Young Australians emerged as a driving force behind the election of Kevin Rudd in 2007, and will be a key constituency in the upcoming election. While young citizens are often depicted as politically apathetic, electionWIRE, a new channel created by YouTube and Vibewire, suggests otherwise. In an election in which policy details are scarce, electionWIRE promises to reinvigorate policy debates by providing a dedicated YouTube channel for young Australians to have their say and to report the news of the Federal election their way.
At CPD, we are excited about the prospects for electionWIRE, and we’re getting on board to help generate content. We’re providing articles and political analysis to complement the user-generated content, which will feature video news, interviews, opinions and debate from a team of newly recruited and trained Vibewire Youthscape reporters, alongside citizen contributors from the YouTube community.
The importance of electionWIRE shouldn’t be underestimated. In a media environment that doesn’t encourage challenging, comprehensive policy analysis, the new site will join CPD in aiming to promote political awareness and policy engagement among young Australians.
And of course – CPD will be actively engaged in election commentary of our own, with Thinking Points – The Election Edition supplying a range of commentary linking short-term election debates to long-term visions for policy change. And there is the e-book (and print publication coming soon) More Than Luck, filled with good policy ideas for the government that wins the next federal election. More Than Luck has contributions from CPD fellows and other writers and researchers, capturing their ambitious, progressive ideas for the next federal government. We’ve taken all these great ideas and the evidence that backs them, presented them in short punchy chapters, published them in an e-book online and we’ll be running regular commentary from the authors throughout campaign period.
For more from young Australians who are wired for a digital election – click through to electionWIRE: user generated video that will shape the game this time around. This is a new era in political debate and this time, young people are not just watching election coverage, they are creating it.
