Why college students prefer News Daddy over The New York Times

Ankit Khanal gets his quality from News Daddy. More than 20 times a day, Khanal, a sophomore astatine George Mason University, opens TikTok to person the biggest stories of the time delivered to him by a bleach-blonde 26-year-old named Dylan Page, 1 of the starring faces successful a increasing assemblage of quality influencers. Based successful the United Kingdom, Page began posting contented connected TikTok successful August 2020 and has since grown his “News Daddy Empire,” his posts amassing implicit 1.5 cardinal likes. His contented spans breaking news, politics, popular culture, and sometimes, idiosyncratic workout videos — delivered successful the progressively common, enthusiastic “YouTube accent.” While Page doesn’t explicitly mention his sources successful each video, News Daddy appears to get his accusation from a premix of accepted quality outlets, societal media, and different influencers. 

As a machine subject major, Khanal says he’s cautious of algorithms and their effects connected media consumption. He adjacent wrote and delivered a code connected the taxable to his peers for 1 of his classes. The thesis: “If you recognize it oregon not, algorithms are determining everything connected societal media. From the contented that you interact with to the opinions you signifier connected the app. They are secretly affecting your beingness successful ways that tin beryllium harmful.” The irony is not mislaid connected him. Khanal understands TikTok is not ever a reliable source; his presumption thoroughly explained however misinformation is speedy to dispersed connected societal media. If Khanal wants to fact-check a video, helium browses the remark section. “Most of the time, if the video is large enough, you volition spot thing successful the apical comments telling you, like, ‘Hey, this is conscionable wrong.’ That’s erstwhile I would really look.”

And yet, alternatively than work accepted journalistic outlets that bash the enactment of reporting, helium inactive gets astir of his quality from aggregators similar News Daddy. Social media is simply a much appealing quality root for Khanal, who says he’s turned disconnected by the biases and governmental leanings of accepted quality outlets. News influencers, connected the different hand, are “actually connected to the radical they’re getting their quality for.” Khanal’s behaviour is not unusual. Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab polled 1,026 students astatine 181 two- and four-year institutions from December 19th to 23rd, 2024, connected their media literacy practices. In January of this year, the survey results were published, showing that societal media is simply a “top quality source” for astir 3 successful 4 students. Of those surveyed, “half  astatine slightest somewhat spot platforms specified arsenic Instagram and TikTok to present that quality and different captious accusation accurately.” And connection of rima ranked 2nd among students’ astir fashionable quality sources, an avenue for fractional of those surveyed. Legacy media, chiefly newspapers, connected the different hand, are regular quality sources for conscionable 2 successful 10 students, adjacent though they bespeak that newspapers are much apt to convey close information. 

Professor Karen North, laminitis of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg integer media program, agrees with the study’s findings. At the opening of each of her classes, North discusses with her students the day’s astir applicable headlines. She asks them wherever they caught upwind of those events. The 3 astir communal answers among her students each semester: “They get their quality from Instagram and TikTok. And from their professors.” But North says schoolroom newsgetting is simply a distant third, acold down societal media’s grip connected pupil quality sourcing culture.

Zau Lahtaw, a inferior astatine Syracuse University, says helium besides gets his quality from scrolling connected TikTok, chiefly from Dylan Page, arsenic good arsenic from a talking food — styled aft the animated quality anchor that delivers “breaking news” successful SpongeBob SquarePants. “I don’t know. It’s conscionable funny,” Lahtaw says.

There are respective fashionable talking food accounts connected Instagram, the astir fashionable of which — @realtalkingfish, self-titled “America’s #1 quality source!” — uploads regular quality snippets to its 1.4 cardinal followers. But determination are countless pages crossed some Instagram and TikTok that deploy an AI-generated mentation of Bikini Bottom’s aquatic anchor to scope millions of viewers. Lahtaw says helium doesn’t actively hunt for these pages, but connected TikTok, the videos popular up connected his provender anyway. And if the communicative interests him, he’ll beryllium done the video. That’s however helium learned of Israel’s strikes connected subject and atomic facilities successful Iran. Lahtaw had been scrolling done his TikTok For You leafage — arsenic helium usually does for 2 to 3 hours a time — erstwhile helium came crossed the food quality anchor explaining the onslaught had transpired earlier that morning. Lahtaw searched Google to cheque if the onslaught was real, and remembers confirming that it was, though helium can’t callback if he’d work an nonfiction from CNN oregon ABC.

Just implicit a week later, Lahtaw learned from News Daddy that the US launched subject strikes against Iran. After that archetypal video, his provender was instantly flooded with posts astir getting drafted for a imaginable World War III. He watched a fewer of these videos earlier returning to Google to verify that the draught was confined to memes. “I spot the TikTok, I spot more, I get interested, I look it up online.”

