Most teens today (84%) have negative attitudes toward the news media, describing it as “fake,” “false” and “lies,” according to a survey by the News Literacy Project and reported in Education Week.
This distrust affects their understanding of important topics and their ability to separate news from entertainment, say experts.
Teens’ reliance on social media fuels this attitude because the algorithm used means they consume the “same story, the same sound bites, the same talking points,” says Peter Faustino, a licensed school psychologist in New York and Connecticut and a former president of the National Association of School Psychologists. When presented with “different information or a different perspective, it immediately leads to a distrust or mistrust of the new information that isn’t in [their] confirmation bias,” he explains.
Promoting media literacy can help teens discern fact from fiction, says Pamela Brunskill, a senior director of education design at the News Literacy Project. Teach news habits that include healthy skepticism but not blanket mistrust in everything they see, she says.
A 2024 News Literacy Project survey found 50% of teens said the “news finds me” (primarily through social media), 15% actively sought out news, and 36% said they don’t keep up with news.
“Skepticism is now more prolonged because as young children go to social media and explore the internet, they’re surrounded by information that is, in fact, false,” says Andrew Shtulman, a professor of psychology at Occidental College in California.
Another complication is that many teens today aren’t circulating online information among their peers based on whether it’s accurate or meaningful.
“They base their judgments of sharing on the emotional appeal of the story,” says Shtulman. “That doesn’t help with the kinds of implicit beliefs and implicit attitudes you might form if your friends are knowingly sharing information that they themselves think is false.” Many teens don’t circulate online information with peers based on whether it is accurate or meaningful.
To develop digital literacy, deeper conservations about topics, and discussing news sources from different perspectives, schools can focus on the reliability of sources, says Shtulman. Claims of fake news and doubts about the credibility of online sources requires doing “a little bit of investigating,” he says. “It’s a new set of skills that adults in the past didn’t even have to develop.”
Ask students what they are seeing on their individual news feeds, says Brunskill of the News Literacy Project. Students can keep track of news stories coming to them for a week and pay close attention to their credibility.
“Always start with the kids’ lives,” Brunskill says. “Make it authentic.”
Education Week
