DEGREE PROJECT IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY,
SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2019
The effects of the European
Copyright Directive on Generation Z's news consumption
An explorative study on the effects of the link tax, concerning the access and consumption of news content by Generation Z in Europe
DANKA ELSINGA
KTH ROY AL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
Abstract
After eighteen years filled with technical evaluation, the European Parliament agreed on a new online copyright directive in 2019. The aim of this directive is to modernize the rules that were last adjusted in 2001, to create a better balance between content providers and online platforms. After the European Commission introduced a proposal for a copyright directive in 2016, caught it the attention of many, mainly due to two articles: Article 11 and 13. The reason for this attention was the practical way in which these articles contributed in reaching the general aim of the new copyright directive. This research focuses on Article 11, which also became known as the ‘’link tax’’. Content creators should, according to this article, get rewarded for their work by other online parties.
Within these eighteen years, those who were born in this timeframe, known as Generation Z, grew up in a world where technology is everywhere and at any time. This generation was born in the 90’s, grew up in the 00’s, and is shaped by the presence of technology in which they communicate, interact, and consume knowledge. Because of that, this study presents the effects of the implementation of the new European copyright directive, on Generation Z in Europe.
Sammanfattning
Efter arton år av teknisk utvärdering så enades Europaparlamentet om ett nytt upphovsrättsdirektiv på nätet år 2019.
Syftet med detta direktiv är att modernisera reglerna som senast anpassades år 2001, för att skapa en bättre balans mellan innehållsleverantörer och online plattformar. Efter att Europeiska kommissionen införde ett förslag om
upphovsrättsdirektiv år 2016 så fångades uppmärksamheten hos många, främst på grund av två artiklar: artikel 11 och 13.
Orsaken till denna uppståndelse var huruvida dessa artiklar bidrog till att nå det slutgiltiga målet av det nya upphovsrättsdirektivet eller inte. Denna forskning fokuserar på artikel 11, som även blev känd som '' länkskatt ''.
Innehållsskapare bör enligt denna artikel få ersättning för sitt arbete av andra online-parter.
Inom dessa arton år så växte de som föddes inom denna tidsram, känd som Generation Z, upp i en värld där teknik finns överallt och när som helst. Denna generation föddes på 90-talet, växte upp på 00-talet och formas av närvaron av teknik där de kommunicerar, interagerar och konsumerar kunskap. På grund av detta presenterar denna studieeffekterna av implementeringen av det nya europeiska upphovsrättsdirektivet för Generation Z i Europa.
The effects of the European Copyright Directive on Generation Z’s news consumption
An explorative study on the effects of the link tax,
concerning the access and consumption of news content by Generation Z in Europe
Danka Elsinga
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science KTH Royal Institute of Technology Brinellvägen 8, Stockholm, Sweden
dankae@kth.se
Abstract
After eighteen years filled with technical evaluation, the European Parliament agreed on a new online copyright directive in 2019. The aim of this directive is to modernize the rules that were last adjusted in 2001, to create a better balance between content providers and online platforms.
After the European Commission introduced a proposal for a copyright directive in 2016, caught it the attention of many, mainly due to two articles: Article 11 and 13. The reason for this attention was the practical way in which these articles contributed in reaching the general aim of the new copyright directive. This research focuses on Article 11, which also became known as the ‘’link tax’’.
Content creators should, according to this article, get rewarded for their work by other online parties.
Within these eighteen years, those who were born in this timeframe, known as Generation Z, grew up in a world where technology is everywhere and at any time. This generation was born in the 90’s, grew up in the 00’s, and is shaped by the presence of technology in which they communicate, interact, and consume knowledge. Because of that, this study presents the effects of the implementation of the new European copyright directive, on Generation Z in Europe.
