Why it’s important to help teenagers navigate the online news landscape.
Reposted with permission from the Ramos Research Institute
Recently, I was scrolling through my social media feed and stumbled across something I could only describe as performance art. A user shared their outrage over the fact that the inventor of Sudoku, a woman named Susan Doku, was outed as a lesbian by The New York Times in the early 2000s. The author argues this was done in an attempt to slander her name and help the NYT gain exclusive printing rights for the puzzle. In the original post, all of these claims included hyperlinks. The audience was clearly meant to assume these links would take you to the author’s sources. In reality, the story was completely fabricated, and these links took you to YouTube videos such as “Burping Cat.”[1]
The post currently has over 52,000 likes and shares. On the internet, it’s hard to see past the layers of irony and discern what people truly think, but given the fact that the post is intentionally satirizing a common phenomenon, it’s probably safe to say it went over a few heads. Many users reshared the disinformation with hashtags such as #homophobia or #queer history. Summing up the punchline, one user simply tagged the post #media literacy test.
Media literacy involves the ability to understand media messages, their context, and the influence they might have. It’s a wide umbrella that can be applied to many forms of media, but one of the most important components is news literacy. News literacy means being able to differentiate between different types of information, such as distinguishing opinion pieces from news articles. It requires checking whether a claim is backed by sources, if those sources are credible, how they might potentially be biased, and how they might be trying to appeal to your emotions. In a rather extreme example, it should keep you from sharing Susan Doku’s story out of knee jerk indignation and blind trust in a hyperlink.
In a time of “fake news” and in a society where four out of five adults never received media literacy education in schools,[2] worrying about American voters is understandable. However, I’ve noticed an additional concerning trend with many older people I know. I keep hearing the assumption that young people don’t need help navigating digital spaces. They grew up on the internet, surrounded by online news. Like a language immersion program, they’re expected to have simply absorbed the ability to know what’s trustworthy online. That’s not how news literacy works. News literacy is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced. If we want to break the cycle of misinformation and reorient ourselves in reality, a good way to start is by giving tomorrow’s voters the tools they need to understand the world around them. That means not only discussing media literacy tools, but talking to teens about news media as an institution.
News literacy for young people, as for most Americans, is a two-fold problem. The first is a lack of knowledge about how to approach news, especially online news, with a critical lens. In 2023, the Office of the Surgeon General identified media literacy as part of a larger health concern for young peoples’ relationship with social media. Despite the office’s recommendation that media literacy be built into school curricula, only 18 states currently require any sort of media literacy education.[3] The results of this education gap are clear. A study by the News Literacy Project found that just under half of teens have a difficult time differentiating between an opinion piece and actual news, and half of them cannot recognize an example of branded content as an advertisement.[4] The ability to recognize that a piece of media wants to influence you, not just inform you, is a vital skill. It’s a major tool for spotting misinformation masquerading as news. People unwittingly share misinformation because it’s designed to play to our emotions and push past our critical thinking skills. Media literacy is what allows us to stand firm against information that fills us with fear or anger, giving us space to think about where that information is coming from. It’s a skill that’s not being taught to young people.
The second problem young people face when interacting with the news is one many adults struggle with as well. They have a significant lack of trust towards journalism as an institution. The fact that teens don’t always know to look for news sources beyond social media isn’t the only issue. Many are choosing not to look for traditional news sources because they actively distrust them. Forty five percent of teens believe journalists do more to harm democracy than to protect it.[5]
Teenagers, like many adults, are turning more towards vernacular authority. Vernacular authority is the credibility that comes with not belonging to an institution.[6] When trust in traditionally reliable sources is low, people begin to seek answers elsewhere. Rumors and conspiracy theories emerge to fill the resulting void of information.[7] Trusting solely in vernacular authority allows people to choose sources that already promote what they believe, creating a never-ending loop of confirmation bias.[8] Social media algorithms not only foster this cycle, they push people down rabbit holes. When you “like” something on social media, the algorithm will present you with similar content that becomes progressively more extreme. In 2021, The Wall Street Journal programmed over a hundred automated TikTok bots with different interests, then let them loose on TikTok to watch thousands of hours of videos. Alarmingly, a bot with the general interest “politics” eventually had its feed overtaken by videos about election conspiracies.[9]
This information should be particularly alarming given the fact that four out of five young people rely on social media as one of their top three sources of news,[10] and over half of American teens use TikTok daily.[11] While teaching media literacy to teens is a big part of the battle against misinformation, the strategy falls apart without trust. Eighty percent of teenagers report seeing social media posts that promote conspiracy theories, and eight out of ten or those teens say they are inclined to believe one or more of the conspiracies they see.[12] Importantly, researchers found no correlation between media literacy and the likelihood of believing a conspiracy theory. What they did find was that teens who reported greater feelings of distrust towards traditional news sources were more likely to say at least some of the conspiracy theories they encountered may be true.[13]
A healthy democracy relies on a shared body of facts, while the spread of misinformation breeds distrust and hostility. We’re currently raising a generation that has neither the ability nor the inclination to make sure what they are sharing comes from a reliable source. Teenagers today have been thrown to the wolves of social media and are learning to navigate the world during one of the most chaotic periods in American history. Assuming they can inform themselves online simply because they’ve grown up in digital spaces ignores the fact that media literacy can’t be absorbed, it must be taught. It also ignores the fact that many teenagers simply don’t trust traditional news.
