about her research
Zerba researches the news habits and non-news habits of under-30s, or millennials, specifically in relation to reading news in print and online. She became interested in the topic during her first job at a print newspaper. She wondered how story selection, reporting and newswriting could improve to get more of this under-30 audience wanting to read the news. She was 23 then. As a researcher now, she studies and experiments with storytelling devices in an attempt to improve news reading experiences among millennials.
publications
- Amy Zerba. "Putting the Story Back in Hard News Stories to Engage Young Audiences." Newspaper Research Journal 29, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 94-102.
- Amy Zerba, “Reaching Young Adults Begins with Change” in Women, Men, and News: Divided and Disconnected in the News Media Landscape, ed. Paula Poindexter, Sharon Meraz and Amy Schmitz Weiss (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum), 155-174.
academic conferences
- Amy Zerba. 2010. Why Some Young Adults Dislike Print Newspapers and Their Ideas For Change. Presented to the Newspaper Division at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication National Convention, Denver.
- Amy Zerba. 2008. Are Young Adults' Reasons for Not Reading a News Medium, Medium-Specific? Presented to the Newspaper Division at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication National Convention, Chicago. (*Top Student Paper in Newspaper Division)
- Amy Zerba. 2007. Putting the Story Back in Hard News Stories to Engage Young Audiences. Presented to the Newspaper Division at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication National Convention, Washington, D.C.
- Amy Zerba. 2006. Physical News: Why Some Young Adults Don’t Read Newspapers. Presented to the Newspaper Division at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication National Convention, San Francisco, Calif.
- Amy Zerba and Tania Cantrell. 2005. No Laughing Matter: Negative Attribute Agenda Setting Effects on Late-Night Television. Presented to the Entertainment Studies Interest Group at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication National Convention, San Antonio, Texas.
- Amy Zerba. 2004. Growing Up with Parents who Read and Watch the News: What is the Effect on College Students? Presented to the Newspaper Division at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication National Convention, Toronto.
- Amy Zerba. 2004. Redefining Multimedia to a More Packaged Journalism Online. Paper presented at International Symposium on Online Journalism, Austin, Texas.
- Amy Zerba. 2003. Perceived Motives for Clicking on Multimedia Features on News Web Sites: An Exploratory Study. Paper accepted at AEJMC, Kansas City, Missouri.