Keywords: Generation Z, link tax, Europe, online news consumption, online news access
Introduction
In September 2016, the European Commission introduced a proposal for a directive on copyright in the digital single market [1]. This proposal received a lot of attention due to the way in which this proposal should assist in reaching the general purpose [2]: creating a balance between content providers and online platforms [1]. Two articles within this document stood out: article 13 and 11 [2]. Article 13 emphasizes on ‘the use of protected content by information society service providers storing and
giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users’ [3], or the ‘meme ban’ [4]. Article 11 on the other hand focuses on ‘the protection of press publications concerning digital uses’
[3], which became known as the ‘link tax’ [4]. A survey of the European Commission in 2016 showed that the majority of European internet users (57%) consume content through social networks, aggregators, or search engines [1] instead of accessing content directly.
This means that this new copyright directive will have an impact on European society and its access to information.
A copyright reform has already been applied on a smaller scale in Spain and Germany and made it possible for online content providers to charge online parties for linking to their content [5]. Google News changed their position towards content providers in Germany, by changing to an opt-in system where content providers explicitly had to give permission to use their content [6].
Content providers who did not opt-in, were not part of Google News anymore. This resulted in such a decrease of online users reaching the original content pages, that they later decided to opt-in as well. The Spanish copyright reform created mandatory link fees with content providers [6], which resulted in Google News shutting down in December 2014 [5]. This reduced an overall news consumption of almost 20% and a decrease of 10% of page views on other content providers.
While the effects of the implementation in Spain and Germany have been studied for the general population, specific effects on different generations are not yet studied. The upcoming generation that will play a big role within these societies, due to its size and the differences with previous generations, is Generation Z [7]. 32% of the global population will consist of people that are part of this generation in 2019. Which means that this generation surpasses the previous one, Generation Y, which consists of 31,5% of the world population. Generation Z was born in the 90’s and grew up in the 00’s [8], which means that
the older people within this generation will now be allowed to vote and will start higher education [7]. This generation grew up with technology and has access to free information without them knowing any different.
With the experience and knowledge of the implementation of a similar reform on a national scale, the European Parliament voted in favor of the latest version of the directive in March 2019. This voting gave the EU member states 24 months to implement the directive into their national legislation [1]. Since the European changes in copyright concern a directive, it is not clear yet what the national implementations are going to look like. For example, how high the ‘link tax’ is going to be per EU member state.
Because of that, this explorative study presents the effects of the implementation of the new European copyright directive concerning the access and consumption of news content on Generation Z in Europe;
generation that grew up in an era where access to information was nearly unlimited.
Scope & delimitations
In order to provide insights on the effects of the implementation of the ‘’link tax’’ regarding the access of information on Generation Z in Europe, different aspects of this situation must be taken into consideration by answering the following research questions:
RQ 1. What are the effects of the link tax regarding news content?
RQ 2 . What is the current news access behavior of Generation Z in the Europe?
The European Parliament voted in favor of the latest version of the directive in March 2019, which means that literature about the possible long-term effects of this new legislation does not exist yet. This means this research responds to a research gap between the practical implementation of the new European copyright directive and the effects based on generalization.
Delimitations
The term ‘Europe’ will be used to describe all countries that together form the continent Europe, regardless of their accession to the European Union (EU) in 2019 or their status in the process towards accession.
Related studies ‘’Link tax’’
In May 2015, the European Commission approved the Digital Single Market Strategy that should ‘’reduce the
differences between national copyright regimes and allow for wider online access to works by users across the EU”
[9]. Later that year in December, a communication by the European Commission was published regarding ‘’a modern, more European copyright framework’’. Related to the previous publications of the European Commission, a proposal for a copyright of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market was introduced in September 2016 [1]. The EU already has legislation regarding exceptions and limitations to copyrights and rights that link to that, but it is debatable if these exceptions are still applicable now that new user types have made their entrance in this digital environment [9].
Because of that, the 2016 proposal aimed to provide measures that focus on the process of licensing and the authorization of this process. Due to the way in which this proposal aimed to solve certain problems, it received a lot of public attention [2]. Two articles within this document were the main reasons for this attention:
Article 13 and Article 11 [2]. Article 13 emphasizes ‘’the use of protected content by information society service providers storing and giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users’’
[3], or the ‘meme ban’ [4]. Article 11 on the other hand focuses on ‘’the protection of press publications concerning digital uses’’ [3], which became known as the
‘link tax’ [4] and where this research focuses on.
