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An overwhelming 84% of American teens say they have negative views of the current state of media and journalism, with more of them expressing the belief that journalists are more skilled at deception than at providing the public with information.
That’s according to an end-of-the-year report published by the News Literacy Project (NLP), a nonpartisan education nonprofit that works with those in the field of education to ensure students have “news literacy” instruction.
Just as Gallup reported in October that trust in the media by adults had reached a “new low” of 28%, NLP found that U.S. teens express similar sentiments.
“Words or phrases teens use most frequently are those synonymous with being inaccurate and deceptive, such as ‘Fake,’ ‘False’ and ‘Lies,’ or invoking chaos and overwhelm, such as ‘Crazy,’ ‘Chaotic’ and ‘Wild,’” NLP noted regarding this top takeaway from its survey.
Some of the survey’s other key findings include:
The survey was conducted online nationwide from April 28-May 12, with 756 teens aged 13-18 years. According to NLP, the survey’s margin of error “is the largest 95% confidence interval for any estimated proportion based on the total sample — the one around 50%. For example, the margin of error for the entire sample is ± 5.3 percentage points.”
“Teens consistently demonstrated the belief that unethical behaviors that overtly violate journalism principles are distinctly more common among journalists and news organizations than even the most fundamental standards-based practices,” NLP observed.
“Only about 1 in 10 teens (9%) offered a positive word to describe news media, including ‘Interesting,’ ‘Good’ and ‘Informative,’” the report added. “Those teens who submitted a positive word most commonly characterized news media as entertaining, high quality (e.g., ‘Good’ or ‘Great’) or, at least, adequate (e.g., ‘OK’ or ‘Decent’), and informative.”
Reporting on the survey at The Washington Stand, Sarah Holliday noted that one “prominent factor” not accounted for in NLP’s survey is “how many teens are now receiving their information through nontraditional outlets like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, and other social media platforms.”
In comments to The Washington Stand, Katelynn Richardson of The Daily Caller discussed the status of the current-day media in the eyes of America’s youth.
“Today’s teens are coming of age in an era when the legacy media has largely forfeited its credibility by botching basic facts, building deceptive narratives, and reaching conclusions rather than trusting readers’ ability to reason,” she observed, but added that, more recently, “[d]iverse voices are filling the void on new platforms, a development that is both encouraging and challenging.”
Richardson went on to point out that “impressionable kids are handed smartphones and thrust into a chaotic information environment without the tools to assess the content algorithms pumped into their feed,” leaving them with a “craving” for “clarity that cuts through the lies.”
Among its “tips” to adults to help young people experience a higher quality of journalism, NLP offers:
“The results of this survey highlight several important opportunities for news literacy education and dialogue — opportunities that can help close the gap between perception and reality, sharpen students’ ability to recognize credible information and empower teen voices as critical respondents to coverage that falls short of journalism standards and ethics,” NLP noted.
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