Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust
Olivia Dickinson from the CMF Exec Group attended a Royal Television
Society research presentation event at Channel 4 and reports here on the findings.
At the event on 30h January 2025 Alex Mahon presented a new report identifying the macro themes shaping young people’s experiences today. The report examined how ‘Gen Z’, young people aged 13-27, navigate content online and how they think and feel about the world.
Some of the findings were deeply alarming, highlighting the profound consequences for UK society that CMF has long warned of: that the end results of media migration, along with all the other effects of 15+ years of austerity – worldwide – are beginning to show in the adult population. It is gratifying that at least C4 has caught up with us and is taking a lead. Even more pleasing is the fact that the calls to action include solutions CMF has been asking for. For example, around the discoverability of good quality public service content for young people. As Alex Mahon said, the report shows that Gen Z’s themselves have been asking for some years that public service broadcasters reach them where they are.
The worrying figures include 52% of Gen Z saying they think the UK would be better with a “strong leader, unfettered by Parliament and elections” and 45% of 13-27 year old men and boys agree that that “we have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men”.
After Alex Mahon’s speech, a panel chaired by Ros Atkins from BBC News tried to make sense of the findings, and Rachel Botsman, author of ‘Who Can You Trust’ made the point that Gen Z do most of their viewing alone, on unregulated platforms (YouTube, TikTok and Meta) which means young people are not learning to constructively disagree with others or question the content they are viewing. It then leads to further radicalisation.
However, younger generations trust public service institutions like the BBC and Channel 4 more than older generations (43% to 38% for the BBC) so it’s how to reach them… Oli Dugmore from Politics JOE and Mahnoor Akhlaq, a Gen Z RTS scholar herself who is now a Channel 4 multimedia producer, explained how they try to reach Gen Z’s where they are, often on TikTok, but the short form and speed means context, detail and analysis is lost.
Channel 4 is calling for three major solutions to counter this and to determine how truly impartial Public Service Media (PSM) content can remain a public good, and how to identify, promote and pay for it:
- Trustmark: Introduce a trustmark as an indicator of factual, trusted accuracy for content that emerges from professionally produced, regulated media. This could allow tech companies, their algorithms, advertisers and consumers to distinguish instantly between what is checked and true and what is not.
- Algorithmic prominence on social media:Regulate for PSM content to be prominent on social media platforms. This is already being implemented for PSMs on TV platforms and algorithmic prominence could use the same principle to ensure high-quality, trusted content is boosted – not throttled – on social platforms. Regulators should also explore mechanisms for a fair revenue share, ensuring PSMs are compensated for the value and engagement their content generates. (This is what CMF recently discussed with DCMS Minister Stephanie Peacock)
- Regulation that supports PSM to shape AI:Train large language models (LLMs) using validated PSM content. The existing LLMs have been trained on the vast and variable global internet but outputs could be higher quality if the input included PSM content. Robust regulation should ensure transparency about what AI models are trained on, secure fair value and compensation for data owners, and create outputs that are based off of quality inputs.
CMF are planning an event on “Young People and Misinformation’ in late April 2025, where these issues and solutions will be discussed, as well as how to regulate platforms that refuse to see them themselves as publishers.
CMF and the Media Bill 2023-24 A crack in the wall….? Or papering over the cracks…?