ABC Friends Victoria Youth Engagement Project
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ABC Friends Victoria Youth Engagement Project By Breanna Stockman La Trobe University Masters of Social Work Simon Murphy La Trobe University Bachelor of Human Services and Masters of Social Work December 2020 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 1. Introduction 5 1.1 Background and rationale 5 2. Youth Methodology 6 2.1 Overview 6 2.2 Survey 6 2.3 Sample 7 2.4 Survey limitations 8 2.5 Focus Groups 8 2.6 Focus group sample 9 2.7 Focus groups limitations 10 3. Survey Responses 11 3.1 Media use in the past month 11 3.2 Viewing habits as a child 13 3.4 Social media use 17 3.5 Importance of news and current affairs 20 3.6 Trust in Media 25 3.7 Impact of the Coronavirus pandemic 27 3.8 Engagement with social issues 28 3.9 Role of the ABC in the community 31 3.10 ABC Funding 35 4. Focus Group Responses 38 4.1 Attitudes towards the ABC 38 4.2 Messages that resonate with young people 39 4.3 Reaching young people/ engaging young people 41 5. Young Families Research Methodology 44 5.1 Overview 44 5.2 Survey 44 5.3 Sample 45 5.4 Focus Groups 46 5.5 Focus group sample 46 2 6. Young families survey responses 47 6.1 Child’s technology use 47 6.2 Australian Content 52 6.3 Child’s viewing habits 54 6.4 Parents Media use 59 6.5 Social Media Use 60 6.6 Importance of news and current affairs 61 6.7 Trust in Media 63 6.8 Impact of Coronavirus pandemic 64 6.9 Engagement with social issues 65 6.10 Quality of ABC Kid’s content 67 6.11 Role of ABC in the community 69 6.12 ABC Funding 72 7. Young Families Focus Group Responses 74 7.1 Attitudes towards the ABC 74 7.2 Messages about the ABC that resonate with young Families 75 7.3 Reaching young people/ engaging young families 77 8. Strategies 79 8.1 Strategic goals 79 8.2 Overview of strategies 79 8.3 QR Codes 80 8.4 Social media 81 8.5 ABC appreciation day/week 86 8.6 University placements 88 8.6.1 Promoting ABC Friends at Universities 89 8.7 Merchandise 90 9. Conclusion 91 Appendix A - Youth Survey questions 92 Appendix B - Young Families Survey questions 95 Appendix C – Community Pages & University page 101 3 Executive Summary ABC Friends Victoria is an advocacy organisation on behalf of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). This research project was developed by ABC Friends Victoria's state committee. This project was undertaken by two La Trobe University social work students over 14 weeks from August to December 2020. The primary aim of this project is to explore Victorian youth (16-34 years) and Victorian families (children aged 0-11 years) views, understandings and attitudes in relation to the ABC. This project is to assist the organisation in finding the best ways to engage with young people and families in order to preserve and save the ABC. This report details both survey and focus group data and highlights key findings from these specific demographics and how these findings can be implemented in practice. The overall findings of the project indicate that Victorian youth and families do recognise the value that the ABC provides to the Australian community. It further highlights that a large portion of these demographics are not aware who funds the ABC nor are they aware of the threat the ABC is facing. Knowing this, we recommend that education is the first step to engaging with these demographics. Our findings further emphasise the impact that social media has on young people and families and its prevalence in the day to day lives of Victorians. Our results show that for this sample social media was the preferred way of engaging in social action, via click activism. The use of social media has allowed this younger demographic a new way to participate and engage in social issues/action. From the overall finding of the research, we recommend 4 strategic goals which include: ● Reinforcing the importance of the ABC ● Raising awareness relating to the threat the ABC is facing ● Raising awareness regarding who funds the ABC ● Raising the profile of ABC Friends amongst young people and young families In order to fulfil these goals, we recommend the following strategies: ● Include QR Codes on ABC Friends Victoria posters and flyers that directs the viewer to social media platforms and placing the posters in different parts of the community. ● Use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube as the main platform to engage with young people and families through pictures, stories and videos. ● Create an ABC Appreciation Day/week and publicise it within the community to raise awareness of ABCF purpose. Promote this via a Social Media Awareness Day (click activism) and hold an ABC Friends Fair ● Engage university students from an array of universities and degrees via student