Article 11 consists of four paragraphs, where the first paragraph states that EU member states have to provide publishers of press content with rights for the digital use of their content [3]. These rights are based on Articles 2 and 3 [2] of the Directive 2001/29/EC, which focuses on
“the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society’’ from 2001 [10].
These same rights shall leave intact, according to the second paragraph, and will not affect other EU rights concerning content providers and other right holders [3].
These rights shall not affect those publishers and shall not deprive them the right to exploit their content, regardless of the publication their work is part of. The third paragraph refers to Articles 5 to 8 of the aforementioned directive from 2001 and a directive from 2012 that focuses on certain permitted uses of orphan works’’ [11]. These articles shall apply once the necessary changes have been made, while respecting the rights mentioned in the first paragraph [3]. Finally, the fourth paragraph states that the rights mentioned in the first paragraph expire 20 years after the content publication.
After the adoption of the proposal by the European Commission, a process of discussion started where it finally reached the European Parliament [12]. An adjusted version of that directive proposal was approved in March 2019 [1], where the publicly much-discussed
points of Article 11can be found under Article 15 and is divided into five paragraphs [13]. Regardless of the change in copyright coming from the European Parliament, this reform is a directive. This means that this directive applies to all EU member states and can be adjusted to their own national legislation [4]. Five countries voted against the now final directive: Italy, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia held back from voting at all. The nineteen other EU member states were the deciding factor for the approval of the directive.
Paragraph one of the final directive focuses on the rights of ‘’online use of press publications by information society service providers’’ [13] instead of rights regarding digital use of publications [3]. An information society service is a digital service requested by someone, which provides the transmission of data for compensation [14].
Besides that, this protection shall not apply to hyperlinking and these rights shall not apply to the use of single words or very short extracts from a press publication. Providing online content users with a small abstract before they can consume the whole content is allowed [15]. Where paragraph two of the final directive states nearly the same as the proposal, paragraph three refers to another directive than the second mentioned directive, Directive 2012/28/EU [13]. Instead, Directive (EU) 2017/1564 of the European Parliament of the Council shall apply once the necessary changes have been made.
This directive focuses on ‘’certain permitted uses of certain works and other subject matter protected by copyright and related rights for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print- disabled and amending Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society’’ [16]. According to the proposal, the rights mentioned in the first paragraph of the proposal should expire 20 years after the content publication, however, in the final directive this has been shortened to two years [13]. The final directive consists of one more paragraph, which states that EU member states shall provide content providers whose work is part of a press publication shall receive a fitting share of the revenue that an online platform receives for the use of that content. This means that if an online platform, for example Google News, links the content of a content provider, for example an online newspaper, and creates revenue by using this content, Google News should pay this newspaper with a share of that created revenue. It will be up to the separate EU member states to define the
‘’fitting share’’ in their country [15].
Effects of similar copyright reforms on a national level
Article 11 of the proposal directive would ensure that content providers must be paid when their work is used, even when it concerns ‘’snippets’’ [17]. Platforms like
Google News and Apple News help news content providers to generate money for the content they provide online [4]. This content is not presented in its entirety but headlines, pictures and a summary are presented first where the possibility is offered to consume the whole content later. A survey of the European Commission of 2016 showed that 57% of European internet users consume content through social networks, aggregators or search engines [1]. 47% of those internet users consume parts of the content, links and introductions, without clicking and consuming the whole content [1].
Both in Germany and Spain has a similar copyright reform been implemented in the past, before the EU copyright directive even became official. In addition to the copyright law was an addendum added by the German Parliament, which made it possible for content providers to charge search engines and aggregators for the use of their content [6]. News publishers gave Germany’s collecting society VG Media the authorization to create a license fee of 6% of the gross revenue that should be paid for the copyright of the content by technology companies [18]. In October 2014, Google News revealed that they would change their opt-out system to an opt-in system as a response to the new legislation. This meant that content providers who wanted to be part of Google must give explicit permission for this collaboration, which also meant to renounce any compensation. Instead of Google News having to pay for content from publishers, they switched roles and made publishers want to be part of them. In October 2014, content providers who were part of VG Media did not opt-in and Google News and other German aggregators stopped providing their users with parts of the content and pictures from content providers who did not opt-in.
