Young People, Politics and Television Current Affairs in Australia
Journal article by Vanessa Evans, Jason Sternberg; Journal of Australian Studies, 1999
Journal Article Excerpt
Young People, Politics and Television Current Affairs in Australia. by Vanessa Evans , Jason Sternberg The victory of John Howard's coalition government at the 1996 federal election and its re-election in 1998 have brought about a series of harsh, restrictive youth policies that for some, border on `institutional discrimination'.(1) Youth wages have been cut and access to the dole tightened.(2) At the same time, policies to reduce youth unemployment, homelessness and suicide have been neglected, schools have been closed down and higher education fees increased.(3) Young adults in Australia ate increasingly constructed as political objects. However, the extent to which they are viewed as political agents, that is, active citizens `who ate not simply informed, but who are motivated'(4) about the political process and the social, cultural and economic issues Australia will take into the new millennium is problematic. In popular and academic discussions of Australian youth culture during the 1980s and 1990s, young people have been regularly presented as politically ignorant, cynical and apathetic.(5) Indeed, large amounts of political apathy and cynicism ate amongst the defining criteria of Generation X/Y, the demographic cohort which young adults across the world ate regularly claimed to belong to. Concerns about young people's alienation from the political process have converged at the policy level during this decade around renewed interest in civics and citizenship education.(6) However, more important political influences for young adults may be parents, peers and the media. Indeed, the apparent turn away from politics by young adults has been intimately linked to a decline in the number of young adults consuming news media.(7) The accelerating decline in young people's news media use is a recurring them,e in contemporary discussions of journalism in Australia and elsewhere.(8) Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jon Casimir observes: |
The mass media in this country is in the biggest problem it's ever been in
dealing with the youth market. We basically have news and sport; current
affairs ate not even getting to the youth market. They're certainly not
reading newspapers. They're not watching most of the stuff that we're all
talking about ... and the basic truth is that kids are going elsewhere.(9)
| This article explores young adults' attitudes towards political information on television news and current affairs in Australia. It presents evidence to suggest that television current affairs is at least partly responsible for young people's disillusionment with politics but also suggests that the link between youth culture and political cynicism and apathy needs to be reconsidered. This article draws on qualitative research conducted in the lead ups to the 1996 and 1998 federal elections with audience groups in the age range of eighteen to 25. The purpose of these focus groups was to ascertain whether television current affairs encourages political participation and active citizenship among young adults.(10) The research also aimed to assess the extent to which television current affairs programs discussed political issues in a manner relevant to young people's everyday lives. Do young people's readings of television news and current affairs constitute a form of `postmodern citizenship' which allows young adults to `renegotiate power relationships and claim speaking positions' which are highly mobile in nature?(11) Focus group participants were recruited from the University of Queensland, business students at a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) college in Brisbane's southern suburbs and students from a state high school in Brisbane's northern suburbs. A `snowballing' technique whereby associates of the researchers were used to recruit their friends and acquaintances was also used. Recruiting the five groups in this way increased the sample's diversity in terms of educational background and employment status. Group size ranged between five and seven, recommended as the optimum for allowing equal participation and all members of each group were well-known to each other in order to facilitate free-flowing and open discussion.(12) A total of 43 (M=10, F=33) people participated in the research.(13) Tape recorded discussions were held in venues familiar to the participants; classrooms at the relevant campuses in the cases of the school, university and TAFE students and in the homes of participants in the other cases. Political News as Adult DiscourseYoung people feel language used in the news media is `too sophisticated'(14) and John Fiske has described the broadsheet media's mode of address as corresponding to the lifestyle of a white, middle-class, middle-aged male.(15) Interestingly, this is why young people believe newspapers focus largely on business and politics(16) yet content does not always bear out this supposition.(17) Focus group respondents, including those engaged in higher education and ... |
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