The renowned institute for opinion polls “Gallup” conducted a detailed survey among about 1000 young people (< 30 years) on behalf of the State Secretary for Youth Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP). The results were interesting and are summarised below.
It should be emphasised that this study aimed at a broad cross-section of the population. This means that demographic diversity and balance were taken into account among the respondents of this study. Although 56% of the 14 to 30 age group are interested in political life, only 16% are very interested, a figure that clearly has room for improvement.
- The internet is clearly the first place to go for political information; TV and social media follow at a certain distance. The value for TV is surprising here, since TV consumption in this age group has been declining for years in favour of streaming offers; however, the use of TV counters may also have been subsumed here. Daily newspapers clearly lag behind TV, but still achieve a usage share of 39%.
- In the area of social media, Instagram dominates very clearly ahead of Facebook and YouTube; TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are, as expected, in the youngest group.
TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are, as expected, very significant in the youngest group aged 14 to 19. To what extent do such media, which are primarily used for
entertainment, are actually used for political information. - Not surprisingly, people consider their own parents to be the most credible source of political information. Statistically, TV, daily newspapers, school/teachers, radio and friends follow at a certain distance. The internet is already lagging behind somewhat here, with social media and influencers at the bottom. This shows that despite intensive use of social media in this age group, people are aware of the credibility problems of these media (44% of users consider them to be less or not credible).
In my opinion, the following three graphs are the most interesting ones. It shows which topics are the most famous ones for people under 30, which channels are used to consume information about politics and which ones are the most credible ones:
Quelle: https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/nachrichten-der-bundesregierung/2022/11/demokratiemonitoring-zeigt-interesse-der-jugend-an-politik.html , am 24.1.2023
