Scholars from three Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences units collaborated on a new, interdisciplinary book entitled, From Legacy Media to Going Viral: Generational Media Use and Citizen Engagement, published by Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group.

The book examines how the prominent media that were available to and accessed by four major generational groups — Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z — as well as important global and national events that occurred while they were growing up, helped shape political and civic engagement among each rising generation of citizens.

The authors are Robert H. Wicks, professor in the Department of Communication; Shauna A. Morimoto, professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and an associate dean in Fulbright College; and Jan LeBlanc Wicks, professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Strategic Media.

Based on the results of their national survey with 2,428 respondents, the authors examine the differences among the four generational groups in media use including traditional, social and digital media. The authors also discuss differences regarding the decline in social trust, cognitive engagement with the news in a variety of media, civic and political engagement, partisan media use and more recent forms of political engagement such as political consumerism, including boycotting.

Drawing on social science research and theory from media studies, advertising, communication, journalism, public relations, political science and sociology, the book contextualizes the civic and political rise of the Millennials and Gen Z, as compared to Gen X and the Baby Boomers, and analyzes differences in their media use and political and social engagement.

This book explores how the type of media accessible to and historical events experienced by each American generation while growing up contribute to that generation's collective experience, thus solidifying their civic and political attitudes. These historical events and media availability within generational cohorts contribute to how members differ from previous generations. Thus, Baby Boomers remain comfortable with traditional media such as television and newspapers, while Millennials and Gen Z are most comfortable with new media technologies, so each cohort prefers different media and consequently different forms of participation in society.

The findings suggest that each generation becomes more civic and politically engaged as they move through life, yet each cohort still relies on the media available during their formative years.