This resulted in a decrease of people visiting the whole content page of these content providers who were part of VG media, that in November 2014, content providers who were part of VG Media also decided to opt-in.
Another copyright reform was implemented in Spain in December 2014 [5]. The difference between this reform and the one in Germany is that there were link fees between parties, and summaries of content were not part of the directive [6]. These link fees were mandatory and were handled by a private party, CEDRO. As a result of this copyright reform, Google News shut down the Spanish edition in December 2014 [5]. This reduced overall news consumption to almost 20% and page views of other content providers decreased to 10%. While these decreases might be not significant for large content providers, small and independent content providers will be affected to a greater extent. Besides these decreasing numbers, Google News’ users cannot replace all the types of news they consumed before. This leads to a decrease in
traffic to the homepage of content providers, which is the page that generates more money than articles.
Generation Z
Generational theory is used to describe groups of people with different ages from a sociological perspective [19].
This theory is used to try to distinguish different age groups, why generations have developed different values and why this affects the interaction between people of different age groups. While the behavior of an individual cannot be predicted based on this theory, it can provide insights into people’s behavior drivers together with for example their gender, culture, religion and race.
One of the younger generations that is going to be part of the biggest generational shifts in the workplace is Generation Z [8]. This generation was born in the 90’s and grew up in the 00’s [8], which means that the older people within this generation will now be allowed to vote and will start higher education [7]. 32% of the global population will consist of people that are part of this generation in 2019 [7]. Which means that this generation surpasses the previous one, the Millennials, which consists of 31,5% of the world population. As mentioned before, different generations have different values which affects the interaction between those generations [19].
The main aspect in the lives of Generation Z that distinguishes them from previous generations is technology and with that, the fast development of interaction [20]. Previous generations grew up with the increase of televisions, others with the entry of computers and Millennials with the introduction of the internet.
Generation Z grew up in a world where all above mentioned was in their lives from the beginning and introductions to Wi-Fi, social media and on-demand entertainment and communication quickly followed.
News consumption
Because of the world Generation Z grew up in, it also created an environment where they rely on technology for communication, interaction with others and also information [21]. This also shows in the numbers when news is considered as information. 57% of the people worldwide between 18 and 24 years old in 2019 , mentioned social media as their first contact with news in the morning through a smartphone [22]. For their predecessors, Millennials who are between 25 and 34 years old, this percentage is 43%. Smartphones are, for both generations, the most used device to consume news content through. Facebook takes the lead with this type of access, where it was mentioned by 29% of Generation Z and 19% of Millennials. This older generation prefers the direct access of news sources with 33%, where 23% of Generation Z mentions this as their first news access in the morning on their mobile phone.
Methodology
In order to answer the above-mentioned research questions, exploratory research has been conducted by using both quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Quantitative online survey
Based on the findings of the literature analysis, an online survey has been composed to collect contemporary and quantitative data of news access behavior of Generation Z in Europe and those who are older. Most literature on Generation Z concerns this generation in the USA, the online survey results will be compared to the literature to provide more useful data and knowledge. In order to make a comparison between the collected data of Generation Z and people of other generations, data has also been collected from people who were born before 1995.
The online survey results were collected between March 26, 2019 until April 24, 2019. The survey was created by using Google Forms and was shared through social media, including Facebook and Instagram, to reach respondents. The online survey consisted of 24 questions where data from 203 respondents of Generation Z from over 30 European nationalities was collected. In total, 160 surveys were collected from people born before 1995, where 34 people were born before 1990 and 126 were born between 1990 and 1995. The nationalities of these survey respondents were spread over 26 European countries.
