Teens Lack Media Literacy Skills, Exposing Them to Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories On Social Media

According to a new study by The News Literacy Project, most teens see a lot of conspiracy theories online but they do not have any media literacy to differentiate what’s true from false. The study was done among 1,000 teens of ages 13 to 18. The study says that many teens cannot tell if an information or news online is biased or not, and they trust it without finding the sources. This shows that teens are not being taught media literacy which is important for them in their daily lives.

80% of the respondents of the survey said that they frequently see conspiracy theories on their social media feeds, while 20% reported seeing them daily. Even though teens do not believe every single conspiracy theory they see online, 81% said they do believe one or two of them. Commonly conspiracy theories on the internet include covid vaccines being dangerous, earth being flat and 2020 elections being rigged.

The survey says that even though teens are seeing a lot of conspiracy theories, they are not being educated about media literacy. Less than 40% of the respondents said that their schools have taught them about media literacy during the past two months. The survey also asked respondents to identify whether an ad, photo or article is real or fake.

More than half of the teens were unable to identify fake content. Teens were also asked if they’ll believe a press release from Coca-Cola or Reuters. 56% answered Reuters and this shows that teens are more likely to believe well-known brands over a credible news source. What teens could really identify was photos. 70% of the respondents could tell an AI-generated image to a real image.

70% of the teens also said that they believe that news organizations are biased. 15% of the respondents also said that they watch or read news to stay informed on different matters. The news medium trusted most by teens was Local TV, followed by TikTok. Out of all the things in the survey,all teens agreed on one thing. 94% of the respondents said that schools should offer some type of media literacy degree.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World