While research shows that many young people value the ABC, they have little awareness or concern about who funds the ABC and the importance of an independent, public broadcaster in Australia.
As they also overwhelmingly source their news and current affairs through social media, there is less buy-in to news and information coming from a regular outlet or brand. This has a flow on impact on them seeing the ABC as a more trusted source of news and current affairs.
These were the major findings of the ABC Youth Engagement Research Project commissioned by ABC Friends Victoria in 2020, which involved some 7005 rural and urban participants across the 18-34 year-old age group.
Only 41% of respondents said that they trust the ABC most for news/current affairs, with this falling to only 28% of the 16-19 year-old cohort. While just under 50% of the 30-34 year-old cohort said that they trust the ABC the most, this is still well under the 70% rate for the general population.
These research results raise concerns about support for the ABC in the future, and present a challenge for ABC Friends in its role of raising awareness of the ABC and the importance of public broadcasting.
The ABC Friends NewGen Initiative is our response to this challenge. We are setting out to build awareness of the need for and the importance of public broadcasting, and to build support for the ABC, amongst 18-35 year olds.
A NewGen reference group and a Youth Engagement and Social Media Officer will help drive this Initiative, through such activities as:
- Social media campaigning
- Secondary school debates
- University campus club engagement
- Links to youth organisations
- Tertiary communications competitions.
ABC Friends is seeking support to implement this multi-layered and multi-year Initiative.
Click here to find out how you can help us to ensure the long term future of the ABC, via your support of ABC Friends.