A News Literacy Project (NLP) report lands like a brick: 84% of teenagers think journalism is a con, a carnival game where spin wins every prize. Only nine percent muster anything nice to say, while the remaining seven percent stare at the floor and pretend the question was for someone else.
They overwhelmingly judged journalists as “skilled at lying and deceiving than informing the public.” Half of those polled accused journalists “make up details,” while nearly two-thirds insisted that photos and videos are taken “out of context.”
Forty-five percent “said journalists do more to harm democracy than to protect it,” which is a polite way of saying thanks for nothing, Fourth Estate. Eighty percent “believe journalists fail to produce information that is more impartial than other content creators online,” apparently putting reporters in the same credibility bracket as that guy on TikTok who reviews New York pizza joints. Meanwhile, a confident 69% “thought that news’ organizations intentionally add bias to coverage to advance a specific perspective.”
Ignored or simply dismissed in the NLP survey was the elephant in the room: where teens actually get their news. As expected, it is not from traditional mainstream news’ sources like newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. Rather, it is through social media, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X.
Teenagers are not the only ones as a 2023 Pew Research poll revealed one in five Americans “regularly get news on TikTok,” and at least 63% were already on the site with that number most likely much higher today.
News literacy cannot ignore this reality.
Parents, journalists, and educators must approach news literacy as a shared responsibility rather than an ethical shortcoming, and when they do teenagers will be more willing to engage. Rather than complain about screen time, we must meet teenagers where they are while teaching them to separate fact from fiction before the algorithm does it for them.
Traditional outlets are being left for dust. The mainstream media has more often than not forfeited their credibility by omitting basic facts, building misleading narratives, and reaching conclusions rather than trusting readers’ ability to reason.
One recent example was U.S. forces were able to find and extract Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro in Caracas without incident. Juxtapose that with any Minnesota journalist unable to confirm any child enrolled at a Minneapolis Somali daycare.
The examples are legion.
Consider how The New York Times, and The Washington Post lied about “Russiagate.” In the last election, the mainstreamers, friendly to the Democrat establishment, buried Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop. Rather than being guardians of the truth, the mainstreamers were guardians of the Democrat Party.
News literacy is not some niche activity; rather it is a survival skill.
Just as you can’t write a thesis without structure and an outline or balance a chemical equation without detailed knowledge and precision, you can’t navigate today’s information highway without knowing how to verify a source, spot a manipulated image, and separate straight reporting from opinion dressed up as fact.
The NLP report does not mince words: “Being honest and ending bias” echoed the loudest. Moreover, when journalists get it wrong, 39% agreed they “rarely or never” bother to correct mistakes damaging their integrity.
The challenges facing the journalism industrial complex are more severe than what a poll of teenagers reveal. Journalists and editors need to rethink their fortress mentality. Trust is at a record low. Throughout the industry, jobs are declining with more than one third of newspapers shuttered.
The solution is to rebuild trust in the places where one’s attention lives in this fractured and skeptical era no matter what one’s age.
Explain why certain stories are covered and others aren’t. Show the reporting process, the debates, the standards, and yes, the mistakes and publish corrections prominently and promptly instead of burying them like radioactive waste.
News organizations must adapt to the evolving media platforms of Substack’s, podcasts, and livestreams, while confronting their credibility with humility.
Authenticity is not a branding strategy of public relations; it is a survival strategy and a major wake‑up call.
If newsrooms do not hear the call and course‑correct now, they won’t just lose an audience, they will lose their relevance in the very democracy they claim to defend.
