With serious questions being posed about the quality of polls reported by news organizations, and the American public distrust in the national press at the highest levels ever, it is worthwhile to ask: What is the future of news?

A recently completed study shows that the decline in newspaper readership and network news viewership is not likely to change soon, as the country’s youngest news consumers rely on new media:

A new Pew Research study confirms that the under 25 crowd is driving the explosion of online news consumption.

Call it what you want – the Internet Generation, iGeneration or iGen – it’s clear that today’s young people are truly living up to their generational nicknames.

Although traditional news sources such as television, print news and radio are still king Americans 30 and up, the number of 18 -24 year-olds who told Pew they “ ‘got news or news headlines’ yesterday on social networking sites” such as facebook or Google+ has nearly tripled in the last two years. Among youth ages 25-29 it has more than doubled.

Of the 18-24 year-olds surveyed, 34 percent told Pew they got news yesterday from a social networking site, compared with 12 percent in 2010. Among 25-29 year olds the number was slightly lower, with 32 percent saying they got news from social media the day before, compared with 13 percent in 2010.

Likewise, 28 percent of 18-24 year-olds said they only got their news from online platforms compared to the 11 percent who said they only got their news from traditional sources. Roughly a third said they got their news from both sources (32 percent).

Other revelations of interest from the survey include:

• Only 5 percent of 18-29 year olds say they follow political news “very closely.” (Weather was the top dog at 43 percent; surprisingly entertainment news only garnered 18 percent of vote.)
• The amount of time young people spend reading, watching or listening to news has roughly stayed the same since 2004 (45 minutes).
• Young people “enjoy” news less than any other age group.
• Young people “enjoy” news less they did four years ago (-14 percent change).
• Only 34 percent of 18-29 year olds surveyed said they had watched the news on TV the day before, down 15 percent from six years ago when half of young adults (49 percent) said they had.
• The number of young Americans who regularly watch the local news has also drastically decreased. Only 28 percent of respondents said they watch the local news, compared with 42 percent in 2006 (-14 percent change).