Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them

Re:Half of Americans now believe that news organizations del... by latchkey on Thursday February 16, 2023 @12:20PM (#34821769)

> Media literacy should be mandated in school.

Just try for basic literacy first.

  A Gallup analysis published in March 2020 looked at data collected by the U.S. Department of Education in 2012, 2014, and 2017. It found that 130 million adults in the country have low literacy skills, meaning that more than half (54%) of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, according to a piece published in 2022 by APM Research Lab.

https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFou...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half of Americans now believe that news organizations del... by jahsome on Thursday February 16, 2023 @03:33PM (#34825588)

I don't disagree but it doesn't matter in this case. In fact, this is _precisely_ why (especially local) newspapers targeted "5th grade level" vocab and syntax, or lower. It's been the unofficial standard since long before the study cited.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half of Americans now believe that news organizations del... by latchkey on Thursday February 16, 2023 @04:05PM (#34826148)

It absolutely matters for cognitive ability. You might be reading the equivalent of children's books, but if you can't understand the deeper message, you're going to have a very hard time telling right from wrong.

The analogy I use for software developers is that the difference between a jr and sr developer is that a sr can evaluate 5 different database technologies and choose the right one based on the current use case. A jr developer chooses whatever is trending on hackernews.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half of Americans now believe that news organizations del... by autoexec on Thursday February 16, 2023 @03:39PM (#34825678)

It's the same for math and science. Most Americans aren't capable of anything beyond a 6th grade level. The lack of literacy and numeracy in this country explains a lot about where we are today.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half of Americans now believe that news organizations del... by latchkey on Thursday February 16, 2023 @04:07PM (#34826172)

We prioritize other things, like military spending, over teacher salaries.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half of Americans now believe that news organizations del... by parineum on Sunday February 19, 2023 @03:46AM (#34855720)

The Federal government is responsible for one of those.

[ Parent | on HN ]