Information Literacy in the Age of Algorithms: Student Experiences with News and Information, and the Need for Change. Executive Summary

This executive summary describes a larger report--the result of a national research effort exploring how much U.S. college-age students know about the way in which internet giants like Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook work, and by extension, how they affect society. Amidst the daily flood of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProject Information Literacy
Main Authors Head, Alison J, Fister, Barbara, MacMillan, Margy
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published Project Information Literacy 15.01.2020
Subjects
Information Literacy
Information Skills
Information Sources
Knowledge Level
Mathematics
Media Literacy
Privacy
Social Media
Undergraduate Students
Web Sites
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Summary:This executive summary describes a larger report--the result of a national research effort exploring how much U.S. college-age students know about the way in which internet giants like Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook work, and by extension, how they affect society. Amidst the daily flood of digital news, memes, opinion, advertising, and propaganda, there is growing concern about how these popular platforms, and the algorithms they employ, influence lives, deepen social divisions, and foment polarization, extremism, and distrust. The report builds on a decade of research from Project Information Literacy surveying the information habits of college students in an increasingly digital world. It examines how students conceptualize and navigate a volatile and ever-changing information landscape, and proposes programmatic ways to prepare them to contend with this new reality. Four detailed research takeaways are highlighted in this summary: (1) College students have an ambivalent bond with algorithm-driven platforms; (2) Students use defensive practices to protect their privacy; (3) Trust is dead for many students, and skepticism lives; and (4) Discussions of algorithms rarely make it into the classroom. [Additional funding for this report was provided by the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. For the main report, see ED605109.]