756 teens reveal America’s news crisis
Plus, Sabrina Carpenter claps back at the White House, YouTube’s clout, and a 14-year-old gubernatorial candidate.
“Biased.” “Crazy.” “Fake.” Boring.”
These are some of the top words that come to mind when teens in America — who were raised on TikTok and YouTube and came of age in President Donald Trump’s America — think of news, according to a survey from the News Literacy Project, a non-profit organization committed to media literacy in K-12 education.
The survey, which sampled 756 U.S. teens ages 13-18, is a follow-up to a report the organization released last year showing that a striking majority — 69% — of teens “thought that news organizations intentionally add bias to coverage to advance a specific perspective. Meanwhile, 80% said news journalists are “more/equally biased compared to other content creators.”
By the numbers:
This year,
84% of teens describe news media negatively
More than one in three teens (37%) offered negative feedback even when asked to list something journalists do well
Nearly half of teens (or more) say journalists almost always or often engage in “unethical behaviors,” such as: “give advertisers special treatment” (49%), “make up details, such as quotes” (50%), “pay or do favors for sources” (51%), or “take photos and videos out of context” (60%)
It’s not that young people aren’t hungry for information. They’re just consuming it differently
We know that as young Americans lose trust in “the news,” they’re turning to content creators on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and X for updates.
*Read our piece on the Journalist vs. Creator discourse here*
Instead of tuning into nightly news at 6 pm sharp, teens are flocking to different types of storytellers, who feel more relatable because they stream into their palms in-real-time and focus on issues that feel pertinent to their everyday lives, often telling it like it is with their bias up front.
The challenge though, especially for those worried about civic education and our national security, is that not all political ads or partisan operatives are upfront, leaving younger audiences susceptible to propaganda and unaware of who may actually be funding some of their favorite content.
The Up and Up’s take: It’s easy to understand why teens have lost trust in news.
Teens today have been taught to question everything they see online and were raised in a political era dominated by a president who railed against the “fake news” media from the start.
I saw this first hand, while working at CNN. I would travel to deep Republican districts, show my network badge, and face backlash from people (including the parents or grandparents of teens), who were unwilling to talk to me as a result.
Meanwhile, media literacy and civic education is dismal — and in some places, nonexistent. With that backdrop, it makes sense why teens are inherently skeptical.
While their parents’ news-of-choice might have been on play in the background at home, from the moment today’s teens started consuming ‘news’ for themselves, it’s been something that shows up on a feed rather than something they seek out independently.
At first, that may have felt like they were finally getting news of their own.
But lately, I’m hearing from Gen Zers who feel worn out by the algorithms and their echo chambers. They’re frustrated by a lack of autonomy in their media diet and increasingly choosing to follow and subscribe to the voices they actually want to listen to, not just hear — including those across the political aisle for a change of pace and perspective.
The top action teens said journalists could improve on in the News Literacy Project survey was “being honest,” followed by “minimizing bias.” Our schools, social media platforms, and elected officials should actively require teens to confront media that is clear about and challenges their biases.
If we want the generation that was raised to question everything they see online to trust what they’re consuming, we need to rewire their news gathering habits, centering agency in the process.
In other news
Sabrina Carpenter hits back at the White House for using her song ‘Juno’ in a video they posted showing footage of ICE arrests
Almost 100% of young adults in the U.S. have used YouTube
A 14-year-old is running for governor in Vermont
Noteworthy reads, and a watch
I Can’t Afford A House, So Why Don’t I Just Be Gorgeous?, Hannah Orenstein for Bustle
How Gen Z Is Shopping, Kailyn Rhone for The New York Times
It’s giving Tuesday
In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, here are a few non-profit organizations on The Up and Up’s radar:
The News Literacy Project (who commissioned the survey I wrote about today)
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE, the preeminent youth vote data hub) at Tufts
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions (FIRE, which releases the annual campus free speech rankings)
The Boys and Girls Clubs of America (which we often partner with branches of to recruit participants for listening sessions)
Janfaza's writing is always really thoughtful but this report really deserves a read... Because the mistrust leaves teens dependent on algorithms controlled by individuals like Musk, Ellison, and Zuckerberg. It's a major argument for media literacy programs and for the very critical thinking programs that the administration is attacking. And for using what space now exists on the social platforms to get people recognizing that their feed isn't necessarily trustworthy. Also shows the values of sites like Allsides and Groundnews which let people compare multiple perspectives