In the current digital age, the news dominates the lives of many, and there are a number of ways students consume and verify the news they get online.
From social media influencers to independent journalists to major online news outlets, there have never been more ways for students to find out what is happening in the world.
Sophomore Caleb Ferguson said he gets the majority of his news from online news sources and news aggregators.
“I read a lot of Politico. I look at a lot of Google News Pages. I love news aggregates, like Ground News, that will bring in all sorts of stories about one topic,” Ferguson said.
Though Ferguson said he often sees news on his social media, he tends to not trust social media as a source.
“I don’t really like social media as a news sources. I see a lot of news on my Instagram feed or Snapchat, but I don’t really pay much attention to it,” Ferguson said. “If I see something interesting, I’ll go and check it with an outside source.”
Ferguson said he believes the best way to counter misinformation is to check it across multiple news sources or use a fact checker.
“If I find something that I want to look into further that I see on a news source, I’ll go and compare it with other sources and see what they’re saying, especially if I find it on a left-leaning or right-leaning news source,” Ferguson said. “I tend to prefer to just read unbiased news, but that’s hard to come by today.”
Ferguson said he believes independent journalists are the future of journalism, disconnected from any major news outlets.
“I love the independent journalists that do like YouTube videos. I guess that would be my form of social media news, so to speak. I do really enjoy their reporting on that, and I really enjoy how they’re not beholden to a network’s rules,” he said.
Junior Casey Hayhurst said he almost always gets his news from social media first.
“I most certainly get my news from social media. You know, Instagram, TikTok, things like that,” Hayhurst said. “With how connected we are in general with social media, especially in my age group, there’s not going to be a day that goes by without me somehow catching either a snippet or maybe a smaller news story.”
Though Hayhurst said he gets his news from social media, he also said he always remains skeptical of what he sees online.
“You’re always going to have people like these influencers, people with following, who are going to want to add their own opinions to things. Those aren’t inherently good news sources,” Hayhurst said.
Hayhurst said he generally does not trust major national news outlets to be reliable news sources.
“I feel like a lot of the larger news organizations, they become very biased in a way,” Hayhurst said. “Overall, I do feel as if a lot of these larger organizations have become not necessarily corrupted, but definitely skewed with what they want to report.”
Hayhurst said cross-referencing sources and news articles is the best way to counter misinformation. He also said fans have a responsibility to hold their influencers accountable for spreading misinformation.
“There’s always going to be misinformation. There has been since probably the dawn of news, probably the dawn of writing,” Hayhurst said.
Sophomore Landon Mefford said he primarily gets his news from major news outlets, usually CNN.
“I primarily use CNN. I know that it’s, you know, left leaning, but that’s my preferred news source,” Mefford said. “Ever since I was younger, that’s what I’ve always gone to. I’ve always found it gives me the details straight, and I normally agree with how they do the news.”
Mefford said he tries to be conscious of the political biases of his news sources.
“I think that with how politics are today, that’s what I am more likely to go to the news sources that I agree with,” Mefford said. “Obviously, some things are altered to be political, and you have to filter that out, but it doesn’t bother me.”
Mefford said he thinks the best way to counter misinformation is to reference other sources and independent journalists.
“I’m in the media literacy course right now, and that’s something we’ve talked about,” Mefford said. “I would say trying to use independent journalists, too, but I think there’s always going to be misinformation. I think that’s just a part of media.”
Ashton Pack can be contacted at [email protected].
