By Brittany McAlister 
Trinity Times Correspondent

For Trinity Washington University sophomore Shareia Thomas, staying informed about what’s happening in the world is important, but she’s distrustful of mainstream news media.

It’s why Thomas, an Early Childhood Education major, mostly turns to social media platforms like Instagram to get informed about the big issues of the day.

“It is essential to recognize, however, that not all news sources are equal,” she told Trinity Times. “Some may have their own biases and agendas.”

Though respected journalists and professional non-ideological news organizations do post legitimate news stories on the various social media sites, those platforms are overrun with activists and influencers who sometimes provide inaccurate or false information to advocate for a specific agenda. 

Thomas isn’t alone with her wariness of mainstream news media organizations.

A 2022 Gallup poll showed that a whopping 38% of Americans have no trust at all in the mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” compared with the 34% of Americans who have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in mainstream news outlets.

Though there may be varying levels of trust of professional news outlets, a March 2024 Trinity Times survey of students, staff and faculty at Trinity Washington University revealed that most of the respondents regularly engage with the news media.

Though Thomas said she relies mostly on social media to get her daily information, she said she also turns to traditional news media to find out what is happening in the world, nation, and her local area.

“I watch the news on cable television stations like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News,” she said. “I watch the news rather than read it because it is more convenient, immersive, and provides a sense of connection to the world.”

The Trinity Times survey found that while 28.75% of respondents 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%.

When someone’s sole source of news consumption comes from social media, it raises red flags for scholars like Joshua Wright, an associate professor of Global Affairs in Trinity’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Since social media is rife with conspiracy theories and false information spread by influencers and bad actors, people looking to satisfy their news consumption on sites like Instagram, X, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are often confusing credible sources of information with fake news, Wright said.

According to a study by the American Press Institute, more than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 get news from social media platforms. 

While social media can be a valuable source of news and information if followers are tapping into credible news sources, it can also be a double-edged sword, as it often promotes echo chambers and filter bubbles, where users are only exposed to news that aligns with their own beliefs and opinions, often offered by nefarious online publishers.

“You have a lot of websites which look like legitimate websites but are actually fake websites that people create, and they put this information out there and people get misled,” Wright told Trinity Times. “I always tell my students, if you’re trying to fact check something, look for something that ends in .edu or is created by a credible news source like the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc.” 

It’s why it’s important for people to gain media literacy to decipher what is and isn’t credible news on social media, Wright said.

“Go back to the 2016 election and it was a big thing where people were getting misinformation on Facebook,” he said. “That was swaying how people were voting.”

News engagement is a crucial way of staying informed about current events and issues that impact society, but Wright said it’s equally important that people can discern credible sources of information from agenda-driven propaganda meant to influence the population. 

Trust in traditional news organizations, such as television news networks, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, is currently at a low point.

Though several Trinity students and staff members said they did rely on traditional journalism to help them understand the workings of the world, others expressed distrust in mainstream news outlets to play an influential role in keeping the public informed, holding those in power accountable, and fostering democracy. 

“It is important to recognize that the sources of power behind our mainstream news sources are not as diverse as we might believe,” said Sydney Triola, an instruction librarian and information literacy specialist in Trinity’s Sister Helen Sheehan Library. “Instead, in the age of algorithmic personalization, many of these companies tailor our news to what business owners think we as consumers will buy.”

This kind of mistrust in mainstream media makes students like Thomas question the notion that journalism is a need in society and sees traditional news outlets as organizations trying to convince its audience to agree with a specific agenda as opposed to informing people of what’s going on in the world. 

“As citizens, we have a responsibility to stay informed and engage with the world around us,” she said. “Good journalism should not only inform us but also empower us to take action and make a difference.”

For students like Trinity senior Sircey Smith and university staff members like Executive Director of Alumnae Ashley Bianchi, it’s important to engage with trusted news sources to learn about the important issues of the day, even if there are institutional deficiencies in those organizations.

Though some members of the Trinity community would like to see traditional news outlets collaborate with social activists, others believe those two entities have very different roles in society and fear such a partnership would hurt the credibility of journalists. 

“As an activist connecting and organizing with folks across the country, Instagram is one of the platforms that allows us to share disparate realities across identity and geography,” Triola said. “It’s not that I look at Instagram for reporter or journalist accounts, but I look to Instagram to see activist sousveillance; a great example of this is the way in which social media has been used to uplift the genocide targeting Palestinians right now.”