ИСТИНА

The audience in the last decade has become one of the main objects of media research. Its study is of great interest from a practical point of view, as the analysis of consumer behavior and media capabilities as an institution contributes to the improvement of the work and development of the media industry from both a professional and an economic point of view. As a result, successful business decisions made by media companies that are undergoing a digital transformation have become possible only due to understanding of the interaction between media and audience. Media managers are studying key trends of media consumption, paying particular attention to the needs of the audience as a tool for business development. This leads to the development of new digital media business strategies that take into account the current key resources of media consumers: money, time, attention, devices, and involvement. Changes in media consumption are noted mainly among young people, that are the first to use the opportunities provided by digital media technologies. The situation in Russia shows that among young people the amount of everyday Internet users reaches 98% (Google, 2017). Digital media is the main channel of receiving news, entertainment and educational information for the young people today, so the Internet is becoming an integral part of their daily lives. Studying the media consumption of the last group of young people, whose childhood and adulthood occurred during the period of rapid development of digital media is extremely relevant because it is characterized by new media practices and new levels of media literacy compared to the older age groups. These media consumption trends allow media managers to form new solutions and strategies. This study is aimed to identify the features of media consumption of modern young people aged 14 to 21 living in the developed regions of Russia - Moscow and the Moscow region, where 98% of senior schoolchildren and university students use the Internet, and the mobile Internet reaches 83%. Methodology.The survey was conducted among 400 respondents - senior schoolchildren and students aged 14 to 21 years living in Moscow and the Moscow Region. The choice of regions for the study of the digital generation is due to the peculiarities of the digital divide. The research led us to the following results. The interest of the academic community in studying the media audience has increased markedly over the past decades. Scientists point out that the behavior of the audience as a whole is changing under the influence of digital transformation. Classic approaches to the study of the relationship between digital media and audience can not fully explore the new format of their interaction, which raises an issue of creating a new aggregated theory that includes all classical ones, but takes into account the specifics of the digital world. Media consumption can be also considered as a specific social indicator, reflecting individual and public demand for information, priorities in resources (money, time) and other characteristics, such as work life balance, economic level, the level of literacy and education, lifestyle, involvement in public life, conected to the interest in the current agenda. These data stimulates successful development of digital media. Empirical research has shown that the high level of media literacy among young people aged 14 to 21, or the digital generation, allows it to use a wide range of technological capabilities of the Internet and its key services, to consider it the main source of information and a key platform for interacting with the media, to combine various activities, such as search of information and communication in social networks, to satisfy various their information needs. Empirical research has shown that access to the Internet is becoming an important need for members of the digital generation and significantly affects their daily lives. The absence of difficulties in interacting with various digital services that are well understood by this group of users opens up a wide range of different activities in the global network. Their practices include instant communication and information exchange on various platforms, data search and consumption of all types of content in non-linear mode, production and publication of their own content. Thus, it can be assumed that, despite the continued use of traditional media by the digital generation, the Internet has become the main tool in meeting the basic information and communication needs of the digital generation. Keywords: digital generation, media consumption, Generation Z