Teacher Perceptions of News Source Credibility

• In Event: 51.074 - Social Studies Teaching in the 21st Century

Abstract

Trust in mainstream media has declined in recent years and individuals increasingly rely on partisan sources of news for information about political and social issues. In response to these trends, there has been a call for increased attention to media literacy in schools to teach students how to thoughtfully interpret and evaluate the news. There is, however, little research that examines how teachers themselves perceive sources of news and use them in their classroom. Drawing from a survey of social studies teachers in 4 states, this mixed methods study explores teachers’ definitions of news credibility and how their perceptions of credibility are related to their political ideology.

Authors

• Christopher Clark, Northeastern State University - Tahlequah

• Mardi Schmeichel, University of Georgia

• H. James Garrett, University of Georgia