Same Old Political Discourse Not Good Enough For Young Voters
Same old political discourse not good enough for young voters: Youth discontent with mainstream media coverage at an all time high.
When it comes to Australia’s youngest voters, the majority of media coverage this election completely missed the mark. And if you ask Gen Y, it is clear where the problem lies.
Young people increasingly express the sentiment that the issues most important to them are being ignored by the politicians in Canberra, and this election more than ever, they expressed their discontent at the ballot box. While fervent electoral analysis is sure to go on for many weeks to come, it is clear from talking to Australia's youth that they feel abandoned by not only the major parties, but also by mainstream media.
“The media are as much to blame as the political parties for the lameness of the campaign” says Omar Samad, a university student. “Not only do we get stuck with those ridiculously trite campaign ads, we have the media rehashing the same old issues from the same old perspective every day for five weeks as well.”
Despite what some commentators would have you believe, young people are far from apathetic: they just do not consume media in predictable and traditional ways. They trawl news sites, blogs and social media. They are drawn to environments where their perspectives are valued and robust democratic debate takes place.
“Young people have a right to have their perspective heard on any issue, not just ‘youth issues’” says Maia Giordano, Deputy Director (Young People) at Australian Youth Affairs Coalition.
With the rise of the 24-hour news cycle and increasing online competition, traditional media is evolving to catch up with social trends. Comment boxes, Twitter accounts and online polls are common enough for most news websites, but these simply show how little is understood about the way young people engage with the media.
“Generation Y want to know how your information is relevant to them, and quite frankly, breaking news these days seems to be more predictable than ever,” says Annie Le Cavalier, director of Vibewire Youth Inc. “The 24 hour media cycle doesn’t allow for the complex analysis that young people crave. Young people don’t want to be force fed information-- they want to chew over it, sample it, critique it, inject their creativity.”
The recent explosion of tweets during ABC’s Q&A program is symbolic of this paradigm shift. Many young people now watch such shows and stay glued to social media simultaneously in order to comment in real-time and highlight incongruities and hypocrisies.
But instead of just catching up with trends like Twitter and Facebook, media organisations should be inventing new ways for their audience to participate in the reporting process. Innovation, not conformity, is the key to capturing the Gen Y audience.
“Vibewire has realised what traditional media has not – that this is the last election where politicians and media can rely on yesterday’s tactics. The emerging generation is simply not interested in the status quo, and will not stick around waiting for you to catch up.” says Ms. Le Cavalier.
Traditional media needs to bring Gen Y into the fold sooner, rather than later.
electionWIRE, an initiative of Vibewire Youth Inc and YouTube, understands this. Throughout the past five weeks, our election coverage on YouTube has produced insightful, fresh, and engaging news pieces which reflect the values and interests of young Australians: progressive politics, building social bridges, exploring complex issues. Creating a collaborative space between young reporters and their audience, electionWIRE has been shining a fresh light on familiar stories.
And now, in the post-election haze of uncertainty, electionWIRE will be delving deeper into the issues: providing commentary and analysis of how the major parties failed to hear what the Australian people, and especially Australia's youth, were asking of them.
30 August 2010
For media enquiries contact:
Vibewire – Victoria Nolan, PR Assistant via email.
Australian Youth Affairs Coalition – Maia Giordano, Deputy Director via email.
Vibewire is an innovative non-profit youth organisation providing media, arts & entrepreneurial opportunities and events for young people.
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