Cat Murphy, a college student, has wanted to be a journalist since she was 11. Many of her friends don\u2019t understand why.<\/p>\n
When they engage with the news \u2014 if they do \u2014 they hear a cacophony of voices. They don\u2019t know who to believe. Reporters are biased. They make mistakes. Besides, why would you hitch your future to a dying industry<\/a>?<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot of commentary \u2014 \u2018Oh, good for you. Look what you\u2019re walking into. You\u2019re going to be screaming into the void. You\u2019re going to be useless,\u2019\u201d said Murphy, a 21-year-old graduate student at the University of Maryland\u2019s journalism school.<\/p>\n She is undeterred. And it\u2019s also why she\u2019s not surprised by the findings of a study this fall<\/a> that documented negative attitudes toward the news media among 13- to 18-year-old Americans. The press rarely fares well<\/a> in surveys of adults, but it\u2019s sobering to see the same disdain among people whose opinions about the world are still forming.<\/p>\n Asked by the News Literacy Project<\/a> for one word to describe today\u2019s news media, 84% of teens responded with something negative \u2014 \u201cbiased,\u201d \u201ccrazy,\u201d \u201cboring,\u201d \u201cfake,\u201d \u201cbad,\u201d \u201cdepressing,\u201d \u201cconfusing,\u201d \u201cscary.\u201d<\/p>\n More than half of the teens surveyed believe journalists regularly engage in unethical behaviors like making up details or quotes in stories, paying sources, taking visual images out of context or doing favors for advertisers. Less than a third believe reporters correct their errors, confirm facts before reporting them, gather information from multiple sources or cover stories in the public interest \u2014 practices ingrained in the DNA of reputable journalists.<\/p>\n To some degree, teens reflect the attitudes they\u2019re exposed to, particularly when the most prominent politician of their age has made \u201cfake news\u201d a mantra<\/a>. Experts say few teens follow news regularly or learn in school about the purpose of journalism.<\/p>\n Journalists don\u2019t help themselves with mistakes or ethical lapses<\/a> that make headlines. Opinionated reporters or commentators in an era of political division make readers wonder what to believe.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of this (attitude) is earned, but much of it is based on misperception,\u201d said Peter Adams, senior vice president of research and design for the Washington-based News Literacy Project.<\/p>\n There are ways to turn things around, but it will take work.<\/p>\n Many of Lily Ogburn\u2019s classmates get their information from social media. Their parents didn\u2019t watch or read news reports as they grew up, so they didn\u2019t pick up the habit, said Ogburn, a senior at Northwestern University\u2019s journalism school.<\/p>\n Ogburn is the former editor-in-chief at the well-regarded Daily Northwestern student newspaper. The newspaper\u2019s 2023 reports on alleged hazing and racism within the school\u2019s football program led to the ouster<\/a> of its coach. Still, she found some students don\u2019t understand the newspaper\u2019s role; they believe it exists to protect people in power rather than hold them accountable.<\/p>\n She frequently had to explain what she did to classmates. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of mistrust toward journalists,\u201d she said. But it has firmed her resolve to stick with the profession.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be a journalist that people trust,\u201d Ogburn said, \u201cand I want to report news that makes people believe and trust in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n The news industry\u2019s financial troubles over the past two decades have hollowed out newsrooms and left fewer journalists on duty. Along with not seeing much legitimate journalism, young people frequently don\u2019t experience it through popular culture \u2014 unlike a previous generation, which learned in detail how Washington Post reporters Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein exposed the Watergate scandal<\/a> in the Academy Award-winning movie \u201cAll the President\u2019s Men.\u201d<\/p>\n When the News Literacy Project asked, two-thirds of teens couldn\u2019t think of anything when asked what movies or TV shows come to mind when they think about journalism. Those who had answers most frequently cited the \u201cSpider-Man\u201d franchise or the movie \u201cAnchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.\u201d Neither portrayal was particularly flattering.<\/p>\n Upon retiring as editor of Newsday, Howard Schneider helped develop the State University of New York system\u2019s first School of Journalism. But instead of teaching future writers, editors or producers, he became drawn to teaching non-journalists about being news consumers.<\/p>\n