Teens trust Instagram for news because they can engage in discussion and debate

This has important implications for doing journalism

As a 40-something, I am facing down the bitter indignity of having to find out about the hot trends for the “kids these days” from such *cough* hip, edgy sources as the New York Times, where I learned all about this “Fortnite” business. (who am I kidding, I was never that cool.)

So true to form this morning I read this Atlantic piece by Taylor Lorenz about how teens are using Instagram “flop” accounts to get information with interest. Apparently, accounts that began as a way to make fun of celebs have turned into places for discussion of serious issues like gun control and racism.

Fascinating that Instagram, specifically, became the place for this, but otherwise not all that surprising — young people have been discussing anything and everything on the Internet since the days of chat rooms and AIM.

Here’s the part of the story that will strike fear deep into the heart of any journalist:

The main thing teens who engage with flop accounts share is a strong distrust of the news media. Teens said they turned to flop accounts specifically because they didn’t believe what they read in the news, saw on TV, or even were taught in their U.S.-history class, since, as one teen saw it, their teacher is just one person giving an opinion.

I know. GET OFF MY LAWN. !@#% DEMOCRACY’S END IS NIGH

But then there is this.

Teen flop-account admins and followers said they found information on flop accounts to be far more reliable because it could be crowdsourced and debated. “You don’t want to read things in a newspaper, because that’s filtered. That’s not interactive,” Alma said. “Flop accounts, you can comment, ask questions, and you usually get replies.”

Here, the kids have a point.

To me, this is yet another blazing sign that journalists need to think more about how their audiences can meaningfully participate in the news process, how they can engage in more two-way interaction with their audiences, and how they can be more transparent about the reporting process.

I’m not saying that journalists need to hop on those Interwebs and start busting into teen conversations on “flop” accounts. I mean, maybe some of us are cool enough to try (this would not be me). And there may be some things we can do specifically on Instagram that young people will find more valuable.

But I think this is an insight that can be applied much more generally to the way we approach our work, with an understanding that this is what future news consumers are looking for.

Of course, I’m not making a new argument here. The social journalism program I run at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism is all about listening and community and engagement, so I’ve been banging this drum for awhile, as many of you surely know. There’s a whole bunch of us on this bandwagon, many doing research that shows this kind of credibility boost for engagement in more detail than these anecdotes; if you are into it, I’d suggest joining Gather.

It makes a lot of intuitive sense that kids raised with the internet are more likely to trust something that they can interact with and ask questions of rather than passively consume. And while young people have always been rightly questioning of authority, we certainly live in a time in which skepticism is warranted about what adults, who have done a lot to mess up the world, tell them.

So maybe the kids are alright after all, and we should make better journalism for them.

Social journalism director at Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in NYC. Runner; beer & Packers enthusiast.