Last week the News Literacy Project released the results of their survey of teens’ attitudes, habits, and skills with news media. Here are some key results:
- Regardless of age, only 18% of teens could accurately distinguish between 6 different types of information such as news, advertisements, opinion, and entertainment.
- 80% of teens report seeing posts on social media that spread or promote conspiracy theories. Many also reported they have believed conspiracy theories they’ve seen on social media.
- 94% of teens say that school should be teaching some form of media literacy.
Tips for how to use this new research in your conversations at home:
- Use the 6 Infozones poster when you are looking at media together, whether it is scrolling through your social media, listening to streaming audio, or watching streaming video content.
- Share the data above and discuss your teen’s responses. Do they see conspiracy theories? How do they know what is true and what is meant to incite emotion?
- Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication. Do they have opportunities to engage with information in this way at school?