With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic "objectivity"

Regina Marchi

doi:10.1177/0196859912458700

With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic "objectivity"

Regina Marchi

School of Communication and Information, Journalism & Media Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

246 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article examines the news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers, an understudied demographic in the research on youth and news media. Based on interviews with 61 racially diverse high school students, it discusses how adolescents become informed about current events and why they prefer certain news formats to others. The results reveal changing ways news information is being accessed, new attitudes about what it means to be informed, and a youth preference for opinionated rather than objective news. This does not indicate that young people disregard the basic ideals of professional journalism but, rather, that they desire more authentic renderings of them.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	246-262
Number of pages	17
Journal	Journal of Communication Inquiry
Volume	36
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859912458700
State	Published - Jul 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Cultural Studies
Communication
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

Keywords

Facebook
civic engagement
fake news
objectivity
youth and news

Access to Document

10.1177/0196859912458700

Cite this

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abstract = "This article examines the news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers, an understudied demographic in the research on youth and news media. Based on interviews with 61 racially diverse high school students, it discusses how adolescents become informed about current events and why they prefer certain news formats to others. The results reveal changing ways news information is being accessed, new attitudes about what it means to be informed, and a youth preference for opinionated rather than objective news. This does not indicate that young people disregard the basic ideals of professional journalism but, rather, that they desire more authentic renderings of them.",

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author = "Regina Marchi",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded with generous support from The Lilly Endowment, Inc. The author would also like to thank former students Christine Schneider, Carina Sitkus and Cristabel Cruz for providing invaluable research assistance, and the editor of JCI and anonymous reviewers for their very helpful feedback on this submission. ",

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AB - This article examines the news behaviors and attitudes of teenagers, an understudied demographic in the research on youth and news media. Based on interviews with 61 racially diverse high school students, it discusses how adolescents become informed about current events and why they prefer certain news formats to others. The results reveal changing ways news information is being accessed, new attitudes about what it means to be informed, and a youth preference for opinionated rather than objective news. This does not indicate that young people disregard the basic ideals of professional journalism but, rather, that they desire more authentic renderings of them.

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With Facebook, blogs, and fake news, teens reject journalistic "objectivity"

Abstract

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Keywords

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