Thelife- Kelsey Russell, 23, is using TikTok to read and explain news articles to Gen Zers.
- Russell is hoping to use her platform to encourage more young people to buy and read print media.
Kelsey Russell, a 23-year-old student, had always enjoyed reading the newspaper with her dad, who continued to send her articles he thought she'd find interesting during her college years.
Still, as part of her studies in sociology and education, she found she had a lack of social, cultural, political, and economic knowledge that hurt her confidence in class. She wanted to increase her background knowledge without going on her phone because spending so much time online made her anxious, so earlier this year she asked her dad for a subscription to the Sunday edition of the New York Times for her birthday.
When she started to read the newspaper she found that she felt more informed about what was going on in the country, and more at peace than she did when she was consuming the information on her phone because she wasn't getting distracted by texts or notifications, she told Insider.
To encourage others to do the same, she decided to document her experience of reading the paper on TikTok. In her first video as part of this project, posted on August 22, she held up a copy of the New York Times and told viewers she thought all Gen Zers should read the news.
"In order to bring back the newspaper, I'm going to literally document every day what I learn," she said.
@kelscruss like I knew about da bombs but the cluster bomblets?!??! #fyp #syrian #newyorktimes #ukraine #russia ♬ original sound - kelsey
The video proved hugely popular, receiving 1.7 million views, and she's stuck to her word: in the two months since going viral, Russell has posted dozens of videos explaining and commenting on the news stories she reads. Many of them receive tens of thousands of views, and she has a growing following that currently stands at almost 85,000 people. She's even caught the attention of the journalism industry.
Russell believes her generation is lacking in media literacy, but she's hoping that by demonstrating the value of reading the news she can go some way to changing that.
Russell hopes young people will see the value in traditional media thanks to her videos
Russell told Insider that she's concerned that young people seem to be getting their news from sources she doesn't perceive as reputable or trustworthy.
Indeed, a 2022 survey conducted by the Media Insight Project, an initiative of the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 44% of the Gen Zers surveyed reported never receiving news and information from traditional sources, and the majority were more likely to get it from social media.
There are benefits to using online platforms to consume news: they allow people to share their opinions, debate important issues, and find community with others. But it also has its downsides. A 2023 YouGov survey commissioned by Reuters reported that audiences on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat say they pay less attention to accounts run by journalists and more to celebrities and influencers, which are typically not subject to the same rigorous fact-checking as traditional media organizations and can lead to the spread of misinformation.
Russell said that one of the biggest reasons why she feels people should buy print media is to pay for the legitimacy and the fact-checking done by journalists.
"You're paying for a journalist to have the safety tools they need to report, paying for their insurance, paying to keep the lights on. So it's almost like you're making an investment in legitimate news by buying print media," she said.
Russell was shocked by how much support she received from journalists
As her popularity on TikTok grew, Russell began to attract the interest of the media industry she's commentating on too. The LA Times and Wall Street Journal both offered to send her their newspapers for her to feature on her channel, she said, and the New York Times even invited her to visit their offices. She posted a video documenting her visit on September 6.
@kelscruss everyone say thank you Dodai! #fyp #nyc #nyctiktok #newspaper #newyorktimes #nytimes ♬ Echos in My Mind (Lofi) - Muspace Lofi
While Russell said that she initially intended to capture the attention of Gen Zers and educators with her videos, she said she was shocked by the amount of "love and gratitude" she has received from journalists, who told her they have been worried about the decline of the number of Gen Zers who are consuming traditional news.
"I did not know my method of sharing would fill a gap many journalists have been concerned about," she said.
Russell views criticism as an opportunity to start a conversation
Americans' trust in the media has declined in recent years, hitting an all-time low in 2016, according to an annual Gallup poll. This has been widely linked to the political rise of Donald Trump, who referred to the press as the "enemy of the people," and popularized the term "fake news" throughout his time serving as president of the United States between 2017 and 2021.
Russell told Insider that she has received some negative comments on her TikTok videos from people who believe the news is "biased propaganda," but she sees this as an opportunity to open up a conversation.
"When people talk about the news being biased, they're so correct," she said. "It absolutely is biased, but it's up to you to discern the bias. Don't be mad that the source is biased. Build the skills to deal with the bias."
She also said that while many people have criticized her for not having the "expertise" to make videos explaining the news, she does not believe that you have to be an expert to understand what people are reading. "Use Google, and you can probably figure it all out," she said.
In the long term, Russell hopes to continue creating videos that educate young people. "I hope to create a space where they can feel safe to learn and have fun with it, too."