A digital future created with young people, for young people

In youth work and youth policy it is widely recognised that decisions that affect young people should be made with their involvement. However, it is still the case that young people are rarely included in policy or strategic conversations about how technology can best support them in their lives.

As public service media around the world strives to engage younger audiences, there remains an opportunity to work collaboratively with young people today so it can cultivate lifelong support with the adults of tomorrow.

In a fast-changing digital world, this remains a challenge, but it’s critical for the future of public service media.

More choice but not being heard?

Trends show that young people are engaging less with content from public service media. Young people are more likely to watch YouTube than broadcast television. They now have more choice of content than ever before from streaming platforms, social media, gaming and other new forms of technology.

At the same time, there is public and regulatory tension on the relationship between young people and technology, including concerns about how smartphones, social media, and AI affect young people’s wellbeing, education, and employment. How can society support young people to navigate the opportunities and benefits of the digital world whilst also protecting them from online harms and risks of new technology?

The rapid rate of technological development and a reluctance to fully embrace new media in recent years has left broadcasters and governments struggling to keep up in their efforts to respond to how young people interact with technology – each generation of young people is growing up in a digital world which looks different from their peers aged even five or ten years apart. By the time decision-makers have figured out how young people are using new technology, often a new platform or tool has surpassed it, leaving organisations back at square one.

However, there is a real opportunity for public service media to tackle these challenges in a proactive, innovative, and ethical way – by directly involving young people in conversations and decision-making. What do young people think about technology’s current challenges and opportunities? How would they design public service media fit for the digital future?

The valuable role of youth participation for public service media

Youth participation offers a new way of working with younger audiences by involving them in decision-making, which has the potential to revitalise and establish a long-term connection. It also sets public service media apart from social media and global streaming platforms by offering something different to young people through meaningfully involving them in the design of technology.

Specifically, youth participation can help decision-makers understand the views and ideas of young people in real time and respond to the challenges and opportunities they face today. Effective youth participation is about more than engaging young people in research and user testing to understand their media and technology behaviours on existing products. It requires involving young people in decision-making about the digital future of public service media.

A participatory approach involves creating meaningful opportunities and youth-led spaces for young people to set the agenda, share ideas and co-create solutions alongside decision-makers. Through these opportunities, there is the potential for public service media and young people to become better connected, with each group understanding the other's perspectives and working together on innovative ideas.

A genuine culture of youth participation bring young people into design and decision-making processes, recognising and valuing their agency. This can help ensure technologies deliver distinctive innovation in youth-led digital media spaces.

We’re not starting from scratch: Building on good practice

Youth participation does not always have to be a new project; participatory elements can be built into existing engagement projects by working in collaboration with young people. This could be through scaling up audience research to include young people in ideas generation or creating youth projects and networks where young people can advise on how technology and innovation can best support their lives.

There are examples of youth participation initiatives within public service broadcasters, but they are often small scale and ad hoc. ARD in Germany runs an annual youth media day where young people can learn about broadcasting, design livestreams and build streaming platforms under the theme of ‘Democracy and You!’. In the USA, Vegas PBS run the Media Crew project to involve students in every stage of content production and distribution and hear their views and ideas on emerging technology platforms to engage younger audiences where they are. In Scotland, BBC The Social is a youth-led digital creative project in Glasgow which supports young people to create their own content on issues which are important to them and their peers through a contributor scheme, and which develops their media skills through training partnerships with local colleges. This project mobilises the power of youth-led content and peer networks, reaching millions of people each week.

Moving towards effective youth participation: Pathways forward

These examples show there is significant potential for youth participation in public service media but more research is needed to help embed a culture of involving young people in decision-making across organisations. Our work identified three critical research areas where focused investigation can inform public service media with robust insights about how to implement and get the best results from participation.

• Identify the best opportunities for youth participation in shaping a digital future of PSM by conducting participatory research with young people and decision-makers to research the opportunities and challenges of youth participation.

• Research youth participation through conducting pilot projects – pilot youth participation initiatives addressing questions of technology and innovation across different areas of PSM operations.

• Create evaluation frameworks that measure the impact of youth participation for both young people and public service media organisations.

So, what’s next?

In a world where young people have more media choices than ever before, public service media can offer something no technology platform can: genuine participation to build a more responsible and youth-centred digital future.

In a fast-changing digital world, it is more important than ever to have young people in the room to achieve this.

Understanding the potential of youth participation is just the beginning. The Responsible Innovation Centre for Public Media Futures (RIC) will be examining how public service media can turn youth participation in media technology futures from an aspiration into reality.