How Education, Age, and Cultural Differences Impact News Literacy

Dr. Ed Simpson, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at Central Michigan University’s College of the Arts and Media, gave a lecture in which he spoke passionately on the topic of news literacy. For those who are unfamiliar with news literacy, Stony Brook University’s Center for News Literacydefines it as “the ability to use critical thinking skills to judge the reliability and credibility of news reports, whether they come via print, television, or the Internet.” Dr. Simpson’s lecture provided some important tips for fine-tuning one’s news literacy, including verifying the source and any known affiliations, using one's common sense to determine if the information presented makes sense, and questioning the intent behind the information being presented. While these are all valid suggestions, I believe that the ability to implement these skills when interpreting news information is largely limited by one's education level, life experiences, age, and cultural background. 

An individual's level of education determines what he or she views to be "common sense."  As one progresses through higher and higher levels of education, the level of critical thinking and problem-solving required to succeed as a student increases concomitantly. As a result, one's beliefs regarding how the world works are constantly being challenged and revised as he/she progress through these various educational stages. In addition to level of education, one's area of expertise is also an important factor affecting news literacy. By society's standards, someone like me who has finished medical school is generally considered to be highly educated. Despite this, the focus of my life has ultimately been on biological science and as a result, the type of news I feel comfortable in critically analyzing is that of science/health. In contrast, because I know little about other topics (like politics or economics), I am much more likely to regard anything I hear about these topics as truthful, simply because I have no knowledge base with which I can interpret and challenge the information being presented to me. Therefore, what may be common sense to an economist or politician is not at all what I would consider to be common sense for myself and vice versa. As a result of having different "tool boxes" with which to work, we may interpret the same news article in entirely different ways and thus have conflicting ideas regarding its accuracy. Educational differences greatly influence what pieces of information each individual is willing to accept as the truth and which ones they are willing to question.

 Age is another major component that strongly affects one’s interpretation of the news, especially since age usually tends to be inversely related to one’s level of technological savviness. In his dissertation, Elia Powers, a top graduate of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, notes that “digital news consumption is on the rise: in 2010, the percentage of people who reported getting news online at least three times per week surpassed newspapers for the first time” and young people are among the most likely to have access to digital technology in comparison to the overall population. Young adults are also the most likely to have news forwarded to them, customizing the type of news they receive via “push” technologies, mobile apps, social media, and news aggregators-in short, they tend to “sample” from a variety of news outlets rather than developing strong connections with a few media brands, according to Ben Adler.  These facts result in major differences in news literacy in younger populations vs. their older counterparts. Because they were raised in an era of technology, younger generations are able to more easily access information using platforms such as the internet, social media, etc. In contrast, many older generations did not grow up with the forms of technology that exist today--for these people, news was relayed only at particular times of the day and through particular outlets (largely newspapers and televisions). As a result, many elderly people lack adequate experience with the various forms of technology that exist today, thus limiting their access to the same volume and variety of information as their younger counterparts. 

 It must be noted that while technological advancements have improved our access to information, with this comes the potential for greater amounts of news bias as well as lower levels of news literacy. With such extensive amounts of information available at our fingertips each day, most of it simply gets skimmed through for the sake of time. This encourages an attitude of selectivity--we tend to click on news articles whose titles happen to appeal to our particular interests or curiosities and only then do we actually delve deeper into the information. Many news outlets have taken advantage of this, allowing individuals to customize the “type” of news articles they receive notifications for. Per Dr. Simpson’s lecture, as human beings, we tend to believe information that aligns with our interests and our beliefs. Because individuals can choose to receive news information only on topics of their interest and news outlets take advantage of this principle, this inherently perpetuates a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of news literacy. In addition to this ability to tailor the news to our own particular interests, there is also the added layer of personalization created for us by social media outlets and search engines. Websites such as Google and Facebook are known to use algorithms that take into account one’s search history, website visits, etc. in order to shape the types of items presented in search results and social media posts. According to Google News founder Krishna Bharat, the site attempts to find a balance between personalizing information versus exposing users to content that they might otherwise miss; however, the belief is that “we should promote first and foremost what the reader enjoys reading” (in Powers 2014). When taking into account that not only do younger populations have significantly more technological avenues available with which to access information but that the information they are presented with is more likely to be personalized, it does seem to suggest that the interpretation of news is likely to be vastly different in younger versus older age groups. 

 Lastly, the role of one’s cultural background is a critical component implicated in news literacy. My family was born in the Ukraine and immigrated here when I was a child.  Whereas I grew up in a democratic country where the government is expected to be transparent regarding all issues, my grandparents lived their entire lives in a communist nation filled with secrecy and propaganda. They were used to not having news broadcasts; if any news was made available to citizens, it was typically laced with some ulterior motive. Now that they have been living in the US, they marvel at how much information is presented on the news and how seemingly transparent our government is in comparison to what they grew up with. They cling onto any and all pieces of information presented here and trust in its truthfulness wholeheartedly because for so long, information felt like a commodity. In contrast, I am much more apt to pick and choose what pieces of information I believe in based on my personal education and knowledge base. As Americans, we are used to being overloaded with news information such that we can afford the luxury of sifting through and taking bits and pieces of what we believe to be true from it.

 We see this attitude of selectivity also increasing in post-Soviet Russia, particularly in younger generations, albeit for different reasons than in America. Although younger generations have increased clarity regarding the existence of propaganda and there is increased availability of news information compared to that of the USSR era, there still exists an inherent resistance of the government to practice complete transparency with their citizens. Post-USSR citizens are aware of this hesitancy and as such, they have been bred to approach news information with some degree of skepticism-propaganda until proven otherwise, so to speak. Consequently, this awareness promotes citizens to shuffle through information in order to try to discern unbiased news from that which appears to be propaganda. In contrast, I have lived in a culture where the validity of information relayed to citizens, as well as its underlying motives, are largely unquestioned; it never crosses my mind that I am potentially being manipulated for some higher purpose when I access the news. As a result, my willingness to question the information I receive is significantly lower. 

 News literacy is an important skill for each individual to foster, particularly with the extensive series of complex events that are unfolding in our world today. When thinking about one’s degree of news literacy, factors such as education, life experience, age, and sociocultural background are absolutely necessary to consider since these play critical roles in shaping how an individual chooses to respond to the information they are presented with via the news and media outlets.