#  \[Digital Brief\] How Youth Navigate the News Landscape (Knight Foundation) 

 





March 21, 2017

 

 

Teens and young adults (ages 14-24) express low levels of trust in the news media and use a variety of strategies to confirm, verify, and clarify the stories they care about, according to a study produced by [Data & Society](https://datasociety.net/) and supported by the [John S. and James L. Knight Foundation](http://www.knightfoundation.org/), "[How Youth Navigate the News Landscape](https://kf-site-production.s3.amazonaws.com/publications/pdfs/000/000/230/original/Youth_News.pdf)." Among the key findings:

Sort- *The way young people encounter and understand news in their daily lives is rapidly evolving*
    - In an age of smartphones and social media, young people don’t follow the news as much as it follows them.
    - News is frequently encountered by accident and in interstitial moments, as young people dip into flows of news across various platforms.
    - Youth news sharing practices are varied, and certain behaviors—such as taking screenshots—may elude current tools to record and track traffic to news platforms.
    - Many young people assume that a news industry that is driven by advertising will continue to take on new forms and eventually permeate every aspect of their lives.



- *Most teens and young adults express low levels of trust in the news media and are relying on networked strategies to help them navigate the stories they most care about.*
    - Teens and young adults expressed widespread skepticism about the news and assume that much of the information they encounter may be inaccurate or biased.
    - Teens and young adults often consult multiple news sources to verify the stories they encounter.
    - A news source is considered more credible when its biases are known.



- *Many of today’s news-related attitudes and behaviors among youth can be traced to larger structural changes in the journalism industry.*
    - Young people’s concept of what constitutes “the news” is amorphous and often extends well beyond the content produced by traditional journalistic institutions.
    - News is “depressing,” but it is something you need to know.
    - Sharing news and opinions on social media is seen as having the potential to negatively affect one’s online reputation.
    - Many participants consider user-generated content—especially live video—to be more trustworthy than mainstream media sources.









 

 

 



 

 

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