Boston University College of Communication
Nearly three of four Americans (72%) surveyed say skills in media literacy are important in the face of intentionally misleading or inaccurate information in the media, according to the new Media and Technology Survey out today from Boston University’s College of Communication conducted by Ipsos.

The survey also found a significant partisan divide about the importance of media literacy skills, with Democrats (81%) being more likely to agree than Republicans (66%).

While 3 in 5 agree (61%) that this type of training teaches people how to think more critically, not what to think, this belief also differs by party identification, with Democrats (72%) more likely to agree than Independents (60%) or Republicans (49%).

“Americans are facing difficult issues that require informed decisions, including a contentious presidential election, military action in Ukraine and Gaza, and climate change,” says Michelle Amazeen, associate dean for research at Boston University’s College of Communication. “But just when we need trusted information more than ever, our media ecosystem is poised for a tsunami of deliberately false content intended to mislead, supercharged by the use of generative artificial intelligence. Most but not all people, we found, understand they need to have new skills to deal with it.”

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