Hermon Gebretensaye recently joined the IN/LAB team as an intern. She is a student in Media and Communication at Stockholm University and has previously worked with IN/LAB through the News Changemaker Program through her role as youth leader at the community center Fritiden in Hallonbergen.
In 2022, Hermon wrote her bachelor thesis on news consumption among generation Z in the outer city areas in Stockholm. She built her research around the concept of News Finds Me Perception and showed how her young respondents believed that news of critical importance would find their way to them (rather than them seeking it out). Her research also included perspectives on news and mental health, with respondents arguing that if there is nothing they (as news consumers) could do about a story, there was no point in them further searching about the news knowing it would only weigh them down.
Building upon her experiences from being a youth leader in recreational centers in outer city Stockholm, Hermon said the following when reflecting upon her own research findings:
"These young adults don't want to trouble themselves with even more negativity. They care about their own mental health, perhaps because they feel like no one else does"
During her fall 2023 internship with IN/LAB, Hermon will focus on the following goals:
Lifting up new (young) perspectives to inform innovation efforts in news media
Facilitating meetings between young from outer city Stockholm and established media actors
We are very excited to have Hermon onboard!
If you want to get in touch with Hermon, she can be reached at hermon.gebretensaye@schibsted.com
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