LONDON: A new poll has found that teenagers trust social media influencers more than politicians to tell them the truth about the news and current affairs.
The study, commissioned by BBC Education, surveyed more than 2,000 teenagers aged between 11 and 16 and found that social media is the main source of news for that age group.
“The results show how confused a lot of young people are about where to go to get reliable information. They’re moving away from more traditional news sources but they’re not sure whether what they see and hear in other places can be trusted,” said Helen Foulkes, the head of BBC Education.
When asked who they trusted most to tell the truth about the news, only 1 percent of respondents said that they trusted politicians most, as opposed to 5 percent who said social media influencers.
The most trusted source of news were parents, with 36 percent of respondents voting for that option.
35 percent of respondents used social media sites, including YouTube, as their main source of news, compared with 9 percent who said news websites and 3 percent who chose newspapers.
TikTok was the most popular platform for accessing news, with 30 percent of respondents saying that it was the first app they used. However, despite its popularity, TikTok scored the lowest in terms of trust, with 31 percent of respondents saying that it was the least-trusted platform.
TikTok was followed by YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, with 23 percent, 19 percent and 13 percent of respondents selecting that option, respectively.
Television was the most trusted source of news, amassing more than 74 percent of votes. Meanwhile, 60 percent of respondents voted for radio as a trusted source of news, followed by online news sources and social media with 57 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
The BBC was the most trusted news provider, with 67 percent of respondents saying that they believed news from the broadcaster.
This was followed by ITV with 65 percent and Channel 4 with 56 percent. Meanwhile, 51 percent of respondents trusted news from YouTube and 50 percent trusted newspapers.
