By Charlie Keeler
In a world where news is just a constant stream of media ranging from politics to pop culture, kids are at the risk of being falsely informed. The Knightly News thought it would be useful to speak with students directly and see how they get their news, and whether or not they feel their peers are “in the loop”.
So why is this such an issue? First, kids spread information like the plague, any false information pertaining to a national issue could cause disarray. An excellent example of an issue like this happened earlier this year. A school went on lockdown in Florida because students heard there was a shooter in their area from an unsolicited and started sharing it on their phones. As the buzz grew the message spread around their phones until one student decided to tell a teacher, the teacher told the head of school. The teacher went over the speakers and announced that there was a shooter in the building and the school went into an immediate panic. Multiple people were injured trying to flee the building and it was all for nothing. Although this was not the world news, it is an excellent example of how dangerous information can spread throughout a school setting.
So, the Knightly News sent out a poll to the entire high school. Kids had to check all the news sources that they use on a daily basis to stay informed. The news sources are as follows: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, New York Post, The New York Daily News, Huff Post, Daily Mail, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, podcasts, news radio shows, various social media outlets, and Drama Alert (Hosted by Keemstar on YouTube). Out of the seventy people surveyed, forty-nine chose The New York Times as one of their major news sources. This was to be expected, as it is the most used news page in America and our school is located in New York.
Thirty-nine of the seventy people chose “Instagram News Accounts/Outlets” and the Snapchat Discovery page. This was unsurprising due to the fact that just about every kid has a phone and most likely has a social media platform of some sort. But how reliable are these sources? When asked “How do you think other kids get their news, and are there any flaws in the ways that they get their news?” Jamie Neiberg, a LREI freshman, said: “I think that some people rely on social media for their news, but that can so easily be fake. If the New York Times or CNN made an easily accessible Instagram account for kids to follow, that would be absolutely perfect. Lots of kids get their news from Insta and that isn’t reliable at all.” Jamie brings up an interesting point about social media. Accounts can post almost whatever they want and there is very little monitoring of particular social media platforms and people are at risk of being falsely informed. An anonymous LREI student said “I feel as though some people are not getting their news from reliable sources so it causes confusion, untruths, or specious statements” This is a valid concern most kids have with news today.
So the obvious next question is, what should kids do to consume reliable news? The trends in the survey show that the answer is quite clear. Kids thrive on the easy accessibility of social media platforms, but the reliability of big-name sources. And what is the middle ground? The New York Times app. The freshmen are already required to have the New York Times App to stay up to date on current events for their history class, and from the results of the survey, it would be beneficial for the entire student body to download as well. If the entire student body was required to follow one news source that has been proven to
Sources:
https://typicalstudent.org/hot/news/false-shooter-alarm-in-florida-school