What had been you doing once you had been 18?
When you’re something like me, the reply is: completely nothing value writing about.
Fortunately for each the way forward for Australia and the course of this story, we’re in a lot safer fingers.
Over the previous month or so, I’ve had the privilege of assembly 13 inspiring younger Australians, who’re utilizing every thing from aviation to esports to create better-supported and extra inclusive communities.
They’re the winners of this yr’s ABC Heywire Trailblazer program, which shines a lightweight on individuals aged 18 to twenty-eight who’re dedicated to creating regional Australia even higher.
I am fortunate sufficient to be masking this system as a part of a partnership between Heywire and ABC Information Digital, which was began in 2019 to make sure that you see these tales throughout the homepage, your social media feeds and extra.
I work within the ABC’s nationwide on-line newsroom in Brisbane, and if there are two issues I’ve learnt over the previous couple of years, it is that our jobs are at all times evolving …
… and hell will freeze over earlier than you discover a fork within the workplace kitchen.
The thriller of the lacking cutlery apart, it is an thrilling area to work. On-line platforms and audiences are continuously rising and altering, and as a crew, the aim is to attempt to guarantee that the methods we inform tales are too.
So with out additional ado (or any extra unhealthy jokes), I need to offer you a little bit of a have a look at a few of the methods we’re attempting to try this with this yr’s Trailblazer program, and a few of the issues you may count on to see extra of.
We’re coming to you reside
When you’re an avid ABC reader, you could have seen extra reside blogs on the information homepage in latest occasions (and in the event you’re not, I promise our content material will get higher than this).
Whereas we have used them for issues like breaking information occasions, elections and sport for fairly some time, when the COVID pandemic hit, they really became a staple of our day-to-day digital coverage.
Three years down the monitor, the viewers urge for food for reside content material hasn’t gone away.
From real-time, on-the-ground reporting from the ABC’s foreign correspondents, to Q&As with consultants throughout the nation, we’re attempting to develop what our reside choices seem like.
So, what does all of this must do with a gaggle of inspiring younger Aussies?
I am glad you requested — let me segue …
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Earlier this month, the winners of the Trailblazer program flew to Canberra for a week-long summit, the place they’d the chance to pitch their huge concepts to politicians and group leaders in Parliament Home.
It is a huge deal, not just for these unimaginable younger individuals, however for his or her tasks and the communities that help them.
“For some individuals, it has meant elevated funding to their areas, it is meant political lobbying to assist the problems get raised extra amongst all ranges of presidency,” says Taz Devadass, one of many Trailblazer facilitators and mentors.
“We have had Trailblazers go on to win nationwide awards, we have had Trailblazers who now are full-time of their tasks, when earlier than it was simply an thought.”
This yr, we needed to ensure individuals exterior of the nation’s corridors of energy may hear these progressive concepts for themselves.
For the primary time, we had been capable of live blog the pitches in Parliament House alongside a YouTube reside stream of the occasion that introduced collectively behind-the-scenes content material and interviews with the winners and mentors who make this system potential.
We had been additionally in a position to make use of Dwell Moments to host a real-time Q&A about the Trailblazer program.
When you’re not glued to the ABC Information homepage (is such a factor potential?), you may not have come throughout them earlier than — they seem to be a fairly new function, however one thing you may count on to see much more of within the coming months.
Briefly, they permit us to show any article right into a weblog — in truth, this is one now:
Look again at how ABC readers and different Australians responded to this reside second.
Questioning what that is? Be a part of us subsequent time we’re reside and be a part of the dialogue.
It is a new function we’re exploring. Let us know what you think.
Reaching individuals on totally different platforms
Whereas reside blogs are serving to us to share these concepts and tasks with you in real-time, they’re just one piece of the puzzle.
Attempting to seek out new methods to inform tales means asking the query: what even is a narrative? Now, I do know I sound like I’ve gotten actually into philosophy lately, however hear me out …
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There is a fairly good probability you are studying this in your cellphone. And in the event you’re in your cellphone, there’s an excellent higher probability that I am competing to your consideration with different tales, web sites, apps, or your aunt who’s simply discovered find out how to tag you on Fb (go on, give her a like).
With a lot content material to select from, and new developments occurring on a regular basis, it solely is sensible that the best way digital tales are introduced — and the platforms they’re introduced on — is consistently altering too.
With a few of these items, that is meant utilizing totally different visible instruments like odysseys or the cards format. In different instances, it is meant rethinking the concept of a standard story altogether.
Take Louise Hobbs, one among our Trailblazer winners, for instance. She’s a highschool instructor from Victoria’s Wimmera area, who’s on a mission to ensure nation youngsters get the identical entry to training as these within the metropolis.
“At a yr 11 and 12 stage, we at the moment haven’t got devoted assets [for agriculture] — not even a textbook,” she says.
“Might you think about instructing or finding out biology with no textbook?”
To place audiences to the check, Louise put together a pop quiz based on her classroom lessons, canvassing every thing from the introduction of rabbits and toads, to the that means of hypocalcaemia (spoiler alert: the reply is within the title).
The quiz was additionally translated for platforms like Instagram and Quick Stories — an interactive methodology of storytelling that permits audiences to tap-through at their very own leisure.
It is a part of a wider push to attempt to ensure we’re assembly totally different audiences on totally different platforms, from the ABC Information app to TikTok (you may watch the Trailblazers’ in motion beneath).
Each story wants a conclusion …
Now, I mentioned earlier that there have been two issues I would realized from working in on-line, however journos are notoriously unhealthy with numbers and I want a conclusion, so this is your third: the very best is but to return.
Whether or not it is new methods to showcase information, interactive instruments to get the viewers concerned, or the stuff that hasn’t even been dreamed up but, the way forward for digital journalism is admittedly thrilling.
Keep tuned for extra content material from the ABC Heywire and Trailblazer winners over the approaching weeks — they have some unimaginable tales to share with you all.
Anyway, that is sufficient out of me. I will let the Trailblazers wrap issues up 👇
