With this year’s presidential election around the corner, it’s increasingly important to understand who’s running and what they stand for. It can be intimidating to educate oneself when there’s an abundance of resources, making it easy to become misinformed. While social media is a common and useful tool among students, it must be used efficiently.
“If you are relying on social media, you have to curate your social media so that you’re getting reliable sources and not just taking what some random person says and equating it to something that has been vetted by a reliable news organization,” said Gina Masullo, associate professor in the School of Journalism and Media. “I wouldn’t say never touch social media, I get plenty of news from social media, but I curate my news by following actual news organizations that have long standing in the community or that I have a pre-established trust in.”
Social media is an important tool, especially considering its high usage among college students. However, it shouldn’t be the only tool students use to improve their political literacy. Recent survey data shows students may not have a very strong understanding of civics and politics in general. Students must glean information from a variety of sources when it comes to making a final decision on candidates and the policies they are supporting.
“Principles of information literacy would suggest that you should have a diverse information diet, you should be getting information from lots of different places,” said David Ryfe, professor and director of the School of Journalism and Media. “Typically, if you want accurate information, you’d like to get it from reliable, professional news organizations. When I say diversity, I would say at all levels. And so you should have some local news sources, you should have some national news sources. You might look at some international news sources.”
It’s okay to get information from social media applications like Instagram, X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook and TikTok as long as you’re aware of their reliability. Over half of college students get their news from social media, so going beyond this and listening to the radio, opening a newspaper or talking to professors about controversial topics in the election cam give you further insight when curating a political opinion.
“I would encourage young people to actively look for political information, not on social media, but on sources they trust,” said Masullo. “If they trust a political candidate, go to that person’s website. You’re going to get more reliable information there. And as young adults who are moving into independence, they should be interested in what’s going on politically because it’s going to have a lot of effect on all your lives.”
Information isn’t going to just fall at your feet – students must make the personal decision to seek it out. This can be intimidating and often anxiety-inducing due to the nature of a lot of political information focusing on difficult topics. However, staying informed helps us make better decisions on the direction of policy changes that affect us in real-time.
“The first step is to decide that you’re willing to take the time to become informed about the election. Then once you have made that choice, then you can go out and get a kind of diverse news diet, but it requires that first impulse, otherwise the second step will never be taken,” said Ryfe.
Being able to properly look for reliable and relevant information is the first step. It’s not going to be a one time thing or an easy Google search.
Self-education is an important part of the political system and is something students must take responsibility for. It can be easy to use whatever is available on social media but the risk of misinformation and an incomplete picture is detrimental to a student’s understanding of the presidential election. Students should ensure they get information from a diverse group of sources and learn to responsibly choose what they trust. So, inform yourselves and please, vote.
Rail is an English, anthropology and rhetoric and writing junior from El Paso, Texas.
