New Study Reveals Teens Increasingly Turn to Social Media and YouTube for News, But Struggle to Find Trustworthy Sources

A recent survey by Commonsensemedia.org studied the news consumption behavior of more than 800 U.S. 13- to 18-year-olds. The survey covers the kinds of news sources that teens use, how frequently they engage with those sources, and their feelings about the news. The data is presented for younger (13- to 15-year-old) and older (16- to 18-year-old) teens, in addition to being analyzed by gender, race/ethnicity, and political ideology. The report also tracks changes in teens’ news behaviors and attitudes between 2017 and 2020, comparing the current results to those found in the first wave of the study. Some of the important findings are listed below:

1. Many teens look to personalities, influencers, and celebrities for news. Overall, 77% of teens today get news and headlines from social media. Thirty-nine percent of teens “often” get news from personalities, influencers, and celebrities on social media and YouTube. Twenty-eight percent of teens said personalities, influencers, and celebrities were their preferred news source. Teens get news from a huge variety of people and organizations online.
2. Black and Hispanic/Latino teens feel most affected by the news. Black and Hispanic/Latino teens were more likely than White teens to agree that “following the news is important to me.” And, while fewer teens overall in 2020 felt that “what happens in the news affects my daily life,” this can be tracked to a decrease in White teen agreement with this statement. In 2020, both Black and Hispanic/Latino teens were more likely to agree that “what happens in the news affects my daily life” than White teens (33% and 34%, respectively, vs. 27%).
3. Many teens perceive gender or racial bias in news media. Only about a third of teens agreed that the news treats women equally fairly (29%). Female teens were less likely than male teens to think so (22% vs. 35%). Similarly, only about a third of teens agreed that the news treats people of different racial backgrounds equally fairly (30%); sentiment on this was fairly similar across racial/ethnic groups.
4. The news is important to many teens, but fewer teens in 2020 say the news helps them feel prepared to make a difference in their communities. Two in five teens (42%) said that following the news is important to them. Significantly fewer teens in 2020 felt the news helps them feel better prepared to make a difference in their communities (41% agreed, compared to 51% in 2017), especially among female teens (42% agreed, compared to 53% in 2017).
5. Teens don’t feel connected to the news. Compared to 2017, more teens today felt that the news media has no idea about what the lives of people their age are really like (75% agreed, vs. 67% in 2017). Also, fewer teens today felt the news covers issues that matter to them personally (44% agreed, vs. 53% in 2017).
6. Few teens feel energized by the news, and almost half are frustrated by it. The consumption of news can have an impact on the feelings of teens, both positively and negatively. Among those included in the survey, the No. 1 feeling teens said they experienced based on the news over the past six months was frustration (45% of teens felt this way).
7. YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are growing as top news sources for kids. Compared to 2017