Slandering Higher Education: The Magic of Media Spin

Journalism tends to take the imperfect and amplify or scandalize it. Fixing things isn’t enough; solutions are boring. So you add “scary,” and you agitate readers. You arrest their attention. You bleed them of clicks. Because in the end, journalism is rarely about balance and truth; it’s about pinning more and more eyeballs—those revenue-generating eyeballs—to the page.

If “Only” There Was Balance

Higher education, like everything in life, suffers imperfections. Undoubtedly there’s room for improvement. But in framing this need for improvement, journalists LOVE leaning into (often making up) something scary. Consider this scary title from the AP:[1]?

Is college worth it? Poll finds only 36% of Americans have confidence in higher education

A very serious question answered with a very serious statistic. But is this tension honest or amplified?

1. The title implies that “confidence”—as a broad, unqualified term—is limited to 36% of Americans. However, the poll actually found that “Americans are …? divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%) [and] some confidence (32%).” [emphasis added][2]
2. “Worth it” is never used in the poll, never directly addressed by “Americans.” It’s the author’s add-on, and it can only be answered “yes” or “no.” Just two choices—black or white, positive or negative—with “no” being the implied answer.??
3. “Only” is a subjective and deceptive modifier that forces readers to believe what the author wants them to believe … i.e., “very few” Americans have confidence in higher education. ???

But that’s just the title.[3] Maybe the article itself is more straightforward, more balanced.

Sadly, it isn’t.?

The Art of Generating Doom?

Here’s the first five paragraphs,[4] which together establish a “doomsday” tone for higher education.

Paragraph 1: Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value and cost of college, with most saying they feel the U.S. higher education system is headed in the “wrong direction,” according to a new poll.

This paragraph subtly (and wrongly) reinforces the idea that “Americans” believe college isn’t “worth it.” “Skepticism” about broad/amorphous concepts—"value," "cost," "system"—doesn’t equate with outright rejection. A University of Kansas alum can broadly question “higher education” and yet still believe a specific education—i.e., one from Kansas—is “worth it” (in fall 2023, KU welcomed the largest freshman class in history and grew enrollment to the highest level since 2010).?

There's Lots of Data (if You'll Look)

Paragraph 2: Overall, only 36% of adults say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, according to the report released Monday by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. That confidence level has declined steadily from 57% in 2015.

This is misleading in multiple ways. First, it’s intentionally framed to be an “only” statement, which couches the story in a negative light. But it can also be framed as a “more than” statement, spinning the story positively. It can be said of the poll—and still be true—that “more than” 68% of Americans have confidence (i.e., some, quite a lot, or a great deal) in higher education, with “only” 32% having very little or no confidence.

Second, the article neglects to mention a highly relevant and yet contradictory study (of “Americans”) from Gallop/Lumina Foundation. According to the State of Higher Education 2024 Report:

[A]dults'[5] interest in pursuing some form of higher education is at the highest level that Lumina Foundation and Gallup have recorded. At the same time, 94% of adults say at least one kind of postsecondary credential -- such as an associate degree, bachelor's degree, certificate or industry certification -- is very valuable.

So “Is college worth it?” This depends on the spin. Depends on the poll too.

When “Declining Enrollment” Isn’t

Paragraph 3: Some of the same opinions have been reflected in?declining enrollment?as colleges contend with the effects of the?student debt crisis, concerns about the high cost of tuition and?political debates?over how they teach about race and other topics.[6]

To prove “declining enrollment,” the article links to another AP article titled Jaded with education, more Americans are skipping college, published March 9, 2023.

That article then points to:

Colleges nationwide saw undergraduate enrollments drop 8% from 2019 to 2022, with continued declines even after the return to in-person classes, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse.

To prove a negative, writer Jocelyn Gecker simply cites a year-old article based on year-old data. In asserting “declining enrollment,” wouldn’t it be wise to (at the very least) double check—a full year later—the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)? If Gecker had, she would’ve discovered that the current trend is not “declining enrollment” but “growing enrollment.” In October 2023, the NSC published this:?

This fall, undergraduate enrollment grew for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic …. Initial fall 2023 enrollment data shows undergraduate enrollment increased 2.1 percent compared to 2022 and is now 1.2 percent above 2021 enrollments.

And in January 2024, they published this:

The latest National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report reveals positive news for higher education, with undergraduate enrollment growing 1.2% and graduate enrollment growing 0.6%.?

The Current Term Enrollment Estimates report showed that freshman enrollment also grew this fall.

Then in May 2024, this:

Undergraduate enrollment grew 2.5 percent (+359,000) in spring 2024, marking the second consecutive semester of enrollment growth …. Freshman enrollment grew at a faster rate this spring than overall undergraduate enrollment (+3.9% compared to spring 2023).

Again, the question: “Is college worth it?” If you look at enrollment data, more and more students are now answering “yes.”?

How Polling Ignores Complexity?

Paragraph 4: The dimming view of whether college is worth the time and money cuts across all demographics — including gender, age, political affiliation. Among Republicans, the number of respondents with high confidence in higher education has dropped 36 percentage points over the last decade — far more than it dropped for Democrats or independents.

Among political parties, the poll reveals that:

all party groups have shown at least some increase in the percentage with very little or no confidence, and a decrease in the percentage saying they have some. None of the party groups shows meaningful change in high confidence over the past year.?

