There are a lot of differences in how each generation gets its news.
Gen X still relies on getting their news from TV. Gen Z relies heavily on social media to get their news from platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Baby boomers still rely on a lot of traditional news media like newspapers and TV to get their information of the day.
“Definitely not the phone as much as they do,” said grandparent Debbie Gump.
According to Pew research, 71% of Gen Z get their news from social media. I went to Montana State University to see if that trend matched with students on campus.
“Tiktok is the one I probably get the most out of everything,” said MSU Student Olivia Belcher.
It also just so happened to be a day with parents and their students touring campus so I asked the parents about their habits.
“Mine is still the old fashioned, paper, word of mouth, TV, radio,” said Gump.
A lot of the students I talked to say they get their news from social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
“I feel like I see it a little bit sooner on like an app than she does. If she was to see it in a newspaper,” said High Schooler Realei Mills.
Just because they see it on social media doesn’t mean they always believe it. They try to keep an eye out for fake news
“Absolutes, it's like it seems like every person does this or nobody does this, you know like absolutes are generally where I think something is wrong, but I don't know it kind of, for the most part, it's a gut feeling. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that I consume this wrong that I don't even notice it,” said Bechler.
They go on digital versions of newspapers to check the accuracy of what they see on social media.
“I generally try to vet it especially if it seems wrong to me like I don't know a lot of the new sources are like free,” said Bechler. "So things like New York Times I still try to check critical sources.”
Just because Gen Z relies heavily on the digital world, doesn’t mean they have given up on traditional news outlets.
“I used to read the comics in it so I'm so like drawn newspapers,” said Mills.
As part of @EWScrippsCo News Literacy Week. @KBZK looked at the generational differences to how we get news. You might not be surprised that us Gen-Z'ers rely on social media for news, but still haven't given up on traditional outlets. pic.twitter.com/OfSG8c3CLM
— Edgar Cedillo (@edgarcedilloTV) January 27, 2023
