Story Archive

The Echo Chamber

A Stanford University study finds that 82 percent of teens can’t tell real news stories from “sponsored content” articles, which are generally commercial messages written like news stories — even if they’re labeled as such. Few schools offer any sort of “media literacy” classes, especially now that fewer schools have professional librarians on staff. By middle school, teens spend 7-1/2 hours a day online, not counting any computer time at school. And “multitasking” makes it less likely they’ll “think deeply” about the sources of information they see. The most common source of “news” for teens: social media such as Facebook, and their algorithms create an “echo chamber” of information they have already shown an affinity for. Prof. Sam Wineburg of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, the lead author of the study, says teens should be taught how to do fact-checking so they can understand the biases in the media. (RC/Wall Street Journal) ...Right: it’s just teens that have this problem.