendipity and contribution
As social media becomes an established media category in its own right and all media becomes social the generation that has grown up during this period is concerned about the quality of the content rather than the originator per se. How many times have we heard at media conferences that content is king?

“I follow countless blogs, Twitter accounts, download Apps and check music blog aggregator HypeMachine and fashion blog aggregator Lookbook daily,” said Ms Martenstyn.

Serendipity plays a strong role in the discovery of content for Generation Y and Z as they click from link-to-link following a story and its sources across the internet.

“My consumption of media doesn’t have a structured habit; it’s more fuelled by a constant desire for information. Usually this focuses around the arts, politics and culture; but this isn’t definitive. A breaking news event could end up in a […] corner of Wikipedia, researching something arbitrary,” said Ms Martenstyn.

The compulsion to contribute and share is strong, and whilst the Taylor Bennett interns are undoubtedly a motivated bunch, they are by no means atypical.

“My daily media consumption sees me having Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts, a blog and a BlackBerry. Everything I do and have done is available for everyone else to see, without me even realising. [Each] update I make is potentially reaching 500 people,” said Abdul Aleem (@blablablaPR).

Music is served from a personal collection on a MP3 player but new sources online are quickly uncovered when that tires.

“When my iPod becomes inadequate, I’ll go to the site that is YouTube, and search for the song I want,” said Ms Chow.

Net generation
This is the internet generation like none before. It is savvy to issues of privacy and sees little but opportunity and benefit from active online participation. Mr Aleem has already setup his first internet business.

“I got into my current PR internship thanks to the internet. I make t-shirts […] and sell them online thanks to the internet,” said Mr Aleem.

“People will only see what you want them to see – no one is stopping you from changing your privacy settings. [I believe that] the good outweighs the bad a few times over,” he said.

Challenge for media owners
Thanks to the Taylor Bennett interns for being such willing participants in this exercise and giving their time so freely.

Here’s the challenge that they have inadvertently set out for media owners and the PR industry in attracting, let alone earning, the attention of Generation Y and Z. How do you engage with an audience that has no particular loyalty to any media brand, and is consuming so many varied media outlets in a variety of formats?