Do Algonquin College students trust the news they see online?
Short answer: they're cautious. Social feeds push headlines at them, and AI has turned "fake" from a fringe issue into a daily filter. For PR and communications teams, that skepticism is the brief.
Students describe a feed-first news habit. TikTok and Instagram surface updates before they seek them out - and they know a lot of it is wrong, incomplete, or performative.
What students are seeing
Nolan Berger, an early childhood education student, says most of his news comes from social platforms - mostly TikTok. He also knows that's risky: "You have to be more careful now with AI, there's a lot of fake news on all social media." He's seen death hoaxes and "whole accounts" built on fake stories that get shared for laughs.
Zack Harous agrees AI is fueling more fake content, but he thinks the panic is overstated. "There has always been fake news," he said. He worries older audiences may not tell human-written from AI-written and wants tighter guardrails.
Nathan Holmes, a paramedicine student, relies on familiar, verified bylines and consistency across sources. If two reports on the same story conflict, he questions both until he can verify.
TV production student Alex Sundaresan says AI has lowered his trust in mainstream outlets. He prefers reporting with clear human authorship and checks headlines he reads as "sensationalist or clickbait-y."
The AI factor: deepfakes and bot accounts
Students are confronting the same threats comms teams face: bot amplification and deepfakes that look and sound real. As UNESCO's media literacy guidance notes, deepfakes are getting harder to catch and raise the risk of high-confidence disinformation.
Education is catching up. A new initiative from the Winnipeg Free Press and the Manitoba government brings newsroom practices into classrooms, and its companion resource, Free Press 101, outlines how reporting, sourcing, and corrections work in plain language.
Why this matters for PR and communications
Trust is now a product feature. Student audiences expect receipts: sources, context, and visible humans behind statements. They're allergic to hype and quick to cross-check.
If you publish without verification signals or clarity on your AI use, you've already lost the skeptical reader. Treat authenticity as an operational standard, not a tagline.
Practical steps to build (and keep) trust
- Show your homework: Link to primary documents, datasets, and full transcripts when possible. Publish a clear corrections policy and stick to it.
- Human-first by default: Use named authors and spokespeople. If AI assisted, label it, and specify what a human verified.
- Adopt authenticity tech: Use content provenance standards (e.g., signed images/video) and watermarking where appropriate. Explain your approach in your newsroom page or press kit.
- Deepfake readiness: Stand up a fast-response protocol for manipulated media: intake, verification, legal, platform reporting, and a pre-approved holding statement.
- Platform-native clarity: On TikTok/Instagram, pair claims with on-screen citations and pinned source links. Use short explainers instead of headline-only clips.
- Consistency across channels: Ensure the same claim reads the same way across your site, social, and earned placements to avoid "two versions of the truth."
- Train your team: Run media literacy and AI detection refreshers quarterly. Include scenario drills for hoaxes and fast-moving misinformation.
- Measure trust, not just reach: Track repeat visitors, newsletter replies, source link click-throughs, and correction acknowledgments.
A quick verification workflow for your next release
- List every factual claim and attach a source (doc, dataset, SME confirmation).
- Cross-check two independent sources for sensitive claims.
- Run a headline test: remove any phrasing that overpromises or implies certainty you can't back up.
- Screen images and video for edits; keep originals and metadata on file.
- Declare any AI assistance and log human reviewers.
- Publish a contact for corrections and monitor replies for 48 hours post-release.
What students told us to read between the lines
They expect to bump into news in their feeds, not search for it. They assume some of it is false. And they respect the brands that make truth easy to check.
Give them clarity, receipts, and a real person to hold accountable - and you'll earn the second click.
Resources
- Free Press 101: how journalism works
- UNESCO guidance on misinformation and media literacy
- AI courses by job: PR and communications upskilling
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