YouTube Beats TV: Gen Z Redefines the Story, UCLA Study Finds

By Elena Vasquez

YouTube ranked as the top storytelling medium for young audiences at 72.9%, according to the 2026 Teens and Screens Report from UCLA's Center for Scholars & Storytellers. The study surveyed more than 1,500 adolescents aged 10 to 24 and found that nearly four out of five respondents believe short-form videos can tell a story.

The report, now in its fifth year, documents what young viewers actually want on screen — a question its authors say the industry rarely asks them directly.

What do the numbers show?

The findings point to a generation with a broad definition of "story" and where to find it, paired with a persistent appetite for traditional media and in-person experiences. Key data points from the 2026 report:

• 72.9% ranked YouTube as the top medium for storytelling.
• Nearly four in five respondents said short-form videos can tell a story.
• 16.8% would not cast an influencer in a project; almost 40% would most prefer to cast an unknown actor.
• 27.4% of 19-year-olds identified "doom" as their dominant emotion toward AI portrayals in media, while 44.2% of 10- to 13-year-olds called AI "fascinating."
• 55% want to see more neurodivergent characters on screen.
• 57.3% want more platonic relationships represented.

The takeaway in plain words: young viewers want authenticity, unknown faces and friendship stories, and they are divided on AI by age.

Who is sounding the alarm?

"Adults are making stories that they think are going to resonate with young people, but they're not really talking to a lot of young people to do it," CSS founder and CEO Yalda T. Uhls told Variety. Uhls is a professor in UCLA's psychology department who spent nearly two decades as a senior executive at studios including MGM and Sony before pivoting to research on media and young adults.

Since the report launched, Uhls has watched industry executives and researchers make a concerted effort to integrate its findings. She noted that individuals from CAA, Disney and UTA will attend a summit on Oct. 22 to listen and inform their work.

"Our assumptions based on what we thought were stories when we were younger can't hold," Uhls said. "They're not holding, and we need to really talk to young people, do research like this to make sure that these stories are everywhere and they're consuming it all the time."

She continued: if industry leaders with "real cultural power" pay attention to what young people need and want, "they're gonna not only probably make content that will resonate and that these young people will see more, but also, it'll just hopefully create a more empathetic and kind world."

Why short-form content counts as storytelling

Uhls admitted the findings challenged her own instincts. She was surprised to hear participants say that short-form content like Instagram Reels can tell stories.

"So many adults look down on this medium," Uhls said. But younger audiences "see stories everywhere. They see media. They're looking for something that they can relate to that resonates with them. And if they don't see it in a traditional piece of content storytelling in TV, books or movies, they're going to go elsewhere, and they are going elsewhere."

She described these viewers as "way more discerning" than executives might realize. "They like to discover someone new, but yet at the same time, with 'Obsession' and 'Backrooms,' there's a different kind of storytelling that's learned on YouTube really, and maybe TikTok and other things too," she said. "So, from a filmmaker perspective, it's not that they want the stories on those platforms to be translated into mainstream content, but certainly the style and the thinking of their issues and what they do seems to be something Gen Z loves."

In short: the formats may be native to YouTube and TikTok, but the sensibility is migrating into what Gen Z watches everywhere.

Is this audience monolithic?

No — and Uhls stresses that point. She recalls working on her dissertation and realizing that assumptions based only on Los Angeles teens did not hold true across the country.

She names two takeaways she hopes executives will draw from the study: "Listening to young people and diverse young people from all over the country is one. And then the second thing is they're way more nuanced than we give them credit for. They're way more sophisticated than we give them credit for. Sometimes they say really wise and brilliant things."

What happens on Oct. 22?

CSS will host its sixth annual Teens & Screens Summit on Oct. 22 at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center. The event features panels and discussions with industry leaders, researchers and youth activists. Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions, will receive CSS's second annual Greg Berlanti Social Impact Award at the event.

The summit's industry attendance — from CAA, Disney and UTA — suggests the report's data is now shaping development decisions, not just academic debate.