The TikTok-to-Google pipeline is not unsocial to Lahtaw. Among the 18 assemblage students I spoke to for this story, this fact-checking funnel was overwhelmingly pervasive; each students were connected either TikTok oregon Instagram oregon some and often turned to Google aft seeing quality connected their feeds that they wanted to verify. North says her students bash similarly, though astir don’t google to work articles: “They hunt oregon google things and they lone read, for the astir part, the AI effect arsenic a shortcut, and they conscionable presume that it’s correct.” She says, for her students, “AI is the caller benignant of Wikipedia.”

Stanford sophomore Zachary Gottlieb is the Opinions conception managing exertion for The Stanford Daily. Through the school, Gottlieb has escaped entree to publications similar The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic — and helium says helium trusts the sources Stanford provides. Each morning, helium browses regular newsletters and reads articles that drawback his oculus — usually nationalist and planetary headlines. Throughout the day, his telephone buzzes with emails and alerts connected processing and breaking stories. Sometimes, helium reads a fewer articles earlier going to sleep. 

But adjacent erstwhile he’s not actively seeking retired the news, his vulnerability to societal media is relentless. On Instagram and TikTok, extracurricular of posts by followed publications, it’s impossible, during his 1 to 2 hours of regular scrolling, to debar posts from News Daddy oregon chap news-oriented influencers. Gottlieb uses words similar “ubiquitous” and “chronic” to qualify the ineludible onslaught of headlines. “Nowadays, it could beryllium anywhere. You unfastened your telephone oregon you unfastened Instagram to spell DM idiosyncratic oregon hunt thing up wholly unrelated oregon unfastened TikTok to unbend and conscionable beryllium deed with something.”

Hoping to unbend successful the day of September 10th, Gottlieb opened TikTok and was met with an infographic detailing Charlie Kirk’s shooting. Over the frenzied archetypal hours aft the fatal attack, Gottlieb saw graphic videos of Kirk being fatally changeable portion speaking astatine an lawsuit astatine Utah Valley University — each clip racking up millions of views, adjacent from viewers who did not privation to spot them. “‘Wait, is this real? Is this, like, a gag oregon something?’” Gottlieb wondered astatine first. “Obviously, I verified.” He googled it. “And past later, evidently aft it was confirmed that helium was, successful fact, killed, determination were beardown reactions, like, everywhere, obviously. And past I saw galore Instagram stories, arsenic happens with a batch of these kinds of things.”

In Instagram’s early, saturated years, the emblematic teen scrolling done their provender would person seen vibrant abrogation photos, filtered sunsets, and colorful snapshots of a Starbucks Frappuccino. Today, galore feeds person traded effervescent aesthetics for infographic activism, turquoise for text. In the aftermath of the 2020 Black Lives Matter question and arsenic Instagram continues to grow its carousel cap, the level has evolved into a favored abstraction for activists and students to similar and stock their authorities successful the signifier of posts. 

Politics-related contented characterizes 80 percent — a percent by her ain estimation — of what Harvard freshman Aria-Vue Daugherty sees connected her feed. She swipes done dozens of activism-centered stories, posts, and reposts regular from friends. “Most of my friends I person made done assorted types of governmental organizing, truthful I consciousness similar astir radical I travel are reposting quality and that usually comes successful the signifier of either immoderate random benignant of politically inclined idiosyncratic talking astatine you, from a reel oregon infographics, usually connected their stories.” Sometimes, if she comes crossed a station she resonates with, she’ll repost it onto her ain story. 

Daugherty regularly reads The New York Times, USA Today, The Associated Press, The Harvard Crimson, and the occasional articles from The Economist and The Atlantic. Though she says she tries to beryllium intentional astir her sources, the bulk of the quality she sees and reads is what pops up connected Instagram, posts from sites she follows, oregon peers’ reposts. (In opposition to TikTok, Instagram tends to amusement users much posts from the accounts they take to travel and less random viral videos.) When Daugherty opened Instagram portion connected field connected May 22nd, she estimates she saw astatine slightest 100 posts from peers — reposted infographics, reels — reacting to the quality that the Department of Homeland Security had revoked Harvard’s certification to enroll planetary students. (International students marque up implicit a 4th of the school’s full enrollment.) She checked an nonfiction from The Harvard Crimson to marque definite it was true. Instagram, she says, is simply a convenient introduction point, a speedy mode to enactment up to date. “I deliberation it would person taken maine longer to spell and cheque my email and work the Crimson daily briefing.”

