Teens want media literacy instruction included in their education, but most aren’t getting it
Eight in 10 teens on social media say they see posts that spread or promote conspiracy theories, but the frequency of their exposure varies, a report from News Literacy Project shows. Photo by Arthur Krijgsman
News Literacy Project
An overwhelming majority of teens (94%) say that schools should be required to teach media literacy, a new study by NLP shows. A full 57% offer strong support, saying schools should “definitely” have such a requirement, and another 36% offer some support, saying schools should have a requirement in some cases.
Despite widespread support among teens, NLP found little evidence that schools were already providing media literacy instruction. Only 39% of teens report having had any media literacy instruction in at least one class during the 2023-24 school year.
Additionally, just half of teens can identify a branded content article as an advertisement, 52% can identify an article with “commentary” in the headline as an opinion and 59% can recognize that Google search results under the label “sponsored” indicate paid advertising. But less than 2 in 10 teens (18%) correctly answered all three questions asking them to distinguish between different types of information.
ADDITIONAL NEWS FROM THE INTEGRITY PROJECT