Navigating the evolving media landscape with the ABC

The ABC has a digital-first strategic initiative and one key priority within this transformational plan, is to ‘engage audiences on the platforms they prefer, delivering relatable high-quality content’.

Diving a little deeper into this key part of the strategy, the ABC’s complex challenge related specifically to - how they could provide relevant services that would attract, resonate and engage younger audiences.

“What better way to understand what appeals to younger audiences than working with younger audiences! Working with a group of smart innovative young people is exactly what the ABC needs to do more of” said Lindsey Stewart, Chief Transformation Officer.

Navigating the media landscape 

The students were keen consumers of media and other social content across a large range of platforms, so were a perfect fit to work on this challenge space. They were curious about working with an industry partner in the media and interested and intrigued at what they could achieve together. Beyond this, they didn’t know quite what to expect from the Industry Innovation Project (IIP) subject, where exclusive teams of BCII students collaborate with Industry Partners on a real-world challenge.

The students were unaware of what an amazing opportunity collaborating with the ABC would be in building their professional skillset, relationships, applying transdisciplinary methods and navigating pathways to influence the future of the ABC - helping them evolve and become even more relevant to younger audiences.

“It was such an interesting problem space for our team to navigate, that ultimately would have big impacts on our generation and future generations," said Sara Chaturvedi, BCII Communications student. 

“We formed a great relationship with the team at the ABC, and seeing how we could use all our transdisciplinary skills on a real-world complex challenge, far exceeded anything I could have imagined and made me hungry for more challenges to explore,” said Victor Zhang, BCII Information Technology student.

Similarly, it was the ABC’s first time participating in the engagement.

“Being our first time going through IIP, I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect from the different skillsets the students would bring - however what the students proposed was exactly what I was hoping for. I was hoping for things that were realistic, practical and something that the ABC would genuinely consider doing. The experience has influenced the way many of us now look at different challenges across our organisation and I'd recommend the experience for any industry partners thinking of taking part” said Oliver Sellars, Enterprise Program Manager, ABC.

But while it might have been unfamiliar territory for the multidisciplinary student team and the ABC, this didn’t slow them down from tackling the challenge with an open mind and from a range of different and creative angles.

Designing an Intervention for the ABC 

As the ABC provide services across an array of genres including news, entertainment, drama, music, children’s programming and more, this highly diverse mix of content has historically, made it challenging to amplify and attract a diverse range of demographics. The ABC’s specific challenge space centred around:

• How might the ABC’s content offering remain relevant & desirable to younger audiences?
• What problems can ABC uniquely solve for this group?
• What voices, formats, user experiences will surpass their high expectations for digital content experiences?

The students noted that news content is rapidly evolving through social media, at least that’s how young people are consuming it. Their recommendations and final presentation back to the ABC, focused on a range of initiatives, including how they could build a pathway for content creators to share news in this space.

Being the target audience, and keen content consumers themselves, the students undertook a deep dive into the challenge and highlighted that the ABC had already been doing a great job engaging with younger people, by working with a range of content creators and influencers.

So, how could this transdisciplinary team bring a fresh perspective and propose ideas to keep this going?

The team came back with a range of interesting and innovative pathways, activities and tangible actions for the ABC to consider. They also discovered that the broadcaster had a range of great content, but engagement was often lower than desired – so how could they keep creating more great content, in a variety of ways to grow community engagement and keep driving people back to the ABC for their content needs?

“The ABC have got some wonderful content, but no one really knows about it, so this is just one of the areas we wanted to address” said Chanel Kelly, BCII Business student.

Some key areas of the student’s findings and recommendations were:

• Create an ABC internship program, where Interns would be mentored by existing content creators so that they would learn the ABC approach, values, voice and guidelines. Each graduate from the intern program would then enter a talent pool of content creators – helping keep the flow of engaging, relevant and platform specific content being created.
• Ensure ABC’s news offerings were developed to have a short form framework to hook in targeted audiences across key platforms, that would engage consumers to click through to longer form content, which historically has never been done.
• Create a daily or regular ‘ABC Top 10’, which would utilise short form media to bring audiences back to the desired, long form articles.

Revolutionising Education 

Ask most students and industry partners who participate in IIP, and they will tell you it's much more than just a final-year university subject – it’s a special and unique part of the learning journey in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation, 4-year, double degree.

The way the students are taught in revolutionary ways and techniques to look at complex challenges and how to unpack and navigate them, utilising a transdisciplinary approach, is unique across the globe. Some of the areas students explore with their educators are: 

• Creativity & Innovation
• Systems Thinking and Foresight
• Collaboration and Integrations of Diverse Perspectives
• Agency, Change Making & Leadership
• Ethical, Sustainable & Socially Responsible Practise and many more.

For The ABC, the collaboration provided exclusive access to bright future potential talent, and valuable insights to shape how they engage with audiences today and shape how they stay relevant to audiences into the future. But beyond that, IIP offers a unique opportunity for professional development and mutual learning.

For Lindsey and Oliver, it was their first time leading a project with university students, and they recognised it as a significant chance for personal growth.

"Personally, this has been an excellent professional development experience," said Oliver.

The Road Ahead 

The ABC team defined success of this project to be a set of clear options and recommendations articulating ways in which the ABC could adapt its offerings to better appeal to younger audiences. The principal beneficiaries would be the youth of Australia, who would receive more relevant ABC services, where and how they prefer to consume and interact with it. Depending on the pathways and actions proposed from the student team, it is also reasonable to expect benefits to flow to creatives and other content creators all over the ABC.

There were a variety of recommendations from the student team that are being explored, with the future for Australia’s public national broadcaster looking bright and set for more success!

Thank you to the ABC for your commitment to Transdisciplinary School and your participation in the Industry Innovation Project 2024!

Congratulations on an exceptional project!

• Brianna Hedges, Bachelor of Communication (Media Arts and Production)
• Chanel Kelly, Bachelor of Business (Extended Marketing Major)
• Victor Zhang, Bachelor of Information Technology
• Ben Manning, Bachelor of Business (Advertising and Marketing Communications major)
• Sara Chaturvedi, Bachelor of Communication (Social and Political Sciences)
• Rujul Chaudhari, Bachelor of Information Technology