I am a freshman at university and I am constantly consuming the media. If you haven’t scrolled through your phone’s social feed, you’re watching a TV screen or browsing the website on your laptop.
My intake is roughly the same as other people of my age. According to Gallup polls, the average teenager spends around five hours on social media alone. What makes me different is what I think about all of that content.
I learned the skills of news and media literacy in high school. I understand the importance of identifying media bias, thinking critically about the information I see, and looking at different sources to avoid being trapped in the information bubble.
I’m studying journalism at Indiana University, Pennsylvania, so I wish everyone had taken these lessons before going to college. Young people will be exposed to a variety of perspectives that will help them make better decisions. In my media wellness class this semester, I saw how my peers struggled with the tasks to assess biased media coverage.
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Being so online made news literacy more critical for teens
We were asked to compare how several news outlets covered the same event. The lessons were supposed to teach different sources to show different perspectives, depending on which facts were emphasized or omitted, the tone of the language used, and even the photographs introduced. . Choices about how to frame the news can convince us to think of a particular way.
I have practiced this before – in my high school government and political class, Cornell High School in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a small town outside of Pittsburgh. My social studies teacher made it a priority to show how to think critically about news and other information.
However, my university peers never learned to analyze information like this. They stay too much in the echo chambers created by social media feeds. They may not even appear in posts where algorithms only enhance their beliefs and engage with sensational content, or many of these platforms deliberately downplay the news and appear in their feeds. I was not told how to give a post that says it doesn’t.
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Most people I know get information about the world from short clips on Tiktok or Instagram, or through notifications that appear on my phone. They are not actively looking for information about what is going on around them.
Recent research by the News Literacy Project shows that learning media literacy can change this.
That’s important. It helps young people grow up and become informed and engage in civic activities like voting. Instead, too many people rely on social media platforms to filter information, distorting reality to make it seem like a version that confirms their beliefs, regardless of fact. For people of my age, their world seems to revolve around something viral on social media.
Social media can lead to real-world dangers
Some of these trends can lead to real-world dangers. I have a friend in high school and followed the tendency of students to post vandalism they had at school.
Such a trend can end with legal troubles and other harm. If teens have news literacy skills, they are confident they are able to see viral moments and influencers differently, and they are confident they will share what they know with their peers.
News literacy teaches you to slow down and notice when you have a strong emotional response to what you can see online. When you are constantly given only the most extreme posts, it distorts your worldview and tricks you into assuming you think and act the same way.
Or, for my friend, it can promote dangerous behavior.
Prepare for the university and the real world by learning how to think critically about the time and time of content I’m consuming. It had a positive impact on my life.
This week is National News Literacy Week, focusing on the importance of teaching students how to analyze information and find reliable sources in a media-saturated world. There is a growing movement across the country to ensure students learn these skills before graduating from high school.
For example, states like New Jersey and Texas have passed laws to make news and media literacy a requirement.
More states should take this approach to ensure that young people like me grow up and take responsibility for the world we experience online.
Neveah Rice is a freshman studying journalism at Indiana University, Pennsylvania. She was the recipient of the 2024 Student Changemaker Award from the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit.
USA Today is a presentation partner for National News Literacy Week, along with News Literacy Project and EW Scripps.