One thing that stood out? None of the students — even in an elective course about media — confessed any interest in becoming a journalist. A few could name news organizations they trusted but others said the news came to them through social media or what friends shared or what they overheard as their parents were watching television. They had questions for me, too, including several about the pitfalls, challenges, and ethics of being a journalist.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been unprepared, then, to read a new report from News Literacy Project that surveyed American teenagers about their attitudes towards journalists. But “Biased,” “Boring,” and “Bad”: Unpacking perceptions of news media and journalism among U.S. teens still wasn’t a fun read. The online survey asked 756 teenagers (ages 13-18) nationwide about their views and found:
- An overwhelming majority of teens (84%) described news media with negative words — often characterizing media as intentionally deceptive or invoking negative emotional feelings. The top five words submitted by teens were “Fake, “Crazy, “Boring, “Biased,” and “Sad,” according to a very depressing word cloud published in the report.