POLITICIANS NEED to engage more with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to appeal to young people, young reporters from the Youth Media for Europe project have said.
The project, which provided a media platform for young people between the ages of 17 and 25 in the run-up to the European Union elections and Lisbon Treaty referendum, found young people to be alienated by political jargon.
It also revealed that young people are repelled by a tendency among politicians not to answer questions directly.
The idea that politicians need to engage more with popular media to reach young people was echoed by DCU school of communications professor Farrel Corcoran, who said “political party websites are very poor in their use of online media. Politicians have got to stop regarding social networking sites as a fad.”
Speaking about the project yesterday after their report was launched in Dublin, young journalist Séamus MacSuibhne said: “I think I now understand why young people are disinterested in politics, or at least why I personally have become disillusioned with it all. It is because politicians never, ever, answer the simple questions they’re asked.”
Grace Campbell, one of the reporters in the Ireland East constituency, said: “Politicians are very active on social networking sites coming up to elections but not after. It’s abusing social networking a bit.”
She also called on young sections of political parties to push their own issues and not just stand as an extension of the main party.
According to the Youth Media for Europe report, the European Union should push harder to inform young people on how the EU affects them on a daily basis. There should be one website to house all opportunities that the EU is offering for internships, competitions and information for young people, it suggested.
It found young people to be particularly sceptical about the role of European politics in their lives “as the EU can be both complicated and remote”. The report also found issues being debated among politicians to be aimed at older voters, causing younger people to feel distanced from politicians.