Australia’s future news champions

Young leaders from across Australia came together in Canberra last week to explore democracy and the media at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD).

The News Champions Forum aimed to give young people the opportunity to discuss the role of news in democratic processes, as well as how they are represented in the media.

In the lead up to Global Media Literacy Week, 21 young people took part in the forum to discuss how they can actively engage with news in Australia, capturing their thoughts in interviews with ABC Education. Participants also lead a national discussion on how news can support and engage young Australians.

The forum was part of the Advancing the News Media Literacy of young Australians research project, led by Dr Tanya Notley from Western Sydney University and Associate Professor Michael Dezuanni from Queensland University of Technology.

Google Australia helped support this workshop, along with MoAD, Western Sydney University, Queensland University of Technology and ABC Education.

We’ve also invested to help Western Sydney University to develop a digital news literacy learning framework for the News and Democracy exhibition at MoAD and to map opportunities to incorporate media literacy education into the Australian Curriculum.

This work complements our grant of $1.2m to the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to develop new digital media literacy tools for school students, and is part of our broader efforts to help Australians explore and engage with the diverse range of news and information available on the web. 

Congratulations to all the students who took part and shared their experiences to help us better understand how young people interact with news and engage with information online.