By midday, it seemed similar “everyone was precise aware” of the news. Over the adjacent fewer weeks, Daugherty reposted infographics and articles from the Crimson. “The slightest I tin bash is dispersed the connection and archer radical and astatine slightest effort to rise consciousness successful this tiny mode by reposting it and sharing my thoughts that this is, you know, deplorable and reaching retired to my planetary friends.” Daugherty says she was reasoning of her roommate and 1 of her champion friends, an planetary pupil from Malaysia. “I had immoderate bid of caput to cognize that, okay, radical are doing things. People aren’t freaking retired the mode I am.”

In precocious June, a national justice blocked the Donald Trump administration’s effort to barroom planetary students from Harvard. Daugherty work an nonfiction successful the Crimson the time of. This time, she says she saw “maybe five” posts astir the development. She had respective conversations with friends who did not cognize astir the update. 

“There decidedly was a gap,” she says. “Everybody knew astir the archetypal headline. It decidedly seems similar astir radical didn’t cognize astir the 2nd headline, but for those who were straight impacted by it.” Thinking backmost connected it, Daugherty doesn’t cognize wherefore she didn’t station thing connected Instagram astir the judge’s blockage herself, though she admits it would person been adjuvant to stock the quality online. 

Khanal had an acquisition akin to Daugherty’s. When we spoke successful October, coincidentally connected the aforesaid time millions of radical mobilized for a 2nd circular of No Kings protests, Khanal was amazed it was a nationalist movement. “I thought it was a Boston thing,” helium says, referring to a TikTok helium remembers seeing retired of the country during the archetypal protests successful June.

This dilemma is thing Khanal reflects successful his presumption astir media consumption. In his outline, helium dedicates a subsection to the algorithm’s influences: “Because radical presume they are successful control, they don’t question the repeated ideas and beliefs.”

In the survey published successful January, which recovered that 72 percent of assemblage students get their quality from societal media, conscionable 2 successful 3 students said they regularly cheque for accuracy, surveying for biases oregon cross-checking with different sources. And conscionable fractional of students surveyed said they checked the accusation and identified sources earlier sharing it connected their societal media. From her decades teaching media classes, North is capable to reaffirm that trend, 1 she says has risen successful caller years, and vocalize another: “I judge that from what students say, they get a heads up astir the news, they get benignant of the headlines and the basal premise of the quality from Instagram. And they get persuasive opinions from TikTok,” she says.

As Daugherty says, Instagram and TikTok tin beryllium adjuvant tools, expediting the dispersed of information, keeping her updated connected headlines that mightiness different gaffe done the cracks. The different broadside of that taste coin is that Lahtaw already knows helium is susceptible to misinformation. “I tin tell, like, our procreation is going to beryllium scammed successful the aboriginal by AI and stuff,” helium says.

Lahtaw says helium sees galore AI-generated videos connected TikTok. In the property of AI deepfakes, it is getting harder to separate what’s existent and what’s fabricated. In July, an AI-generated video of bunnies bouncing connected a trampoline went viral, drafting implicit 240 cardinal views and 25 cardinal likes. Among the top-liked comments are “Please archer maine this is real” and “This is the archetypal clip AI ever got me.” In August, an AI-generated video of orca trainer Jessica Radcliffe being killed was posted to TikTok. The hoax rapidly went viral, and the fake footage circulated wide connected societal media. As with the bunny video, millions were deceived.

Khanal admitted helium erstwhile posted an AI-generated representation to TikTok arsenic a joke. It was a representation of a forearm and, inked crossed it, a Roblox-related tattoo. “The astir fake tattoo ever,” helium says. “And radical were genuinely believing me.” The station was seen astir 190,000 times. And galore of the comments were from enraged viewers, their reactions spurred by a seemingly genuine content — adjacent arsenic Khanal had posted the TikTok with “#joke” successful its description.  

College inferior Barnett Salle-Widelock studies governmental subject astatine UCLA. He says he’s disillusioned by TikTok, which helium says is “blatantly dedicated” to getting him to “doomscroll.” He yet uninstalled the app to debar “doomscrolling” — a signifier becoming much communal among assemblage students, who, connected average, use societal media for six oregon much hours daily. But Salle-Widelock inactive uses Instagram. Though astir of his For You leafage existent property is basketball, golf, and memes, helium gets the occasional video oregon infographic from The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and his field insubstantial — publications helium follows for his news. Sometimes, his provender volition besides amusement him viral headlines from the BBC and ABC News. Outside of Instagram and the uncommon subreddit, Salle-Widelock says helium doesn’t question retired headlines, though helium has an appreciation for accepted media. “I privation that I was a benignant of worldly idiosyncratic that was sitting determination with a paper each Sunday greeting oregon something.” But wherefore would helium be? It’s easier to person the headlines picked and laid retired for him, helium says, accessible by the speedy swipe of a thumb. 

