2023/01/01 by Matthew Coopilton, Brendesha M. Tynes, Stephen M. Gibson +4 · 4 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Child Development and Digital Technology #Gender studies #Media Studies and Communication #Psychology #Race (biology) #Racism #Social Media and Politics #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/00027162231195186
published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 705(1), 208-230 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2023/01/01 · openalex created_date 2023/11/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
Adolescents' heavy engagement with digital news and social media brings them considerable exposure to race-related content, especially during election cycles. We assess how well young people navigate that kind of digital content, using a nationally representative longitudinal study in which baseline data was collected during and after the 2020 election. We categorize young people's responses to two real-life examples of digital media related to participation in the election as beginner, emerging, and mastery level in terms of their ability to critique racism. We also find responses that we categorize as race evasive, anticritical, and white supremacist. Most of these young people performed at the beginner level, and a minority achieved mastery. We argue that there is a clear need for young people to be better prepared to assess race-related online information and that educators need to support them in developing those skills.