A mass media expert said he wholeheartedly supports programs like the USA Today Collegiate Readership Program to increase news interest among today’s youth.

“I think it’s worth it to spend money on this,” said David Mindich, author of the 2005 book “Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News.”

Mindich’s lecture centered on attracting news consumers in an era of falling news readership and a seeming decline in interest in current events. About 200 students and teachers packed into a Student Learning Center room Sunday for the lecture.

“The news habit is one you have to cultivate by your mid-20s, or you won’t cultivate it at all,” he said.

Under the proposed Collegiate Readership Program, copies of the New York Times, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Athens Banner-Herald are offered to students with a valid UGA ID card at newspaper bins across campus.

An editorial in The Red & Black (“The Bottom Line,” Sept. 21) argued that the program, sponsored by the Student Government Association, offers too few newspapers and raised questions about SGA’s spending of money raised for the program.

During the lecture, Mindich said journalism is important because “we need enough information to hold our leaders accountable.”

Mindich, a journalism professor, lecturer and author from St. Michael’s College in Vermont, said journalists should explain the backstory to news events and avoid mixing facts with entertainment.

Mindich said the medium viewer age of CNN and other network news is about 60, and that’s why ads during commercial breaks tout adult diapers and dentures.

What’s more, most young adults can’t name Supreme Court justices – but they all seem to know about shows like Fear Factor and actors like Brad Pitt.

However, naivete about current affairs isn’t unique to today’s kids, Mindich said. In years past, more kids could name the Three Stooges than Supreme Court justices.

Entertainment is partly the culprit, Mindich said.

“When news tries to out-entertain entertainment, it loses every time,” he said.

The decline of international bureaus and statehouse reporters is another factor hurting news content, he said. There’s also been a rise of sensationalism, or celebrity and crime-driven news.

“But great journalism happens everyday” among news watchdogs that are sticklers for the facts, like the New York Times and the British Broadcasting Corporation, he said.

Mindich said journalists can offer more “road maps,” meaning they can better explain the backstory of news events. Online journalism does this by supplying links for previous stories, he said.

“Once people start to feel they know other people who follow the news or they think it’s cool,” they get excited about news, Mindich said. “Discussions really fuel news interest.”

Brandon Ashley, a senior from Rome, said he came mainly because he got extra credit.

But the agricultural communications major said he found Mindich “really insightful.”

Ashley said his news diet consists of The Red & Black and The Athens Banner-Herald now that the paper is free through the Collegiate Readership Program.

Joanna Eldredge, a freshman from Marietta, said she wants to read more newspapers to keep up with current events.

“If people have conversations about news, you tend to want to get involved yourself,” said the telecommunications and film studies major.

Eldredge said she attended the event for credit so she could register for classes earlier, under a program sponsored by the University.