ICMPA Study released: The world Unpluggd

Conducted with the assistance of a dozen university partners of the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change  the study asked 1000 students in 10 countries on five continents to give up all media for 24 hours.  After their daylong abstinence, the students recorded their experiences.  In total, students wrote almost half a million words--about the same number of words as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

The world Unplugged study concluded that most college students, whether in developed or developing countries, are strikingly similar in how they use media.  Student after student spoke about their generation's utter dependency on media - especially the mobile phone. And they also talked about how they think about news.  Said one student, from Slovakia:  

“We are used to having information about everything on the planet and this information we have to have in an unbelievable time.  Our generation doesn’t need certified and acknowledged information. More important is quantity, not quality of news.”

See a Huffington Post Column here:  Worldwide, Students Suffer From Internet 'Addiction' 

See a World Bank Column here:  What Kind of News Comes in 140 Characters or Facebook Status Updates?

See the Study here: The World Unplugged

Please direct all inquiries to: icmpa@umd.edu