Semi-structured interview
The results of the online survey provided an overview of the information retrieval behavior of Generation Z in Europe. However, supporting reasons behind these results and other insights were investigated by qualitative semi-structured interviews with 11 respondents spread over six different European nationalities and different years of birth, which were as follows:
• Years of birth: 2 in 1996, 3 in 1997, 4 in 1998, 1 in 1999 and 1 in 2001
• Nationality: 3 Dutch, 1 Finnish, 4 French, 1 Italian, 1 Swedish and 1 Swiss
The thematic content analysis method was used to analyze the qualitative semi-structured interviews [23] to distinguish patterns in the received answers.
Results
The results of the quantitative online survey and the qualitative semi-structured interviews will be presented together per subtopic that has emerged from the
literature study. This is to first distinguish a quantitative overall view of the news access behavior of Generation Z in Europe, which will be supported by the data collected from qualitative semi-structured interviews.
Interest in news content
To distinguish the overall news access behavior of Generation Z in Europe, the first step is to determine how interested this generation is in news content and to what extent. The respondents were asked to rate their interest in news on a scale from one to five, meaning one the lowest and five the highest. 97 respondents, or 48%, scored their level of interest in news with a four. 36 respondents, or 18%, answered with a five.
Figure 1. Level of interest in news of Generation Z
Half of the participants considered themselves interested in news, but do not actively follow news, which becomes clear from the following statements:
‘’I do want to know what is going on in the world’’. – Swiss, 1997
‘’I am interested in news, but not as much as I should … I feel uninformed sometimes about what is happening around me’’. – French, 1998 ‘’I am very interested in news, because I want to stay updated with what is going on where I live but also in the world’’ – Dutch, 1996
Figure 2. Level of interest in news of people born before 1995 in Europe
70 survey respondents who were born before 1995 score their level interest in news content with a four, which is 43% of the survey respondents. This was also the most answered score of Generation Z. However, 58 survey respondents who are part of Generation Z answered with a five, which is 36% of the total amount of survey respondents. This is an increase in level of interest, compared to Generation Z where only 18% of the respondents answered with a five.
News consumption Frequency
124 respondents from Generation Z, or 61% of the total amount of survey participants said they consume news content on a daily basis.
Figure 3. Frequency of news consumption Generation Z in Europe
This frequency of news consumption is mainly due to the use of mobile phones, since the participants have their mobile phones with them nearly all the time.
‘’Most of the times I use my phone, but I also watch news on TV sometimes. When I am travelling or when I cannot sleep, I read news at my phone since I am carrying my phone everywhere I go’’ - Dutch, 1996
‘’Usually use my phone since I usually read the news on my way to work’’ – Italian, 1998
Figure 4. Frequency of news consumption of people born before 1995 in Europe
Comparatively, 123 survey respondents who were born before 1995 consume news content on a daily basis. This is 77% of the total amount of survey respondents. Only 27 survey respondents, or 17%, say they consume news content a few times a week.
News categories
The news categories that the respondents were most interested in are national and international news. 193 respondents mentioned they follow national news which is 95% of the total amount of survey respondents, followed by 175 respondents who mentioned international news with 86% of the total amount of survey respondents.
Figure 5. Interest per news category of Generation Z in Europe The spread of interest in different news categories of those who are born before 1995 remains nearly the same compared to Generation Z. Both national and international news are the two categories where people are interested in with 96% and 91%, respectively.
Figure 6. Interest per news category of people born before 1995 in Europe
Access to news
161 survey respondents mentioned consuming news content through social media regardless of the device they use, which is 80% of the survey respondents. This is followed by 137 respondents who said they consume news content through the website of a news source. This is 68% of the total amount of survey respondents. Apps of news sources are used less to consume news content, by 126 survey respondents (62%).
Figure 7. Access to news content by outlet of Generation Z in Europe
Social media is mentioned by six participants as their first access to news content, where specific digital news sources, mainly through mobile apps and websites, are also mentioned by five participants.
