Checking What Students Know About Checking the News

ACT Research & Policy Checking What Students Know about Issue BrIef Checking the News

OctOBer 2017 Michelle Croft, PhD, JD, and Raeal Moore, PhD

Sharing information has never been easier also found that high school students accept than it is today. With the click of a button, photographs as undoctored without trying to people can quickly distribute content to verify them and are unable to tell a real news and receive content from friends, family, story from a fake one on Facebook. The college and strangers using social media. But students in the study did not suspect bias in unfortunately, this content is not always tweets by an activist group and were unable to accurate, and misinformation can spread identify differences between mainstream and quickly.1 This is particularly important for “fringe” news sources. students, who typically use social media as a The purpose of the survey summarized in this primary source of information. In a previous brief was to gather more information about study of student attitudes after the presidential what sources high school students use to election, 72% of students reported using social obtain news and what steps students take to media (such as Facebook and Twitter) as a judge the credibility of those sources. source for news related to the election.2

Although some inaccurate information or “fake Method news” can be easily identified, approximately A sample of students who took the ACT test one in four Americans surveyed by Pew in February 2017 as part of a national Research in December 2016 reported that they administration were invited to participate in the had shared stories that they knew at the time survey. Students were asked to evaluate their or found out later were not true.3 Students also awareness, and the accuracy, of a number of have difficulty identifying whether a source is online primary and secondary news sources, accurate.4 For instance, a study from Stanford and to identify the types of activities they took University found that middle school students to evaluate the accuracy of the sources.6 A were unable to distinguish native ads (i.e., paid total of 4,072 students responded to at least advertisements designed to look like news 80% of the survey items.7 stories) from real news articles.5 The same study

Michelle Croft is a principal research associate in the Office of Public Affairs.

Raeal Moore is a senior research scientist specializing in survey methodological research and research on education best practices in P–12 schools.

www.act.org/policy-advocacy

Awareness of News Sources CNN 97 3 Over 90% of the students who responded Fox News 97 3 The New York Times 94 6 to the survey reported that they were The Washington Post 83 17 aware of the traditional news outlets such USA Today 82 18 as CNN, Fox News, and The New York Huffington Post 81 19 Times (Figure 1). Nontraditional sources BBC 80 20 that are generally considered to have NPR 54 46 particular political biases—e.g., The Blaze, The Atlantic 47 53 Natural News, and US Uncut8—were The Hill 36 64 lesser known. INFOWARS 35 65 Blaze 33 67 Natural News 32 68 US Uncut 30 70

Aware Not Aware

Figure 1. Students’ reported awareness of news sources.

Secondary News Sources YouTube 51% In addition to using primary news sources, Facebook 46% students also reported using secondary Twitter 43% sources (Figure 2). Of the latter, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter were the most Blog sites 19% used, while other secondary sources, Discussion boards 16% such as discussion boards, blog sites, and Tumblr 11% Tumblr, were used much less frequently. Other 11% Thirteen percent of students reported not Don’t Use using any secondary news sources. 13% Figure 2. Percentage of students using secondary news sources.

Accuracy of News Sources BBC 87 13 Among students who were aware of The New York Times 86 14 a particular news source, the majority The Washington Post 83 17 described the source as accurate.9 CNN 77 23 Traditionally reputable sources such as NPR 76 24 USA Today 75 25 the BBC, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post 70 30 Washington Post received the highest ratings (Figure 3). However, approximately The Atlantic 69 31 Fox News half of students identified sources that are 63 37 Natural News 59 41 often classified as misleading, such as The Hill 57 43 US Uncut (51%) and The Blaze (46%), US Uncut 51 49 as accurate. Similarly, 39% reported Blaze 46 54 INFOWARS, a website routinely cited as INFOWARS 39 61 containing misinformation, as accurate.10

Accurate Inaccurate

Figure 3. Students’ evaluations of the accuracy of news sources.

