The Search For Accurate News Takes Some Digging

In today’s social media landscape, electronic resources put the hunt for reliable information at students’ fingertips.

By: Angel Silva, Managing Editor

Ad Fontes Media has tracked the accuracy and slant of information sources. Ad Fontes Media

As more students rely on social media for news, they have a larger array of tools to determine the accuracy of information in news stories they consume.

A Pew Research Center study from September breaks down social media and news consumption shows that for adults between 18 and 29, TikTok was the main social media platform where they received news, followed closely by Reddit and Instagram.

“Social media does influence the way I get news, you can’t always have a TV but you always have your phone. You can get information faster, you just have to fact check it,” said business major Mya Vicks. 

A separate Pew study done in February by the Pew Research Center on social media and news trends showed that 40 percent of people surveyed are concerned about accuracy in news shared on social media. 

The same study mentioned that 36 percent of adults under 30 prefer social media over news outlets, and 35 percent use social media to get live info on events as they occur.

Concerns on accuracy drive students to seek news from several sources.

“Frankly, I don’t trust any news. Fox News, any of those I just think they are bullshit,” said cinema major Hillel McDonald. “I get my news pretty much online or through newspapers I use social media more, but I would say I use a bit of both.” 

The rise of uncertainty over the truth of news is driving the creation of fact sites focused on analyzing newsworthy events and topics through as unbiased of a lens as possible. An example is USAFacts, a site launched in 2017 by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, that solely uses government data sourced from federal sources. 

Another source is the Media Bias Chart, published by Ad Fontes Media, that ranks news sources such as newspapers, talk shows, podcasts and publications on how partisan, fact-dense and factual their information is.

The impact of how accurate stories are, as well as how biased they can be, is a determining factor in how students consume news online.

“I do trust the news but there are certain news programs that are biased more towards liberals, or conservatives. I’m looking for what’s factual,” said Valley student Mario Ramirez. “I get my news through social media and YouTube, a little bit in the New York Times.”