Why Teenagers Distrust the News: Inside America’s Growing Crisis of Media Skepticism

Kat Murphy, a college student, had dreamed of becoming a journalist since she was eleven years old. But many of her friends don’t understand why she would tie her future to a declining industry. They say that when they interact with the news — if they do at all — they only hear conflicting noise and don’t know whom to trust. Journalists are biased, they say, and they make mistakes.

When Murphy, a 21-year-old graduate student at the University of Maryland’s School of Journalism, shared her dream, she received all kinds of reactions: “Oh my God, good luck.” “Look at what you’re getting into. You’ll be screaming into the void. You’ll be useless.” But she didn’t step back from her goal.

Murphy said she wasn’t surprised by the results of a study conducted this fall, which documented negative attitudes toward the media among Americans aged 13 to 18. According to the Associated Press, journalism rarely fares well in opinion polls among adults — but it is troubling to see the same contempt and hostility toward the media among people whose view of the world is still forming.

Words to Describe Today’s News Media

When the News Literacy Project asked teens to choose one word to describe today’s news media, 84% chose something negative: “biased,” “crazy,” “boring,” “fake,” “bad,” “frustrating,” “confusing,” “scary.”

About half the surveyed teens believe journalists give special treatment to advertisers, make up details like quotes, or pay or provide services to sources “always or almost always” or “often.” Nearly six in ten say journalists regularly take photos and videos out of context. About a third or fewer believe reporters frequently correct errors, verify facts before publishing, gather information from multiple sources, or cover stories that protect the public interest — practices central to reputable journalism.

To some extent, teens reflect the attitudes they are exposed to, especially in an era where the most prominent political figure of their lifetime made “fake news” a slogan. Experts say few teens follow the news regularly or learn about journalism in school. Journalists themselves are not immune to errors or ethical lapses that make headlines. And strong-opinion reporters or commentators, in an age of political division, leave audiences wondering what they should believe.

Peter Adams, senior vice president of research and design at the Washington-based News Literacy Project, said: “Some of this attitude is earned, but much of it is based on misunderstanding.”

Not Following the News

There are ways to change things — but it will take work.

Many of Lily Ogburn’s peers get their information from social media. Ogburn, a senior at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, explained that their parents didn’t watch or read news reports when they were young, so they never developed the habit.

Ogburn is the former editor-in-chief of the prestigious student newspaper The Daily Northwestern. The paper’s 2023 reporting on allegations of hazing and racism in the football program led to the coach’s dismissal. Yet she found that some students don’t understand the role of journalism; they think it exists to protect people in power rather than hold them accountable. She has had to repeatedly explain her work to classmates.

“There is a lot of distrust in journalists,” Ogburn said. But that strengthened her resolve to stay in the profession. “I want to be a journalist people trust,” she said. “And I want to report news that makes people believe in the media again.”

The financial crises that have hit the news industry over the past two decades have hollowed out newsrooms and reduced the number of working journalists. With little exposure to legitimate journalism, young people often don’t encounter it through pop culture either — unlike the previous generation, which learned in detail how Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the Watergate scandal through the Oscar-winning film All the President’s Men.

When the News Literacy Project asked teens to name movies or TV shows that come to mind when they think about journalism, two-thirds couldn’t name anything. Of those who could, the most common responses were the Spider-Man films or the comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Neither offers a satisfying representation.

After retiring as editor of Newsday, Howard Schneider helped develop the first journalism school at the State University of New York — but instead of teaching future writers and producers, he turned to teaching non-journalists how to consume news. Now the executive director of the SUNY Stony Brook Center for News Literacy, Schneider said he wasn’t surprised by any of the survey findings.

“The negativity and the sense of bias in the news,” Schneider said, “are simply reflections of their parents’ attitudes. The more exposure teens have to real news, the more positive their attitudes become.”

News Literacy

This was one of the lessons learned by 16-year-old Brian Boyack in a news literacy course at Brighton High School in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. She didn’t trust the news much before, but she learned the importance of double-checking sources when she sees something interesting, and verifying information through credible sources.

Her classmate, 16-year-old Rhett McFarlane, applied what he learned when a friend told him that the Louvre Museum in Paris had been robbed. “I learned that there is definitely fact-checking in journalism,” McFarlane told the AP. “You guys are professionals, and you have to tell the truth or you’ll get fired. I used to think you all did whatever you wanted and picked what you said about any topic.”

Still, news literacy programs in schools remain rare. Schools already have many required subjects to cover to prepare students for the future. And remember — journalists don’t have the best reputation, and it can be risky for teachers to “go to bat” for them.

“There is a stalemate,” Schneider said. “And it’s an urgent issue.”

Resistance to Change

At the University of Maryland, Murphy said she doesn’t believe there is deep-rooted hatred of journalists among her peers. “They simply have no experience reading journalism,” she said. She believes the industry needs to put in more effort.

One of the most frustrating things in her field, she said, is the resistance to change — especially the unwillingness or inability to use social media intentionally. “There is very little movement toward going where people already are, instead of expecting them to come to you,” Murphy said.

“The only way to change this is to start doing things that attract people today, not things that attracted them twenty years ago,” she added.