Is digital native journalism winning the hearts of young people? A Portuguese case study

Building a narrative is part of young people's need to create meaningful frameworks for interaction these days; they want stories that inspire them about the possibility of change (Galan, 2019). Traditional media are increasingly distant from young people (Madden et al., 2017), in contrast to a new paradigm in which digital natives are involved, with a significant emotional dimension. Emotion drives more intimate relationships with technology, but it also fuels engagement with news by inspiring connection (Beckett & Deuze, 2016), what Clark and Marchi (2019) refer to as connective journalism, in which young people share what seems relevant to them. In order to identify which editorial approach is most effective and generates the most empathy and interest in the news, this article was based on 15 interviews with 16 to 18 year old adolescents The results show that teens are more empathetic and, consequently, more interested in the editorial approach used by the digital native Fumaça, which through the audio format and the story told in the first person offers a closer approach, leading the participants to feel greater empathy, understanding and interest.