Toby Strawser, a inferior astatine Lewis & Clark College, spends 15 to 20 minutes a time keeping himself up to day with the news. In the morning, helium skims a regular newsletter from The New York Times and Letters from an American, a newsletter astir the past down existent authorities by historiographer Heather Cox Richardson (it is the third-largest US authorities newsletter connected Substack, down The Free Press and The Bulwark). Outside of these emails and a subscription to a fewer newspapers similar The Washington Post, each present and again, his household volition person the quality connected — “NBC News oregon thing similar that.” He has relatives moving for the national government, truthful helium says his household is much inclined to enactment engaged and progressive with news. Strawser besides belongs to a assemblage newsgathering niche that seems progressively rare; helium besides subscribes to section news, peculiarly The Carmel Pine Cone, a play paper published successful Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, wherever helium is from.

Harvard sophomore James Pippin likewise spends astir 20 minutes a time getting his headlines from Apple News, speechmaking articles betwixt concern and economics classes. “They’ve got a bully dispersed connected there,” helium says. “It goes each crossed the spectrum, from CNN to Fox News.” He follows a fewer quality sites connected Instagram, including The New York Times, and says helium tries not to instrumentality infographic activism excessively seriously. “I person made infographics earlier truthful I cognize however random and unreliable they tin be. I’m a small cautious, but I deliberation I’m astir apt a small much cautious than astir of my peers.” Like Daugherty, Pippin learned of Trump’s proclamation to artifact planetary students from Harvard done an Instagram post. He went to Google and verified the quality by speechmaking an nonfiction from The New York Times. “If it sounds crazy, I effort to vet it earlier I judge it.”

Headlines are expensive. Paywalls aren’t helping. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted successful March, 83 percent of Americans accidental they person not paid for quality successful the past year. There are a fewer fiscal concessions for assemblage students. Many colleges — including Harvard — supply escaped integer entree to The New York Times through an “Academic Pass” program. And assemblage papers, similar the Daily Bruin and The Stanford Daily often connection national, global, and campus-centered headlines for free. 

But are these prime options much accessible, much attractive, than scrolling to person headlines handed retired connected societal media? Salle-Widelock doesn’t deliberation so. “It’s funny, due to the fact that that feels wrong, and I consciousness similar I should beryllium doing my owed diligence and doing my ain research, but it’s similar the curated provender and the easiness of conscionable having the header picked retired for you. It’s each close there. It’s each successful 1 azygous site.”

Lahtaw suspects he’ll yet outgrow societal media scrolling and, successful turn, root his quality elsewhere. “As you turn up, you’re much progressive successful society,” helium imagines. “I deliberation it’s a thing. When you mature and you privation to cognize what’s going connected successful the world, you go much interested.” When helium graduates successful 4 semesters with a grade successful machine engineering, Lahtaw says he’ll crook to accepted media, metamorphosing into the benignant of coffee-sipping, page-turning, “worldly person” that Salle-Widelock describes arsenic obsolete for Gen Z. “I bash deliberation my procreation neither wants to nor volition ever devour quality successful that manner.”

Until then, the algorithm is inactive the appeal. Salle-Widelock has travel to the decision that he, and the bulk of his undergrad peers, get their quality from societal media for 2 superior reasons: The first, it’s a conscious, cost-efficient, and convenient prime guided by the dopamine unreserved of an algorithmic addiction. The second, possibly it’s Mark Zuckerberg “attacking” his brain. This was the moving taxable among the assemblage students I spoke to for this story: Almost each of them were alert of the pitfalls of getting their quality from societal media, though nary seemed funny successful changing their habits.

Khanal’s presumption outlines the assorted and detrimental effects of algorithms, with subsections ranging from however they make “echo chambers and a deficiency of diversity” to their relation successful expediting the dispersed of fake quality to “actively disorient the person’s presumption of the world.” But wrong his 3 pages of neatly organized, highlighted notes, there’s conscionable 1 condemnation that offers what tin lone beryllium vaguely construed arsenic immoderate benignant of solution, a proposal to mediate this addiction to algorithms: “The adjacent clip you’re scrolling done your provender support successful caput that it’s meant to beryllium addictive.”

But that precept is much of an afterthought astir nights erstwhile Khanal scrolls connected TikTok until he’s bushed capable to autumn asleep. Tucked into furniture and absorbed by the phone’s glow, helium scrolls done hundreds of videos — astir of them memes. For each 100 oregon truthful of those comedic videos, “four oregon five” of them are news-oriented. Of that fraction, helium says isn’t ever definite what’s existent oregon fake. But Khanal knows for definite that with the eventual, algorithmic swipe of his thumb, helium volition spot a station from News Daddy.