Study: Teen distrust in media makes headlines
Most teens hold negative views of the news media and have significant misconceptions about how journalism works. That’s according to our latest study of teen attitudes towards the press.
The report underscores the urgent need to make news literacy education a requirement for high school graduation, so young people have the skills to make better informed decisions about what news and other information to trust and understand why a free press matters in their lives.
The findings drew widespread media coverage.
The Associated Press: “I’ve learned that there is definitely fact-checking (in journalism),” said Rhett MacFarlane, a high school student in Canyons, Utah, which is part of our News Literacy District Fellowship program, which helps educators implement news literacy lessons for all students. “You guys are professionals, and you have to tell the truth or you’d be fired. I thought you guys just did whatever you wanted and chose what to say about a topic.”
Neiman Lab: “They are not particularly savvy when it comes to deconstructing news stories. However, once they become adept at that, they realize that there are far more journalists and news organizations out there who do take those standards seriously than they originally thought,” Mary Robb, a Massachusetts educator who uses News Literacy Project resources, , said of her students.
Columbia Journalism Review: “It really was this overwhelming amount of cynicism, and it showed us that we’ve got a couple of generations that are growing up with a very negative view of the press,” said Kim Bowman, Senior Manager of Research for the News Literacy Project and a co-author of the study. Education Week: “We need media literacy, and we need news in classrooms,” said Hailey Hans, a high school senior in West Virgina whose journalism teacher uses News Literacy Project resources. “We need to be told how to look at a story and tell what’s biased, what’s fake.”
Other coverage includes CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter and the American Press Institute’s Need to Know newsletter.