‘’I use social media to receive news, because I go through it every day, so I do not need to make an extra effort to look up for the news’’. – Finnish, 2001
‘’I do not search for particular news myself, but when I see something at social media and I am interested at the news topic, I will click at the link below to read the news-item’’ - Dutch, 1996
‘’I uses social media and apps of news sources, because it is easier to access for me since I already have the apps downloaded’’ – Italian, 1998
‘’I prefer to consume news on both social media and news publishers. It often is that I read about something on social media and want to know more by searching for it to get a better view of it’’ – Swedish, 1997
People who were born before 1995 in Europe preferred websites of news sources to access news content, in contrast to Generation Z. 137 survey respondents, which is 85% of these survey respondents. Social media is mentioned by 116 of these survey respondents, which equals 73%.
Figure 8. Access to news content by outlet of people born before 1995 in Europe
Being critical
The respondents were asked to rate their level of being critical after reading a headline on a scale from one to five, with one as the lowest and five the highest. 74 survey respondents scored themselves in the middle with a three, regarding their level of being critical after reading a headline. This stands for 37% of the total amount of respondents. 63 survey respondents who are part of Generation Z answer with a four, which equals 31%.
Figure 9. Level of being critical after reading a headline of Generation Z in Europe
Two interview participants consider themselves critical regarding the news content they consume and five consider themselves fairly critical.
‘’I think I am quite critical because I do not want to believe everything and try to find the most reliable source’’ – Finnish, 2001
‘’I would say that I am. I want to find sources that are reliable to get the right information.
Sources that are less reliable are just whispers in the wind.’’ – Swedish, 1997
‘’I am a kind of critical when it comes to news, because I do not take anything for granted.
When I am really interested in a topic, I will search for this topic at more than one source.
Because I want to know then what other sources are saying about the topic and want to form an opinion about that topic. And if I am not really interested in the topic, I do not take the news for the ‘truth’ about that topic, but I am not thinking about it anyway, because it does not interest me.’’ – Dutch, 1996
‘’It depends on how interested I am in the subject. If it is a subject I care about, I try to be more critical. I do not search on social media since it is not that quick to see what the source is and how old the news is’’ – Dutch, 1999 A shift in results can be seen when differentiating between age groups. Where most people of Generation Z score themselves with a three out of five, 66 people who were born before 1995 score themselves with a four. This equals 41% of these survey respondents. The second biggest group with 28% and 45 respondents in this age group answer with a three out of five.
Figure 10. Level of being critical after reading a headline of people born before 1995 in Europe
A difference can be seen after the survey respondents score themselves on level of being critical after consuming the whole content on a scale from one to five, with one as the lowest and five the highest. 94 respondents, and with that 47%, score themselves with a four.
Figure 11. Level of being critical after consuming the whole content of Generation Z in Europe
Both Generation Z and those were born before 1995 receive the most answers for a score of four regarding their level of being critical after consuming news content.
83 survey respondents, which is 52%, score themselves with a four. However, the second biggest group with 55 respondents scores themselves with a five. That equals 34% of these respondents.
Figure 12. Level of being critical after consuming the whole content of people born before 1995 in Europe
Conclusion
The rights that content creators will have, will not apply to hyperlinking, the use of single words or very short extracts from a publication as described in Article 15 of the new EU copyright directive [13]. Besides that, do these rights only apply to the ‘’online use of press publications by information society service providers’’.
This means that Article 15 focuses on the online access to knowledge, regardless of the topic.
News access behavior of Generation Z in Europe
The new EU copyright directive applies to all people living in EU member states, not only Generation Z. In order to provide information about the effects of the ‘’link tax’’ on Generation Z, it must be made clear which behaviors of Generation Z in Europe distinguish them from other generations.
Interest in news
Both the majority of Generation Z and those who were born before 1995 answer with a four out of five score (one being the lowest level of interest and five the highest) regarding their level of interest for news, as can be seen in the online survey results. However, while the second biggest group of survey respondents of Generation Z answers with a three, the second biggest group of survey respondents who were born before 1995 answers with a five. This indicates that these those who were born before 1995 are more interested in news than Generation Z.
News consumption
This can also be derived from the results of the frequency of news consumption of both age groups. The great majority of both age groups say they consume news content on a daily basis. Further, the number of respondents who answered this, is even almost the same.
