Do your teens distrust the news media? Here’s what your family needs to know.
News
News media trust
In 2024, we surveyed more than 1,100 teens about their information habits, skills and attitudes and reported our findings. This year we reconnected with over 750 of those teens to explore their distrust about the press and beliefs about how journalism works. The findings are discouraging. You can read the full report — “Biased,” “Boring,” and “Bad”: Unpacking perceptions of news media and journalism among U.S. teens — here.
What we learned
- Most teens view news media negatively.
- More teens believe the press deceives than believe it informs the public.
- More teens believe members of the press regularly behave unethically than believe news reporters regularly engage in standards-based practices.
- Young people want journalists to stick to the facts and minimize bias.
- Most teens couldn’t think of any on-screen or popular culture depictions of journalists … but the most popular on-screen reporter is Spider-Man.
Teens are not alone in holding these negative views of the press; other research finds that a majority of American adults also distrust the news media.
Why it matters
- Teens who have little trust in journalists are more vulnerable to propaganda and conspiracy theories.
- Young people may be getting more information from low-quality sources, which can limit their ability to make well-informed decisions about their lives and issues facing their communities.
- Teens who distrust the press are less likely to hold reporters accountable when coverage falls short of the standards of quality journalism.
These findings paint a bleak picture, but you have the power to redraw the landscape — through news literacy.
What you can do
- Encourage teens to distinguish between standards-based news and other types of information, like opinion, advertising and entertainment.
- If you are discussing current events or information on social media, ask whether the content is meant to inform, persuade, entertain or sell.
- To help your family spot misinformation’s red flags, point out examples of AI slop or clickbait and practice how to identify low-quality information that is meant to provoke strong emotions.
- Practice verification skills together.
- When news breaks, ask some family members to search their social media apps for information about the event. Meanwhile, ask other family members to spend 15 minutes reading about it in standards-based news sources. Discuss and compare the differences.
- Read, watch, listen or scroll together. Encourage young people to test the credibility of both news and other content and ask whether they can see that information has been verified.
- Question representations of journalists in popular culture.
- Remember, a fictional drama might prevent the facts from getting in the way of an engaging story.
- Balance perceptions of journalism.
- Yes, it’s healthy to hold journalists accountable when they fall short of ethical guidelines.
- It’s also healthy to acknowledge when reporters are doing their jobs right.
