Young Australians access news regularly from multiple sources but their preferred and most trusted source is their family, a new survey has found.
While families are young people’s top source of news, the survey shows a consistent rise in news engagement via social media platforms, particularly video-based platforms.
The nationally representative survey – a collaboration between Western Sydney University, University of Canberra and Queensland University of Technology – asked 1,064 Australians aged eight to 16 years in June 2023 about their news practices and experiences.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Tanya Notley from the School of Humanities and Communication Arts and Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University said this year’s findings reaffirm the important role news plays in young people’s everyday lives while highlighting opportunities and challenges.
“Encouragingly, more than three quarters (78 per cent) of young people report that they often or sometimes engage in one or more forms of proactive news consumption whereby young people are making a decision to go out and get news,” said Associate Professor Notley.
Key findings of this year’s longitudinal survey, which is the third to be implemented with previous surveys carried out in 2020 and 2017, include:
- Four in five (83 per cent) young people had received news from at least one source the day before the survey.
- Most young people often or sometimes get news from family (85 per cent), teachers (71 per cent) and friends (66 per cent). Family are also young people’s most preferred and trusted source of news.
- Video-based platforms YouTube (68 per cent) and TikTok (42 per cent) are the social media platforms most frequently used by young people.
- Only two in five (40 per cent) young people aged 12-16 reported that they were familiar with the term algorithm in relation to news.
- Less than one in five (16 per cent) young people have a high level of trust in Australian news media organisations.
- Just two in five (41 per cent) young people believe they know how to tell real news from fake news (misinformation).
- Only one in four young people (24 per cent) said they had received a lesson at school in the past year to help them work out if news stories are true and can be trusted.
- Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of young people agree or strongly agree that it is difficult to find news relevant to people their age.
The findings show an overall increase in the number of young people who report getting news stories from social media when compared with past surveys. However, when asked about their experience of getting news on the social media platforms they use, only a small proportion use social media intentionally to find or get news.
Despite a modest increase in the number of young people who had received a news literacy lesson in school in the past year, the majority did not receive any lessons to help them determine if news content is true and trustworthy. Furthermore, many young people do not feel that news is made for people their age, which also suggests an important opportunity for news providers.