However, the total amount of survey respondents was bigger for Generation Z and this group also often replied 'weekly' news consumption more than people born before 1995. Regardless of their level of interest in news, both age groups are single-minded regarding the topics they prefer to follow; national news, international news, politics and science.
Access to news
The literature study, online survey data and interview findings of Generation Z all show that their first access to news content goes through social media since they consume it on their phones, which they have always with them. In addition, Generation Z uses direct news sources when they want to find more information about a certain topic, as they consider these sources to be more reliable . People born before 1995 in Europe prefer direct news sources as their first access to news content, according to the survey results with 73%. However, the literature study provides global data of Millennials showing that 43% of this generation uses social media in the morning to access news first. This is in comparison to 33% that used direct news sources. Despite the numbers, it can be established that social media and direct sources are the preferred access to news content for both age groups.
Critical reflection
From the survey results, it can be concluded that those who were born before 1995 score themselves overall more
critical regarding their news consumption compared to Generation Z. As described by the literature study, the ubiquitous presence of technology, and with this the on- demand access to nearly everything, has caused Generation Z to have a shorter attention span than previous generations [22]. While people who were born before 1995 take a whole page of news previews into consideration, Generation Z will only consider the first four to six results, according to the online survey data.
The final ‘’link tax’’
The term ‘’link tax’’ refers to article eleven in the European copyright reform proposal, which originates from the public attention regarding this proposal. This
‘’link tax’’ can indirectly be found in article fifteen of the final directive. Spain and Germany both have a similar copyright reform that was previously implemented, before the EU copyright directive became official. The effects of this ‘’link tax’’ were in both cases, in their own way, the main reason for large online platforms to respond to the new legislation. The EU leaves the decision regarding the amount of compensation up to the individual EU member states. The only thing directly established by the EU is that content providers should receive a fitting share of the revenue for the use of their content.
Furthermore, while the implementations in Spain and Germany included hyperlinks and parts of the whole content, will the rights in which content providers can rely on in the future not include these two aspects [13].
This means that linking to complete content remains allowed, just like providing online users with a small extract of this full content. The decision regarding allowed the size of this extract does the EU leave up to the individual EU member states. These rights are also narrowed down to the rights of ‘’online use of press publications by information society service providers’’, which will expire after two years between content providers and other parties.
Discussion
‘’Link tax’’
The rights that come forward in Article 15 of the final copyright directive are narrowed down to the rights of
‘’online use of press publications by information society service providers’’. Press publications can, however, still be considered as a broad term, since it is described as
‘’newspapers and magazines, and those parts of television and radio that broadcast news, or reporters and photographers who work for them’’ [24]. The more traditional types of news are included in this term, but the digital interpretation is still not taken into account.
Due to this, it can be said that these rights affect the digital version of those traditional types of news access,
but that the limitations of these rights can be determined by the individual EU member states.
The impact of the ‘’link tax’’ on Generation Z
Online content providers should receive ‘’a fitting’’ share of the revenue for the use of their work [13]. What that fitting share of revenue will be, is up to the separate EU member states to determine on a national level [15].
However, this still means that the online access of knowledge will become restricted, regardless of the national implementations of the directive. Generation Z’s first access to news content is social media because it is considered to be easily and quickly accessible. This generation then switches to direct news sources if they want to find more information. This is mainly due to the fact that they consider news provided by direct news sources to be more reliable. Those who are born before 1995 in Europe use direct news sources the most, followed by social media, according to the online survey results.
However, the data retrieved from the literature study of Millennials globally shows that this generation prefers social media as their first access to news content, with a 10% lead over direct access to news. These differences could be linked to the geographical differences or the differences in age limitations between both methodology data. Yet, both results show that Generation Z is not the only generation that uses social media to access news content.
The final ‘’link tax’’ as described in Article 15 does not apply to direct news sources since they produce their own digital content, but it does apply to social media. Linking to content on social media that only contains a small summary is allowed, but it still means that users receive content from a content provider through social media.