Helping young people become news literate not only involves implementing media literacy into school curricula, it also requires engaging in conversations with teens about why they distrust journalism. We need to talk about the importance of getting news from a variety of sources, verifying that while various reporters may approach a story from different angles, they all share the same body of facts. This is something young people need to be taught, not something we can assume they know. Equipping young people to consume news in an active and critical way helps them cultivate informed beliefs. These beliefs may vary, but being able to debate issues rooted in shared facts is vital to the future of our democracy.
[1] @thyfleshc0nsumed, “Every time I think about what the New York Times did to Susan Doku, I get a bit enraged inside,” Tumblr, September 23, 2024, 5:23 p.m. https://www.tumblr.com/thyfleshc0nsumed/801697107535937536/update-the-nyt-apologized-after-22-years-and-sold?source=share
[2] Media Literacy Now, ed., “National Survey Finds Most U.S. Adults Have Not Had Media Literacy Education in High School,” Media Literacy Now, May 31, 2023, https://medialiteracynow.org/nationalsurvey2022/.
[3] David Nurenberg, “Helping Digital Natives Overcome Digital Naïveté: Four Steps to Media Literacy – the New York Times,” The New York Times, March 27, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/learning/helping-digital-natives-overcome-digital-naivete-four-steps-to-media-literacy.html.
[4] Kim Bowman, Peter Adams, and Hannah Covington, rep., ed. Mary Kane et al., News Literacy Project, October 2024, https://newslit.org/news-and-research/news-literacy-in-america/.
[5] Bowman, Adams, and Covington, News Literacy Project.
[6] Howard, Robert Glenn. “Vernacular Authority: Critically Engaging ‘Tradition’” In Tradition in the 21st Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present, edited by Robert Howard and Trevor Blank, Utah State University Press, 2013, 81
[7] Shadi Shahsavari et al., “Conspiracy in the Time of Corona: Automatic Detection of Emerging Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories in Social Media and the News,” Journal of Computational Social Science 3, no. 2 (October 28, 2020): 282, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-020-00086-5.
[8] Howard, “Vernacular Authority: Critically Engaging ‘Tradition,’” 83.
[9] WSJ Staff, “Inside TikTok’s Algorithm: A WSJ Video Investigation,” The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-algorithm-video-investigation-11626877477.
[10] Kelly Siegel-Stechler, Katie Hilton, and Alberto Medina, “Youth Rely on Digital Platforms, Need Media Literacy to Access Political Information,” CIRCLE, May 12, 2025, https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/youth-rely-digital-platforms-need-media-literacy-access-political-information.
[11] Eugenie Park, ed., “Teens and Social Media Fact Sheet,” Pew Research Center, July 10, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/teens-and-social-media-fact-sheet/?cb_viewport=desktop.
[12] Kim Bowman, Peter Adams, and Hannah Covington, rep., ed. Mary Kane et al., News Literacy Project, October 2024, https://newslit.org/news-and-research/news-literacy-in-america/.
[13] Bowman, Adams, and Covington, News Literacy Project
Bibliography
Bowman, Kim, Peter Adams, and Hannah Covington. Rep. Edited by Mary Kane, Lourdes Veenard, Emily Vraga, Carol McCarthy, Pamela Brunskill, Theresa Berna, and Freeda Brook. News Literacy Project, October 2024. https://newslit.org/news-and-research/news-literacy-in-america/.
Media Literacy Now, ed. “National Survey Finds Most U.S. Adults Have Not Had Media Literacy Education in High School.” Media Literacy Now, May 31, 2023. https://medialiteracynow.org/nationalsurvey2022/.
Nurenberg, David. “Helping Digital Natives Overcome Digital Naïveté: Four Steps to Media Literacy – the New York Times.” The New York Times, March 27, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/learning/helping-digital-natives-overcome-digital-naivete-four-steps-to-media-literacy.html.
@thyfleshc0nsumed, “Every time I think about what the New York Times did to Susan Doku, I get a bit enraged inside,” Tumblr, September 23, 2024, 5:23 p.m. https://www.tumblr.com/thyfleshc0nsumed/801697107535937536/update-the-nyt-apologized-after-22-years-and-sold?source=share
Park, Eugenie, ed. “Teens and Social Media Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center, July 10, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/teens-and-social-media-fact-sheet/?cb_viewport=desktop.
Shahsavari, Shadi, Pavan Holur, Tianyi Wang, Timothy R. Tangherlini, and Vwani Roychowdhury. “Conspiracy in the Time of Corona: Automatic Detection of Emerging Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories in Social Media and the News.” Journal of Computational Social Science 3, no. 2 (October 28, 2020): 279–317. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-020-00086-5.
Siegel-Stechler, Kelly, Katie Hilton, and Alberto Medina. “Youth Rely on Digital Platforms, Need Media Literacy to Access Political Information.” CIRCLE, May 12, 2025. https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/youth-rely-digital-platforms-need-media-literacy-access-political-information.
WSJ Staff. “Inside TikTok’s Algorithm: A WSJ Video Investigation.” The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2021. https://www.wsj.com/tech/tiktok-algorithm-video-investigation-11626877477.
Howard, Robert Glenn. “Vernacular Authority: Critically Engaging ‘Tradition’” In Tradition in the 21st Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present, edited by Robert Howard and Trevor Blank, 72-99. Utah State University Press, 2013.
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