This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum in association with The New York Times.

On the first day of the fall semester at Boston University, Michelle Amazeen, an associate professor of mass communication, asked her graduate students to fill out a questionnaire listing their favorite movie, band, book and news source. She was in for a surprise.

Next to news source, many of her 16 students left a blank. Several mentioned TikTok, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). One named a mainstream publication (The New York Times) as their source of news and information.

“By and large, young adults are getting their news, if they get it at all, from social media,” Ms. Amazeen said. As far as they’re concerned, “social media is exciting and it’s accessible,” because there’s little effort or expense required: just a scroll down a smartphone screen.

This practice — which Ms. Amazeen called “passive news consumption” — is among a variety of factors plaguing the mainstream media.

Traditional outlets, especially newspapers, have closed or reduced their staffs because of shrinking audiences and revenues.

The income from advertising and subscriptions that had long kept print and other local media alive has gravitated to digital coverage, generating far less income.

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