College Students, News Use, and Trust

Abstract

Young Americans report lower levels of political knowledge, news consumption, public trust, and civic behavior than their forebears. Concerned with what these patterns hold for the future of democratic governance, this study attempts to learn more about the news sources that college students use and the ones that they trust. Results from a survey of 213 18- to 24-year-old college students show that they access news that is convenient (namely, the Web and cable television), make nuanced distinctions between sources (consistently preferring the newspaper over others), and do not necessarily trust the sources they consult most often. This article details these patterns and addresses their relevance to news reform that can increase a younger audience and contribute to democratic life.

Keywords:

• College Students
• News Use
• Trust

Notes

Note. A Friedman test was used to find a significant difference in the rankings of media use, χ²(7, N = 186) =198.72, p < .01. Different superscripts indicate significant differences between use using a Wilcoxon signed ranks test (p < .05).

Note. Trust levels range from 5 (high level of trust) to 1 (low level of trust). Respondents were asked whether they could trust the information given to them by each source. Different superscripts indicate significant differences between trust using paired t tests (p < .05).

Note. All coefficients are significant (p < .05). Each item was asked on a 5-point scale ranging from 5 (very definitely applies) to 1 (does not apply at all) to why people use the news source. The following items did not emerge as significant predictors of the media use variables: find out what kind of job our government officials are doing, help me make up my mind on the important issues of the day, the reporters are like people I know, dramatic, gives me interesting things to talk about, find out about issues affecting people like myself, so I can pass information on to other people.

This study focuses only on college students from a single university, which limits its generalizability. Nevertheless, levels of knowledge and political interest for four-year university students are low (Delli Carpini, 2000), and levels of participation are often lower than for two-year college students and working youth (Jarvis, 2006). For these reasons, we see this sample as a strong place to start an investigation of patterns of news use and trust for younger audiences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharon E. Jarvis

Sharon E. Jarvis (PhD, University of Texas at Austin, 2000) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Natalie Jomini Stroud

Natalie Jomini Stroud (PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2006) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Austin A. Gilliland

Austin A. Gilliland (MA, University of Texas at Austin, 2005) is at the University of Texas at Austin.