Most Teens Want Media Literacy Education, But They're Not Getting It

Key points:

An overwhelming majority of teens (94 percent) want their schools to teach media literacy, though only 39 percent reported receiving that type of instruction during the 2023-24 school year, according to a study from The News Literacy Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization.

The study reveals the alarming frequency with which American teenagers are exposed to (and believe) conspiracy theories on social media. But research also found that teaching students media literacy is associated with healthy online habits, such as fact-checking before sharing it on social media.

The study–Information literacy in the United States: A survey of adolescents' information attitudes, habits, and skills.–surveyed more than 1,000 youth ages 13 to 18 and highlights the pressing need for systemic news literacy instruction in our nation's schools.

“As we approach the home stretch of an election season defined by the spread of information disorder, this survey shows that we urgently need to prepare our young people to discern between credible news and misleading or false information,” said the CEO and president from the News Literacy Project. Carlos Salter. “American teenagers need to learn news literacy skills so they can be more informed voters of the future.”

Among the findings:

• Eight in 10 American teens say they see conspiracy theories on social media at least once a week. Some of the most frequently cited narratives include that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen, that the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous, and that the Earth is flat.
• Of teens who reported seeing conspiracy theories, 81 percent report believing in at least one of them.
• Nearly half of teens (45 percent) think the press does more to damage democracy than protect it.
• Eight in 10 say information from news organizations is no more impartial than that from other online content creators.
• Less than a quarter of teens (23 percent) say they use generative ai chatbots once a week or more, challenging the notion that ai tools have already changed the way young people approach work. school.

“This study underscores how vital news literacy skills are in a news environment dominated by social media. These platforms harbor harmful conspiracy theories, and our results show that American teenagers are not exempt from being exposed to them, or even potentially influenced by them,” said Dr. Kim Bowman, co-author of the report. “We need to do everything we can to make sure young people know how to protect themselves from falsehoods, and this report shows that our students are strongly calling for media literacy to be taught in schools.”

There was also reason to be encouraged that media literacy instruction can help teenagers more successfully navigate our information ecosystem.

Among the findings, adolescents with at least some exposure to media literacy instruction were more likely to:

• Engage in civic-minded activities, such as fighting misinformation.
• Correctly identify an image featuring a real person vs. an ai-generated image
• They report greater trust in the media and more active information habits

The study provides recommendations for parents and guardians, educators, policymakers, and journalists to ensure that students have the knowledge and ability to participate in civic society as critical and well-informed thinkers when they graduate from high school.

“He Journalism Literacy in the United States The report identifies that the nation's youth want media literacy to be offered in schools, and the findings could not make it clearer that the topic must become a curricular priority,” said Dr. Lance Holbert, director of the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Education. Civic Center (LAIC) at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which was not involved in the study. “It should serve as a wake-up call to educate the country's youth about the value of quality journalism for a sustainable democracy.”

This press release originally appeared online.