Across the great divide: How today's college students engage with news

Head, Alison J.; DeFrain, Erica; Fister, Barbara; MacMillan, Margy

doi:10.5210/fm.v24i8.10166

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Fifth, the classroom emerged as a source of information on COVID-19. In their study of 5800 college students, Head et al [38] found that 73% of students received news updates during conversations with their professors and over 40% selected news outlets based on recommendations form faculty. The abundance of panic and concern around the pandemic meant many classroom discussions had to shift from discipline specific to current events.…”

Section: Classesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating a Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Knowledge, Sources of Information, and COVID-19-Related Precautions Taken by HBCU Students

Wade

Poit

Lee

et al. 2022

J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

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The coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread quickly across the nation with a disproportionate impact on Black Americans. Many college-aged students receive their COVID-19-related information through social media and television even though research suggests that social media sources are more likely to be incorrect. Some students report trusting these sources over government sources such as the CDC and WHO. The purpose of this study was to understand Historically Black College and University (HBCU) students’ COVID-19 knowledge, sources of information, and planned precautions. There were 21 in-depth interviews conducted with students attending a large southern HBCU during Spring 2020. Themes regarding knowledge included the following: it is a flu-like condition, it has international roots, there is inaccurate and changing information, and it is a pandemic. Themes regarding sources included: the news, US government and related officials, social media, interactions with family, and other social interactions. Themes regarding severity included the following: statistics, a distrust for hospital reporting, a belief that COVID-19 deaths were conflated with baseline health, peer influence, and familial influence. Themes regarding precautions included the following: proper mask use, hand washing/ sanitizing, avoiding large crowds/small crowds only, physical distancing, COVID-19 testing/symptom monitoring, and COVID-19 vaccination.

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Section: Classesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating a Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Knowledge, Sources of Information, and COVID-19-Related Precautions Taken by HBCU Students

Wade

Poit

Lee

et al. 2022

J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, college students may learn to use different academic databases or to conduct searches for library materials. There may be less focus on helping students learn to search for and evaluate information in outlets students rely on outside the classroom: just 2% of college students said they used academic databases when searching for news or information in their personal lives (Head et al, 2019). Instead, college students report that they frequently rely on open internet searches to stay informed about current events and topics that matter to them (American Press Institute, 2015; Taylor and Dalal, 2014).…”

Section: Fighting Misinformation In Collegementioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting misinformation in college: students learn to search and evaluate online information through flexible modules

McGrew

Chinoy

2022

ILS

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Purpose College students need more support learning to effectively search for and evaluate online information. Without such skills, students are vulnerable to mis- and disinformation that may appear in their search results, Web browsing and social media feeds. This study investigated four short instructional modules four short instructional modules that were developed to be delivered asynchronously to teach effective approaches to online search and evaluation. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study analyzed pre- and post-tests that students in two journalism courses completed before and after the modules. A total of 29 students completed written versions of the pre- and post-tests and 8 students participated in interviews in which they thought aloud while completing the pre- and post-tests. Written and oral responses were analyzed to understand students’ search and evaluation strategies and how, if at all, these shifted from pre- to post-test. Findings From pre- to post-test, students showed evidence of using strategies that were introduced in the modules to search for and evaluate online content. On the post-test, more students engaged in lateral reading to evaluate unfamiliar websites, used search operators and tools and more critically evaluated elements of the search engine results page. Originality/value This study provides initial, positive evidence for the efficacy of embedding short, asynchronous modules in college courses to improve students’ approaches to online searches and evaluations. College students need such support and modules like the ones investigated in this study may be one way to provide it.

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“…The results showed that Facebook was the dominant source of the news the students accessed, followed by Snapchat, and YouTube. Through the interview, the researchers also found that the news was dominantly delivered through multiple platforms to the students' mobile alerts (Head et al, 2019).…”

Section: Literacy Practices In the New Media Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Digital Literacy: EFL Students’ Ability to Evaluate Online Sources

Silvhiany

Huzaifah

Ismet

2021

IJEFL

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The advancement of Internet-based technologies and the new media ecology have contributed to the increased reliance on online sources in both the academic and the non-academic contexts. This study investigated how students evaluated the credibility of online information and the bias that might have influenced the content of the information. 152 EFL students responded to the online critical literacy assessment, which consisted of six tasks: evaluating the credibility of visual information, evaluating WhatsApp message, comparing and evaluating websites, distinguishing between news and sponsored content, evaluating the credibility of claim in a YouTube video, and evaluating an Instagram post. The results of the study showed that the students were easily deceived by the online information they read from various online media. They particularly struggled to detect the unsubstantiated claims from the YouTube video. Despite being a generation Z who frequently used social media and various online sources in their daily lives, the students could not critically evaluate the claims posted on these platforms. Implications of this study include the need to incorporate critical digital literacy in the language skill courses and deliberate exposure to strategies in evaluating online sources.

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Across the great divide: How today's college students engage with news

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Navigating a Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Knowledge, Sources of Information, and COVID-19-Related Precautions Taken by HBCU Students

Navigating a Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Knowledge, Sources of Information, and COVID-19-Related Precautions Taken by HBCU Students

Fighting misinformation in college: students learn to search and evaluate online information through flexible modules

Critical Digital Literacy: EFL Students’ Ability to Evaluate Online Sources

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