NASHVILLE (BP) – More platforms may exist to provide news, but that parallels a decrease in the level of trust people place in them. Furthermore, a growing availability of AI chatbots does not make them trusted news sources, with teens and adults alike remaining skeptical.
So says a recent study on the evolving news landscape conducted by the University of Chicago, which investigated the media habits and levels of trust of teens and adults.
Overall, the trend held that adults trust more traditional media paths, while teens are more willing to use social media and influencers. More common ground can be found, though, in an overall avoidance of media that, in itself, lends to a concentration of self-aggregated news silos.
Eighty-six percent of those 18 and older prefer national news outlets, though only 14 percent said they do so with a great deal of confidence. Forty-seven percent gave “some confidence” while less than a quarter (24 percent) said they had “hardly any confidence at all.”
The results from teens were, surprisingly, not too different from those of adults.
Eighty-two percent of 13-to-17-year-olds get at least some news from national outlets, with 19 percent saying they do so with a great deal of confidence, 46 percent with some confidence and 17 percent with hardly any confidence at all.
Among those 18 and older, 65 percent prefer local news outlets like TV, newspapers, or radio (including related apps, websites and social media) to personal contacts for local news information. Teens flip that sentiment, though, choosing local people they know (72 percent) over those outlets (61 percent).
Half of adults surveyed expressed “only some confidence” in local outlets, with 17 percent saying they had “a great deal of confidence.” Trust by teens fell to 47 and 12 percent, respectively.
A high number of both adults (50 percent) and teens (31 percent) say they don’t get news from AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot. Influencers get more attention from teens than adults, with 81 percent counting them as a news source versus 71 percent of adults. Influencers are barely seen as more trustworthy than an AI chatbot, though, with only 12 percent (versus 11) received with a great deal of confidence.
A majority of both groups (54 percent) say they actively avoid the news in general. That’s up from 40 percent last year, which was an increase from 27 percent in 2019.
News about celebrities is avoided by 72 percent of responding adults, while 43 percent of teens say they rarely or never avoid such news. Adults also try to avoid news while on social media (69 percent), when talking with friends and family (63 percent) and when on their phone (62 percent).
Even though news about Donald Trump was the most-avoided category among teens (59 percent), even more adults (62 percent) said they were more likely to turn away from news about the president.
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