Despite this, a large percentage of Democrats (87%) still have “confidence” (some, quite a lot, or a great deal) in higher education. Independents (cumulatively) aren’t far behind at nearly 70%. At the bottom, Republicans are split 50/50 between a range of confidence and very little/none.

But even if Republicans have a “dimming view of whether college is worth the time and money,” this doesn’t necessarily equate with a dimming view of “conservative college." Currently, I work at a Christian university, where our student body leans decidedly Republican. For 15 straight years, our enrollment has grown, demonstrating that a lack of confidence amongst Republicans doesn’t negate their choice to attend a specific (i.e., conservative) university (according to Christianity Today, in fall 2023, numerous evangelical colleges and universities announced record enrollments and/or strong numbers).

1 Quote Doesn't Equal 1 America

Paragraph 5: “It’s so expensive, and I don’t think colleges are teaching people what they need to get a job,” says Randy Hill, 59, a registered Republican in Connecticut and a driver for a car service. His nephew plans to do a welding apprenticeship after graduating high school. “You graduate out of college, you’re up to eyeballs in debt, you can’t get a job, then you can’t pay it off. What’s the point?”?

Though it’s implied, Randy Hill is not the representative voice of 1 billion Americans and/or 35 million Republicans. Being from America, I personally know a lot of Americans, and being from Oklahoma, I personally know a lot of Republicans. Unlike Randy Hill, many of them think college is a good investment.

Moreover, nothing in this paragraph says Randy Hill is an expert on higher education. Despite this, he appears to make several broad/factual (expert) assertions: 1) College is always expensive; 2) College graduates are always up to their eyeballs in debt; 3) College graduates can never get a job; and 4) College graduates can never pay off their debt. Sure, each assertion might be true for some, but they’re not true for all. Despite this, the AP gives voice to one Republican, allowing his opinion—a bunch of anti-college tropes—to sound like universal facts.?

The True Story vs. The Scary Story

A fact-based, non-partisan article on Americans and higher education would balance three things:

1. An increasing proportion of U.S. adults say they have little or no confidence in higher education. [True]
2. A majority of U.S. adults still have confidence (i.e., some, quite a lot, or a great deal) in higher education. [True]
3. "Confidence" isn't necessarily an indicator of "enrollment." [True]

But there’s no scare (no fun) in reporting on the full truth. Eyeballs—those precious readers—don’t stick around for balance. There’s a thing called “negativity bias,” a cognitive bias whereby people respond more strongly to negative vs. positive stimuli. Journalism regularly taps into this. Consequently, what passes as balanced reporting is really just a magic show, a slight of hand that feigns fairness while, at the same time, fanning the fires of destruction.

[1] Oddly enough, the AP presents itself as purely and unwaveringly “fact-based” and “non-partisan”:

[2] Someone might argue that “It’s just the title. The details are provided in the article itself.” But often, the title is the only things people read, leaving them with a 15-word synopsis (a misleading one) that they share with other people. Like a virus, it spreads. Also, the title sets the tone for the article, priming the reader to see things (regardless of the content) as positive, negative, or neutral.

[3] Possibly, the AP title borrows its doomsday tone from the researchers themselves. This title is from the Lumina Foundation:

Crisis of confidence in U.S. higher education: A call for renewed focus and reform

Lumina goes on to say:

Recent Gallup data paints a grim picture: Americans are now almost evenly split in their confidence in higher education, with approximately one-third expressing a lot of confidence, one-third some confidence, and one-third very little confidence.

“Crisis” and “grim”? Yes, research shows that “confidence has dropped among all key subgroups in the U.S. population over the past two decades,” but does this “grim”—extremely bad, worrying, or without hope, as defined by Cambridge Dictionary—data foretell the death of higher education? Or is it important to also note that 1) survey opinions about “confidence” don’t reveal individual decisions about “enrollment,” and 2) nearly 70% of Americans still have confidence (some, quite a lot, or a great deal) in higher education?

[4] There is, of course, more to this article than five paragraphs, but it’s hard to salvage balance when something is so top heavy with bias.?

[5] The 2024 State of Higher Education study includes responses from over 14,000 U.S. adults aged 18 to 59 who do not have a college degree and fall into one of the following groups:

Currently enrolled students: Includes 6,015 adults currently enrolled in a certificate, certification, associate degree or bachelor’s degree program.

Stopped-out adults: Includes 5,012 adults previously enrolled in a certificate, certification, associate degree or bachelor’s degree program but stopped out of their program before completing it.

Never-enrolled adults: Includes 3,005 adults who never enrolled in any type of education after high school.

[6] If so many Americans are contending “with the effects of the?student debt crisis, concerns about the high cost of tuition and?political debates?over how they teach about race and other topics,” why is college retention so high? According to Michael T. Nietzel, writing for Forbes:

More than 76% of students who began college in the fall of 2022 returned for their second year, according to a new report on college persistence and retention rates from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.?

According to NSCRC’s 2024 Persistence and Retention report, the persistence rate rose 0.8 percentage points to 76.5% last year, while the national retention rate increased one full percentage point to 68.2%. Persistence refers to students returning to college at any institution for a second year, while retention measures return to the same institution.

This is the second straight year of improved student persistence and retention, with each number the highest it’s been in the last decade. [emphasis added]

?