A new national survey finds that 84% of American teenagers describe today’s news media with negative terms such as “biased,” “fake,” “boring,” and “depressing,” highlighting a deep generational disconnect between young people and journalism.
The findings, published this fall by the News Literacy Project, show widespread skepticism toward reporting practices. More than half of teens aged 13 to 18 believe journalists “regularly engage in unethical behaviors” such as making up details or quotes, paying sources, taking images out of context, or doing favors for advertisers.
Less than a third believe reporters correct mistakes, confirm facts before publishing, gather information from multiple sources, or cover stories in the public interest.
Cat Murphy, a 21-year-old journalism graduate student at the University of Maryland, said many young people view the industry as fading or unreliable.
“There is a lot of commentary — ‘Oh, good for you. Look what you’re walking into. You’re going to be screaming into the void. You’re going to be useless,’” Murphy said.
Peter Adams, senior vice president at the News Literacy Project, said distrust toward media comes from both real errors and misconceptions. “Some of this (attitude) is earned, but much of it is based on misperception,” Adams said.
Experts told AP that teens’ attitudes often mirror their parents, and most young people rarely encounter reputable journalism in school or daily life.
Lily Ogburn, former editor-in-chief of Northwestern University’s Daily Northwestern, said classmates often rely entirely on social media and misunderstand what journalists do. She said students sometimes assumed the newspaper existed “to protect people in power rather than hold them accountable.”
“There’s a lot of mistrust toward journalists,” Ogburn said. “I want to be a journalist that people trust, and I want to report news that makes people believe and trust in the media.”
Young people also lack exposure to cultural depictions of journalism. Two-thirds of teens surveyed could not name any movie or TV show about reporters. Those who did most often cited the Spider-Man franchise or Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Howard Schneider, executive director of SUNY Stony Brook’s Center for News Literacy, said many students mistakenly assume platforms like YouTube are themselves news sources.
“Students will say, ‘I get my news from YouTube,’” he said. “I say, ‘No, you don’t.’”
News literacy programs have shown promise. At Brighton High School in Utah, 16-year-old Brianne Boyack said she now double-checks sources after taking such a course. Her classmate Rhett MacFarlane said it changed how he evaluates claims from friends. “I’ve learned that there is definitely fact-checking,” he said.
Still, Schneider said such programs remain rare due to packed school curricula and journalists’ declining reputation. “There’s an inertia here, and this is an urgent issue,” he said.
Murphy believes journalism must adapt to win back young audiences. “There’s very little movement in the direction of going to where people are, as opposed to expecting them to come to where you are,” she said.