A lost generation of news consumers? Survey shows how teenagers dislike
the news media
[December 02, 2025]
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) — Cat Murphy, a college student, has wanted to be a
journalist since she was 11. Many of her friends don't understand why.
When they engage with the news — if they do — they hear a cacophony of
voices. They don't know who to believe. Reporters are biased. They make
mistakes. Besides, why would you hitch your future to a dying industry?
“There is a lot of commentary — ‘Oh, good for you. Look what you’re
walking into. You're going to be screaming into the void. You're going
to be useless,'” said Murphy, a 21-year-old graduate student at the
University of Maryland's journalism school.
She is undeterred. And it's also why she's not surprised by the findings
of a study this fall that documented negative attitudes toward the news
media among 13- to 18-year-old Americans. The press rarely fares well in
surveys of adults, but it's sobering to see the same disdain among
people whose opinions about the world are still forming.
Words to describe the news media today
Asked by the News Literacy Project for one word to describe today's news
media, 84% of teens responded with something negative — “biased,”
“crazy,” “boring,” “fake, ”bad," “depressing,” “confusing,” “scary.”
About half of the teens surveyed believe journalists give advertisers
special treatment, make up details such as quotes, or pay or do favors
for sources “always or almost always” or “often,” and about 6 in 10 say
journalists regularly take photos and videos out of context. About
one-third or less believe that reporters correct errors when they
happen, confirm facts before reporting them, gather information from
multiple sources or cover stories that help protect the public interest
at least “often” — practices ingrained in the DNA of reputable
journalists.
To some degree, teens reflect the attitudes they're exposed to,
particularly when the most prominent politician of their age has made
“fake news” a mantra. Experts say few teens follow news regularly or
learn in school about the purpose of journalism.
Journalists don't help themselves with mistakes or ethical lapses that
make headlines. Opinionated reporters or commentators in an era of
political division make readers wonder what to believe.
“Some of this (attitude) is earned, but much of it is based on
misperception,” said Peter Adams, senior vice president of research and
design for the Washington-based News Literacy Project.
Never picking up the news habit
There are ways to turn things around, but it will take work.
Many of Lily Ogburn's classmates get their information from social
media. Their parents didn't watch or read news reports as they grew up,
so they didn't pick up the habit, said Ogburn, a senior at Northwestern
University's journalism school.
Ogburn is the former editor-in-chief at the well-regarded Daily
Northwestern student newspaper. The newspaper's 2023 reports on alleged
hazing and racism within the school's football program led to the ouster
of its coach. Still, she found some students don't understand the
newspaper's role; they believe it exists to protect people in power
rather than hold them accountable.
She frequently had to explain what she did to classmates. “There's a lot
of mistrust toward journalists,” she said. But it has firmed her resolve
to stick with the profession.
“I want to be a journalist that people trust," Ogburn said, “and I want
to report news that makes people believe and trust in the media.”
The news industry's financial troubles over the past two decades have
hollowed out newsrooms and left fewer journalists on duty. Along with
not seeing much legitimate journalism, young people frequently don't
experience it through popular culture — unlike a previous generation,
which learned in detail how Washington Post reporters Robert Woodward
and Carl Bernstein exposed the Watergate scandal in the Academy
Award-winning movie “All the President's Men.”
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Pedestrians pass under a news ticker in Times Square on March 11,
2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
 When the News Literacy Project
asked, two-thirds of teens couldn't think of anything when asked
what movies or TV shows come to mind when they think about
journalism. Those who had answers most frequently cited the
“Spider-Man” franchise or the movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron
Burgundy." Neither portrayal was particularly flattering.
Upon retiring as editor of Newsday, Howard Schneider helped develop
the State University of New York system's first School of
Journalism. But instead of teaching future writers, editors or
producers, he became drawn to teaching non-journalists about being
news consumers.
Now the executive director of SUNY Stony Brook's Center for News
Literacy, Schneider wasn't surprised about any of the recent
survey's findings, either.
“The negativity, the feeling that news is biased, is just a
reflection of how their parents feel,” Schneider said. “The more
exposed to news, legitimate news, the more their attitudes turn
positive.”
He has developed news literacy programs for school districts.
“Students will say, ‘I get my news from YouTube,’” he said. “I say,
'No, you don't,'" and explains where the news originates and how to
be discerning about what they see.
Lessons from a news literacy class
That's one of the lessons that 16-year-old Brianne Boyack has taken
from her course in news literacy at Brighton High School in
Cottonwood Heights, Utah. She had little trust in news going in, but
has learned the importance of double-checking sources when she sees
something interesting and seeking outlets she's found reliable.
Her classmate, Rhett MacFarlane, applied what he learned in class to
investigate when a friend told him the Louvre was robbed in Paris.
“I've learned that there is definitely fact-checking (in
journalism),” MacFarlane, also 16, told The Associated Press. “You
guys are professionals and you have to tell the truth or you'd be
fired. I thought you guys just did whatever you wanted and chose
what to say about a topic.”
Still, news literacy programs in schools are relatively rare.
Schools already have a lot of subjects to cover to prepare students
for the future. And, remember, journalists don't have the best
reputations. It can be hard for educators to stick their necks out
for them.
“There's an inertia here,” Schneider said, “and this is an urgent
issue.”
At the University of Maryland, Murphy said she didn’t think there
was an inherent hatred toward journalists among her fellow students.
“They don’t have any experience reading journalism,” she said.
That's where she sees the journalism industry needing to make more
of an effort. One of the things she finds most frustrating about her
chosen field is a resistance to change, particularly an
unwillingness or inability to make meaningful use of social media.
“There’s very little movement in the direction of going to where
people are, as opposed to expecting them to come to where you are,”
Murphy said. “The only way to turn it around is going to be to
switch to doing things that captivate people today, as opposed to
captivating people 20 years ago.”
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