NYCSEA

Abstract: The expansion of the digital world in the 21st century has caused an expansion of the less traditional forms of news media, namely the forms of current events information accessible on social media applications such as TikTok and Instagram. Unlike the previous generations, the younger generation raised in the 21st century has access to many digital resources, and despite their convenience, a slew of studies have found that there is a severe threat of misinformation when using the digital or non-traditional forms of news media. This study sought to discover if there is a relationship between the level of geographic literacy and global awareness demonstrated by high school students and their means of accessing current events
information. In October of 2022, participants (n=114) completed an online survey which assessed them on their geographic literacy and global awareness of the democratic and economic conditions of ten selected countries. The survey also asked each respondent to rank the type of media through which they are most likely to learn about current events on a Likert scale from 1-5. The SMPM (Social Media Preference Metric) was then determined, which was a binary variable used to run the correlation tests.
The data collected was transferred into Microsoft Excel, where ANOVA tests were run on both the SMPM v. raw scores and the SMPM v. ranking deviation values. The results of this study show that the use of digital and unverified forms of news media are unable to be correlated with a lack of geographic literacy and understanding of democratic development, but that there is a strong correlation between the use of social media as a news source over verified, traditional forms and a lack of understanding of the economic development in foreign nations.

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