2 ACT Research & Policy Checking What Students Know about Checking the News

Steps Taken to Check Examine website name 19 81 Accuracy Examine domain name 22 78 Sixty-two percent of the survey Look for quotes 31 69 respondents reported believing that news Read the comment section 33 67 sources are false more than about half the Check accuracy of quotes 38 62 time. Given this, what steps do they take See if an author is listed 39 61 to check the accuracy of the news they Look for two other reputable sources 46 54 consume? Look for citations for images 50 50 The most frequently reported steps were Read “About Us” section 58 42 those that do not involve leaving the Read other articles by author 61 39 webpage. For instance, the most popular Learn from author’s other works 64 36 steps were to examine the website’s name Reverse image search 73 27 (81%) or domain name (78%) (Figure 4). Relatively few students reported reading No Yes other articles by the author (39%) or Steps students reported taking to check the accuracy of news sources. conducting a reverse image search of a Figure 4. photograph to determine its origin (28%). Similarly, few students reported using other websites such as Fact Check (36%), in three are aware of newer sources that Notes PolitiFact (18%), Snopes (9%), or Open tend to have a political bias. Unfortunately, 1. Katie Rogers & Jonah Engel Bromwich, Secrets (5%). the results also show that considerable “The Hoaxes, Fake News and percentages of students who were familiar Misinformation We Saw on Election Day,” Seven percent of students reported taking with the latter sources believed that they The New York Times, November 8, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us no steps to check accuracy, while over were accurate. 75% reported taking four or more steps.11 /politics/debunk-fake-news-election-day .html; BBC Trending, “The Rise of the Students who rarely or never questioned Our study, as well as other recent research, suggests that students will Left-Wing, Anti-Trump Fake News,” BBC, the accuracy of new sources were those April 15, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news be better equipped to evaluate news who took the fewest steps to check /blogs-trending-39592010; Evan Annett, accuracy of news sources.12 The students sources if they have received appropriate “What is ‘Fake News,’ and How Can You who were more likely to report taking instruction. Based on the survey findings, Spot It?” The Globe and Mail, May 23, 2017, more steps to check the accuracy of news we recommend schools and districts https://www.theglobeandmail.com /community/digital-lab/fake-news-quiz-how sources tended to be those who reported develop courses to teach students how -to-spot/article33821986/; Sapna to differentiate between accurate, reliable having greater confidence in their ability to Maheshwari, “How Fake News Goes Viral: information and inaccurate, unreliable determine the accuracy of news sources A Case Study,” The New York Times, and/or taking a course intended to teach information. November 20, 2016, https://www.nytimes them how to evaluate news sources.13 Given the proliferation of news sources .com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake -news-spreads.html. and students’ access to them, educators Recommendations (and parents) should take steps to help 2. Raeal Moore, Michelle Croft, & Gretchen Information has the opportunity to students prioritize fact-checking in their Guffy, The Next Generation of Voters: A Sample of Student Attitudes after the help shape a student’s knowledge and reading and work to better distinguish 2016 Presidential Election (Iowa City, IA: opinions on a variety of topics. The between real and fake news stories ACT, 2017), http://www.act.org/content/dam results discussed above indicate that and sources and to help ensure that /act/unsecured/documents/the-next large majorities of students are aware of students are basing their views on factual -generation-of-voters.pdf. traditional news sources and about one information.

3 ACT Research & Policy Checking What Students Know about Checking the News

3. Michael Barthel, Amy Mitchell, & Jesse journalism; see Melissa Zimdars, “False, .nytimes.com/2017/03/25/business Holcomb, Many Americans Believe Fake Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical ‘News’ /alex-jones-pizzagate-apology-comet-ping News is Sowing Confusion (Pew Research Sources,” (2016), https://docs.google.com -pong.html; Dana Milbank, “Trump’s ‘News’ Center, December 15, 2016), http://www /document/d/10eA5-mCZLSS4MQY5QGb Source: Alien Lizards, Fluoride Mind Control .journalism.org/2016/12/15/many 5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/edit. and Voter Fraud,” The Washington Post, -americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing November 28, 2016, https://www 7. A total of 56,896 students were invited to -confusion/. .washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-news participate. Only the data of students who -source-alien-lizards-fluoride-mind-control 4. Sam Wineburg & Sarah McGrew, “Why responded to 80% or more of the survey -and-voter-fraud/2016/11/28/c0326c26 Students Can’t Google Their Way to the items were retained for analysis purposes. -b5a0-11e6-b8df-600bd9d38a02_story Truth,” Education Week, November 1, 2016, The sample was stratified by race/ethnicity .html?utm_term=.93c56c94d10d http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016 to better reflect national demographics. /11/02/why-students-cant-google-their-way 11. Students were considered to have used a 8. Otero, “The Reasoning and Methodology”; -to.html; Stanford History Group, Evaluating tool to evaluate the accuracy if they reported see also Media Bias/Fact Check, Information: The Cornerstone of Civic using it at least “about half the time” or more https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/. Online Reasoning (2016). often. 9. Students were asked to rate sources as 5. Stanford History Group, Evaluating 12. We also examined whether students who “very accurate,” “fairly accurate,” “fairly Information; Camila Domonoske, “Students think news sources are false were more inaccurate,” or “very inaccurate.” Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability to Tell Fake News confident in their ability to determine the from Real, Study Finds,” NPR, November 10. Linda Qui & Justin Bank, “Fact Check: accuracy of online news sources or if they 23, 2016, http://www.npr.org/sections Distortions and Fake News after Virginia had taken courses to evaluate online news /thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503129818 Shooting,” The New York Times, June 15, sources. In both cases, there was not a /study-finds-students-have-dismaying 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15 statistically significant relationship. -inability-to-tell-fake-news-from-real. /us/politics/fact-check-viriginia-shooting 13. The finding about students who took or were .html; Christine Hauser, “Alex Jones 6. News sources were identified using an taking such a course is consistent with Retracts Chobani Claims to Resolve infographic that evaluates news sources on recent research by Joseph Kahne & Lawsuit,” The New York Times, May 17, quality and political bias; see Vanessa Benjamine Bowyer; see “Educating for 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17 Otero, “The Reasoning and Methodology Democracy in a Partisan Age,” American /us/alex-jones-chobani-lawsuit.html; Eli Behind the Chart,” http://www.all Educational Research Journal 54 (2017): Rosenberg, “Alex Jones Apologizes for generalizationsarefalse.com/?p=65. The 3–34, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi Promoting ‘Pizzagate Hoax,’” The New York steps to check accuracy were identified /citedby/10.3102/0002831216679817. Times, March 25, 2017, https://www using a document crated by a professor of