🌅 Half of U.S. Teens Think Journalists Make Things Up

SOURCE

News Literacy Project

WHAT TO KNOW

• An overwhelming majority (84%) of U.S. 13- to 18-year-olds express negative sentiments when asked to describe today’s news media, often choosing words like “fake,” “false,” and “lies.” The new report from the News Literacy Project found a strong majority of teens (69%) also believe news organizations intentionally include bias in their reporting to advance certain perspectives, while only a little over half (56%) think journalists and news organizations take standards such as fairness and accuracy seriously in their work.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The report found roughly half of U.S. teens have lost faith in journalists, believing they frequently give advertisers special treatment (49%), make up quotes (50%), pay or do favors for sources (51%), or take photos and videos out of context (60%). Just under half (45%) also say journalists do more to harm democracy than protect it, while the vast majority (80%) believe professional journalists fail to produce information that is more impartial than content made by online creators.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Experts say the findings underscore the importance of news literacy in education and the danger of healthy skepticism hardening into destructive cynicism. They also say that while ethical breaches do happen in journalism, they are incredibly rare when viewed in context, and are usually career-ending. Earlier research by the News Literacy Project also found nearly all teens (94%) think schools should be required to teach media literacy, and that students who receive such education are more likely to trust the press.