The challenges that traditional broadcast news organisations face in finding an audience among a sceptical and media-saturated Gen Z were laid bare in a recent Channel 4/RTS panel discussion. “It’s all about the first five seconds… and stopping them scrolling on to the next video,” said former RTS Bursary Scholar Mahnoor Akhlaq, now working as a multimedia producer for Channel 4 News.

“And, crucially, aggressively seeking them out on their feed,” added Oli Dugmore, an author at Joe.co.uk, an online news, politics, sports and popular culture platform designed for young people. “We’re competing with every other piece of content that gets produced. Everything you make needs to be good enough to grab attention.”

Akhlaq and Dugmore were joined by Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for Journalism, University of Oxford, and Rachel Botsman, a teacher and author who runs a course on trust in the digital world at Saïd Business School, Oxford University.

Chaired by the BBC’s Analysis Editor, Ros Atkins, the panel’s task was to look at Gen Z’s relationship with news. They were speaking in the context of Channel 4’s latest research, “Gen Z: trends, truth and trust”, and a stirring speech, reported in the February edition of Television, from the broadcaster’s CEO, Alex Mahon, calling for regulation to curb what she regards as the damaging impact of news delivered by algorithm on social media.

All panellists agreed that TV news producers need to be TikTok-savvy or risk losing the young audience to platforms that have scant regard for either truth or accuracy. “Attention is up for grabs,” said Dugmore, “so why aren’t people engaging with our journalism? For me, the answer is often because it’s not good enough.”

Akhlaq said: “Young people have an appetite for serious news. This week on TikTok, reporting on the Congo has been our most viewed content. Young people want to hear the stories that are rarely spoken about. It’s essential that news producers look at TikTok.”

Urging broadcasters not to under-estimate young people, she acknowledged that Channel 4 News had a decent rather than a huge audience of teens and twentysomethings. “When they think of news, they might have negative associations and think it’s boring. It’s about the language and the pictures you use when you address Gen Z.”

It was a mistake to regard young people as a homogenous group; within the age range (13 to 27), there were many different habits of media usage although certain trends were visible. TikTok was preferred by the youngest teenagers, while Facebook was more popular at the older end of Gen Z. “YouTube and Instagram are more in the middle,” explained Akhlaq. There was also a gender divide, with young men favouring YouTube more than young women.

Newman echoed this. “There’s a kaleidoscope of consumption [by Gen Z]. Not all young people consume TikTok. Some consume long-form, some short-form,” he said. Tone was vital.

Dugmore agreed that tone was key. Gen Z was “looking for a sense of humour, irreverence, being a bit gonzo. That’s how we form a connection with our audience and differentiate ourselves from other content creators. Tone is almost as important as the first three seconds of a video.”

In her speech, Mahon had referred to what Channel 4’s research called Gen Z’s “flatter hierarchy of trust” in institutions such as the BBC. Gen Z was more likely to have confidence in friends’ social media posts than the national broadcaster when compared with older people – 58% against 43%.

Botsman is the author of the book Who Can You Trust?, looking at how digital technology has revolutionised the nature of trust. She told the audience: “It’s dangerous to think of trust in traditional ways. It’s no longer hierarchical or institutional. People won’t look up to an expert or a journalist.

“Once you accept that trust no longer flows in a hierarchy or a pyramid, you start to understand the changing nature of trust. Trust is based on feeling over fact. It’s how people say things rather than what they say.

“The whole hierarchy of information has changed. We may not like that…We still assume that people are going to consume high-quality news. It’s a shift that’s happening fast.”

This trend towards trust in individuals rather than institutions was taken up by Dugmore. “With fashion, for instance, do you follow a fashion house or a fashion vlogger? It would be unwise of us to think that trend won’t affect journalism.” On platforms such as Substack, subscribers paid to follow individual journalists, something also reflected in the podcast boom, he said.

Akhlaq pointed out: “Gen Z aren’t automatically thinking: ‘Let me have a look at what the BBC or Channel 4 has posted.’” She explained: “TikTok is flipping into people’s newsfeeds, so it’s about getting people’s attention and making content they want to see.”

Newman added: “If something big like a terrorist attack happens, young people will go to traditional news providers like the BBC or Channel 4 News, but it’s often about a passion or a personality that Gen Z trusts at a personal level. That’s important for traditional media organisations to understand.”

Botsman said it was a mistake to see institutional trust and individual trust as separate things. “It works best when they’re combined… I was surprised, but when you look at trust in traditional media institutions, it’s higher in younger than older generations.” Similarly, older people were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than Gen Z.   

Public service broadcasters take great pride in being “trustworthy”, but does that resonate with Gen Z, asked Atkins. “Traditional media sometimes say that in a very top-down way,” replied Botsman. “It comes across as: ‘We are the traditional media industry, so you should trust us.’”

Atkins then asked if content was more likely to be trusted within its own environment, rather than alongside other kinds of content? “Gen Z doesn’t even make that distinction,” said Botsman.

Mahon had called for some protection for public service broadcasters in the digital sphere and raised the idea of having a “trustmark” displayed on PSB content. “I love the idea of a trustmark – I just don’t think it will work,” said Botsman. “I don’t know how you implement it. Having one might turn off younger generations.”

Dugmore wondered how you would stop a trustmark being faked by AI.

What did Newman think of the idea of algorithmic prominence? “It’s easy to say in a room full of public service broadcasters and people who consume a lot of public service broadcasting. But if you’re Rupert Murdoch, you might think differently. The challenge is: who defines reliable content. What is it?

“Trustmarks are a blunt instrument. It’s about a brand that produces all kinds of content of varying reliability. Our own research shows the BBC is highly trusted, but other parts of the [established] media ecosystem are not trusted.”

Report by Steve Clarke. ‘Gen Z: trends, truth and trust’ was a Channel 4/RTS event held at Underbelly Boulevard, London, on 30 January. The producer was Channel 4.