placement/internships ● Create comfy, everyday merchandise that can start word of mouth conversation about ABC Friends 4 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and rationale ABC Friends Victoria is an advocacy group on behalf of the ABC, representing the community’s interests in defending and promoting the role of the ABC. ABC Friends Victoria acts to inform and engage the Victorian public on issues affecting their national public broadcaster. In order to progress the overall vision and mission of ABC Friends Victoria, the state committee has developed a strategic framework. This outlines the goals, strategies and actions that will be taken by members over a three-year period between 2020 and 2023. Desiring to extend the reach of the organisation beyond its members and pre-established groups, the strategic plan outlines the strategy of pursuing partnerships with diverse groups including youth groups, university students, ethnic groups, the 40-50-year-old cohort, and religious groups. Looking at the current membership base of ABC Friends, the organisation realised that there was a lack of youth engagement with the majority of members aged 60 years and over. Due to this, the committee were unaware whether it was worth putting time and resources into engaging young people and if they were to do so what messaging and ways of engagement would best work. The reason behind this was, as time moves on there is a need to recruit the next generation to help with the fight to save the ABC. This highlights the necessity to plant seeds in the next generation in order to ensure the work of ABC Friends continues. Section 3.1.2 of the strategic framework outlines the organisation's plan for youth engagement, which begins with this student placement. The research project seeks to: ● Explore whether a youth demographic values the ABC and determine whether this is a demographic ABC Friends should invest time and resources in ● Explore what messages resonate with young people in relation to the ABC ● Develop strategies that enable ABC Friends to reach and engage with a younger demographic 5 2. Youth Methodology 2.1 Overview The research study consists of a mix method approach, comprising both quantitative surveys and qualitative semi-structured focus groups. Both data collection methods consisted of participants who are living in Victoria, aged between 16 and 34. 2.2 Survey The survey was created using Google Forms, a free online platform. This platform was selected as it allowed for an unlimited number of responses to be collected and additionally exported the raw data into an excel spreadsheet. The survey was designed to be a multiple-choice questionnaire, that explored participants: ● Media use ● Interest in news and current affairs ● Interest in social issues ● History of participating in social action ● Attitudes towards the ABC The specific questions within these themes were carefully selected and word smithed over several weeks. This ensured they had relevance to our overall goals, and could be easily understood, without room for misinterpretation by any individual within our targeted demographic. A copy of this survey can be found in Appendix A. The survey was distributed via Facebook and was open for a two-week period (22nd of October until the 5th of November). We started by utilising a snowball sampling method amongst our own friends and family, which generated 200 responses within the first two days. Following this, the survey was posted within a variety of Facebook groups including: 94 Victorian community groups, 8 Victorian university groups and 6 social groups (See Appendix C). The survey was re-posted within these groups on three occasions over the two-week period at different times of the day to increase our chances of reaching a larger audience. This approach generated another 551 responses, taking our overall total to 751 completed surveys. 6 2.3 Sample Of the 751 completed surveys, 46 surveys were removed from the sample. Reasons for removal included: ● Age: 35 participants were above our age range (35 years or older) and one participant was below our age range (15 years or younger) ● Postcode: 8 participants recorded postcodes outside Victoria ● Consent: 2 participants did not click ‘yes’ when asked “Do you consent to participating in this research survey?” The final sample size was 705 participants. For analysis, the sample was split into 4 age categories following the age breakdown used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data was broken down this way to identify if there were trends or patterns that were age associated. Age breakdown of survey participants The sample was further broken down according to where participants lived within Victoria to establish whether there were any emerging trends or patterns based on geography.