Thus, social media platforms have to pay. Because of this, it can be discussed if the amount of news content on social media will decrease due to financial reasons. If social media will become restricted by this development might this result in an overall decrease of news content consumption, which will not only apply to Generation Z.
For that matter will the impact of the ‘’link tax’’ nearly be the same for both age groups nearly the same, regarding their news access. Generation Z appears to be less interested in news than those born before 1995, according to the online survey results. Subsequently, it can be said that the ‘’link tax’’ actually does have a greater impact on Generation Z on the long-term and that the effects of the
‘’link tax’’ will segregate Generation Z from previous generations.
Critical reflection
When referring back to the decrease on news content on social media, the reliability of the offered news content becomes also a point of discussion. If the overall amount
of news content will decrease on social media due to financial reasons, does this require a higher level of critical reflection since the offered content may not be as divers. Generation Z, however, shows to be less critical towards news content than those who were born before 1995 in the online survey results.
The impact of the ‘’link tax’’ on different news categories regarding Generation Z
The results of the online survey show that both Generation Z and people born before 1995 are interested most in news topics like national news, international news and politics. These topics are already covered by the more traditional types of news access like online newspapers, which will logically be defined as press which means that Article 15 will apply. This might result in a decrease of content coming from these news categories since social media platforms must now pay for this content. Since social media is the first access to news content of Generation Z, might a large part of this generation not receive the same amount of news content anymore.
For categories like film/series, music and fashion/beauty the question remains what the individual EU member states define as press. Blogs and independent websites that cover these topics will probably not directly be defined as press. This might result in more content coming from these categories since social media platforms do not have to pay for this content. The categories in which Generation Z is interested in might be replaced with content coming from news categories that they do not prefer. A point of discussion becomes whether the EU wants to provide Generation Z with content about film/series, music and fashion/beauty or national news, international news and politics.
The impact of the ‘’link tax’’ on different types of news providers regarding Generation Z As mentioned before, the question remains what the individual EU member states define as press. If independent websites, like blogs, will not be defined as press in certain countries, can their content still be used by large online platforms for free? Regardless of the fact that this is still free information for Generation Z through a platform that they prefer, raises the question of what kind of quality this content will be. Especially when an upcoming generation as Generation Z considers themselves overall less critical than previous generations.
The more traditional types of news access already have the money to continue to exist, even without the revenue from big online platforms as social media websites.
Smaller independent content providers do probably not have that money at this point in time but might earn more when their content will reach more people.
However, this income does not come from those big
online platforms if these independent content providers are not considered as press.
Core points of discussion
All previous points of discussion indicate one main effect of the ‘’link tax’’ on Generation Z in Europe. The decrease of news content through social media could affect the overall level of knowledge of Generation Z since this is their most preferred type of news access. Due to the fact that Generation Z is less critical regarding news content, might the content that will be offered more often be considered as the truth. In order to respond to the news access behavior of Generation Z the quality of this offered content should be a priority of the EU. However, the EU focuses on creating a better balance between content providers and online platforms, while it seems that the end users are left out.
This might all create a knowledge gap between older generations and Generation Z. Not only regarding the amount of knowledge both age groups have, but also the level of knowledge. This might lead to even bigger differences between Generation Z and older generations in the long-term.
Research limitations Literature study
Generation Z is one of the younger generations. As a result, their role in society is still being researched. Most specific and related literature comes from the United States, where this research focuses on Generation Z in Europe. However, these sources have been used to create a foundation for the other research methods and to compare European results within the future.
Quantitative online survey
The gathered amount of survey respondents within the given time frame does not provide a complete reflection of all the demographics that make up Generation Z in Europe, despite the diversity of online survey respondents in nationality and the resemblances in age. Although a distinction has been made between the educational attainment of the survey respondents, this distinction has not played a role in the final results due to the explorative nature of this research. Therefore, it has not been proved whether this has had an effect on the results or not. 53%
of the online survey respondents within Generation Z have a highest enrolled level of education in a bachelor’s program, 31% a master’s program, 11% mentioned high school, 5% have been enrolled in secondary/intermediate vocational education and 0,5% followed a doctoral program.
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