News and Young Australians in 2017 and 2020. Survey data from the project: Advancing the news media literacy of young Australians

This project analyses the news practices and experiences of  young Australians aged 8-16 years. It was designed to increase knowledge about their news media literacy.In 2017 a national survey of 1,000 young Australians aged 8-16 years found that most value news and consume it regularly. The results show most don’t know how to spot fake news – yet they are not receiving news media literacy training at school. Young Australians also have very low levels of trust in news media organisations: they trust their family and teachers far more as news sources.In 2020 a nationally representative sample of 1,069 young Australians aged 8-16 years was surveyed in order to repeat and extend the survey carried out in 2017.The full dataset of both survey responses is available from this record, via the Attachments section.The analysis shows that in the three years since the first survey of young Australians’ news practices and experiences, some findings have remained constant but there have also been some significant changes with news consumption increasing significantly, particularly socially mediated news consumption where young people gets news from family, friends, teachers and from those they are connected to on social media.