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Swedish teenagers’ difficulties and abilities to determine digital news credibility

Swedish teenagers’ difficulties and abilities to determine digital news credibility AbstractIn this study we investigate the abilities to determine the credibility of digital news among 483 teenagers. Using an online survey with a performance test we assess to what extent teenagers are able to determine the credibility of different sources, evaluate credible and biased uses of evidence, and corroborate information. Many respondents fail to identify the credibility of false, biased and vetted news. Respondents who value the importance of credible news seem to hold a mindset helping them to determine credibility better than other respondents. In contrast, respondents self-reporting to be good at searching information online and who find information online trustworthy are not very good at civic online reasoning. Our findings, which may be linked to theories of disciplinary literacy, science curiosity and overconfidence, provide a basis for further research of how to better understand and support civic online reasoning in classrooms and society. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nordicom Review de Gruyter

Swedish teenagers’ difficulties and abilities to determine digital news credibility

Nygren, Thomas; Guath, Mona
Nordicom Review , Volume 40 (1): 20 – Feb 1, 2019
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2019 Thomas Nygren et al., published by Sciendo
ISSN
2001-5119
eISSN
2001-5119
DOI
10.2478/nor-2019-0002
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractIn this study we investigate the abilities to determine the credibility of digital news among 483 teenagers. Using an online survey with a performance test we assess to what extent teenagers are able to determine the credibility of different sources, evaluate credible and biased uses of evidence, and corroborate information. Many respondents fail to identify the credibility of false, biased and vetted news. Respondents who value the importance of credible news seem to hold a mindset helping them to determine credibility better than other respondents. In contrast, respondents self-reporting to be good at searching information online and who find information online trustworthy are not very good at civic online reasoning. Our findings, which may be linked to theories of disciplinary literacy, science curiosity and overconfidence, provide a basis for further research of how to better understand and support civic online reasoning in classrooms and society.

Journal

Nordicom Review – de Gruyter

Published: Feb 1, 2019

Keywords: credibility; sourcing; fake news; science curiosity; media information literacy

References

  • What would Martin Luther King Jr. say? Teaching the historical and practical past to promote human rights in education
  • From the digital divide to the democratic divide: Internet skills, political interest, and the second-level digital divide in political Internet use
  • The five resources of critical digital literacy: A framework for curriculum integration
  • Why the unskilled are unaware: Further explorations of (absent) self-insight among the incompetent
  • Thinking fast increases framing effects in risky decision making
  • The challenge that’s bigger than fake news: Civic reasoning in a social media environment
  • The digital divide shifts to differences in usage