The news media is distrusted by most teenagers, according to a new report by the News Literacy Project detailed in Education Week. More than four out of five teens (84%) take a dismal view, believing objective, fact-based news is rare or non-existent, according to the report.
Many students see journalists engaging in unscrupulous practices. About half believe that journalists “always, almost always, or often” are unethical, giving advertisers special treatment, making up quotes, or paying or doing favors for sources to get information.
Hailey Hans, 18, a senior at Weir High School in West Virginia, gets most of her news on social media, and relies on the accounts of local reporters or news stations. “Anyone can be a journalist on social media nowadays. That doesn’t make them a good journalist with good morals,” she says. Many teens don’t always differentiate between legitimate news sources and other content, she says.
Teen attitudes are no different from the public at large. Less than a third of American adults—28%—have confidence in the media to report a story “fairly and accurately,” according to a 2025 Gallup poll cited in the report.
Why the distrust?
Teens—and the public in general—don’t understand the difference between a standards-based news organization and an influencer or opinion writer. Both types of content often come at teens through social media, says Peter Adams, the News Literacy Project’s senior vice-president of research and design.
“If teens think online coverage of current events, social issues and politics is ‘news’ from ‘media,’ they’re going to blame standards-based news organizations for tactics used by bad actors and hyperpartisan outlets engage in,” Adams says.
The solution? Media literacy in classrooms. Students need to be told how to look at a story and tell what’s biased, what’s fake.
Teens who report higher trust in news media are more likely to report having had classes with some media literacy instruction, according to previous research by the News Literacy Project.
Schools can help teens by explaining the differences between information produced by standards-based news organizations and information from other sources, the report notes.
Educators can help teens move beyond the sweeping idea of “the media” by sharing specific examples of high-quality, public-service journalism produced by standards-based news organizations.
Another way to help teens understand the news media: Have them report their own stories, using the same ethical standards as professionals, such as objectivity and fact-checking.
“Before I started doing journalism this year, I did believe there was heavy bias” in news outlets such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, says Greyson Scott, 16, a sophomore at Weir High School, West Virginia. Now that he’s taken a journalism class and a closer look at news reporters versus commentators on those networks, he thinks the bias among the actual news reporters is “slight,” he says.
And he’s getting better at vetting news sources. “I get my news from social media, but if it’s something that’s not from a trustable source, I’ll fact check it on my own.”
Education Week
