By Ingry Reyes
Trinity Times Correspondent
Trinity Washington University student Shareia Thomas hasn’t begun following the 2024 presidential election campaign closely, but when she does, she plans to do so by reading coverage of the candidates from credible news organizations.
However, Thomas understands that is not how all college students get their information.
Some political observers have been sounding the alarm that the fate of democracy is on the ballot of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and have huge concerns about how Gen Z and Millennial voters are getting their news about the campaign.
Most notably, U.S. political analysts and some Trinity professors are concerned about younger Americans getting most of their information from social media and are urging potential voters to diligently seek out facts from credible sources before casting their ballots in November.
While a March 2024 survey conducted by Trinity Times found that 28.75% of respondents in the Trinity community regularly read credible newspapers, online news sites, magazines and listen to National Public Radio, a close second in percentage of those surveyed got their news from social media feeds, at 26.25%.
With a significant portion of students primarily looking for news in social media – platforms notorious for being inodiated with political disinformation – Trinity Global Affairs Professor Joshua Wright fears they will be ripe for persuasion from deceptive campaigns.
Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X have all been sources of falsehoods, disinformation, and ideologically driven propaganda, as posters are not required to uphold the pillars of traditional journalism such as verification, fact-checking, accuracy, and transparency.
Many voting eligible citizens are unfamiliar with the candidates’ policies or the veracity of their campaign ads, Wright said, and urges his students to access credible data to make informed decisions about whom to support.
Without reliable information, citizens cannot make informed decisions when it comes to voting, he said.
Inaccurate reporting on social media – through influencers, activists or even networks of fake-foreign-controlled social media accounts – can distort reality, manipulate public opinion, and undermine the foundation of democratic governance, Wright said, citing the example of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
The rise of social media has fueled a growing distrust of mainstream news organizations, such as the New York Times, Washington Post and NPR.
An October 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that adults under 30 are now almost as likely to trust information from social media sites as they are to trust information from national news outlets.
Half of 18 to 29-year-olds in the United States said they have some or a lot of trust in the information they receive from social media sites, the Pew survey said, with just under the 56% who expressed similar trust in information from national news organizations. That number is somewhat lower than the 62% who said the same about information from local news organizations.
Trinity student Monica Sandoval is deeply engaged in following the 2024 presidential election, using social media to collect diverse opinions and insights, actively using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to remain up to date with the latest developments and events related to the upcoming elections.
Though credible news organizations and journalists do post published articles about the election on social media platforms, influencers and bad actors also spread conspiracy theories and false information.
It is why Wright urges his students to check the source of the information they are getting on social media sites and the internet in general.
“Education is key,” he said, noting that American high schools and universities could require media literacy for all students, so they can discern what information is trustworthy and what is potentially fake news.
In addition to schools, Wright said it would be beneficial to have free media literacy workshops offered at local community centers, public libraries, and even places of worship.
A lack of trust in journalism is concerning to Thomas, who strongly believes there will be dire consequences in a world where credible professional news outlets no longer exist.” For the death of journalism,” she said, “is the demise of democracy itself.”