Written by Jana Polsky

iSchool alumna Sila Lott (MS ’15) presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, which took place from October 19-23, 2024. The conference brings together professionals who provide leadership in Educational Technology research and application in order to sustain a continuous effort to enrich teaching and learning.

Lott’s research, “Emerging Adults News Consumption in the Digital Era,” that she conducted with Hilal Ayan, Jennifer Stoutjesdyk, and Dr. Vanessa Dennen, looks at how college undergraduate students, specifically emerging adults ages 18-24, consume news and how they assess news for accuracy. It has implications for how these skills are taught in schools and the ability to transfer academic information skills to everyday encounters with information.

“We hope our audience recognizes that though there are legitimate concerns for student critical thinking in online spaces, that emerging adults seem to recognize when information may not be accurate, with more than half of our data set reporting that they fact check,” Lott said.

Lott’s presentation answered the questions on how emerging adults consume news and how they fact check. The findings will be forthcoming as she is currently writing to submit the research for publication.

“In part two of our study, we can further unpack the perception of accuracy and utilization of podcasts as a source of news,” Lott said. “We will conduct interviews and run think aloud protocols to further unpack whether emerging adults self-reporting in their fact checking is in fact accurate, and if they actually possess media literacy skills.”