YouTube has evolved from being just a place to share cat and dog videos to a curated platform for sharing high-quality content in a variety of genres. Since the modern generation grew up watching the growth of YouTube, they tend to turn to YouTube for news rather than tuning in to reputed news agencies, suggests a new survey.
The survey sponsored by SurveyMonkey was conducted by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization. Over 1,000 teens participated in the survey and the majority of them responded that they prefer YouTube over news outlets.
Among the teens who rely on YouTube for news, almost 60 percent trusted celebrities and other influencers to get the whole idea of the happenings. While old people might think teens are being ignorant, they also clarified that they know the fact that their new sources were less trustworthy or dependable than the mainstream media.
“We don’t necessarily have a great sense of whether those influencers or celebrities have standards and ethics, or what kind of disclosures they’re making. Are they objective sources or not? How trustworthy is their research? There’s a whole host of things that you would need to understand to know whether something is more legitimate. I’m not sure that is clear when you’re getting it from a celebrity, influencer or personality.”, said Michael Robb, senior director of research at Common Sense Media.
However, a significant number of teens who relied on YouTube have stated that they simply watch the video that gets recommended to them by the YouTube algorithm. This is where things get problematic since YouTube recently went through allegations for its recommendation system suggesting inappropriate content and spreading hate speech.
“We live in a media-rich and time-poor world, and students are quickly scrolling and liking and sharing, and I think that’s part of the problem – just slowing down, thinking very carefully about what they’re seeing and also knowing how to determine if something is credible helps them be better digital citizens”, said Kelly Mendoza, senior director of education programs at Common Sense Media.
So, do you have any ideas to increase the credibility of news on YouTube? Share your thoughts in the comments.
