At the beginning of this month NSW Health took to Twitter to ask a favour.
“18-35 year olds have the highest rate of COVID-19 infections. We need your help to reach them.”
Attached to the post was a video called #Itest4NSW which featured five young people explaining why they would get tested for COVID-19.
NSW Health urged their audience to share the video with any young people in their lives and in turn signalled a bigger problem — the difficulty of getting health messages to young adults during a pandemic.
Switching off more
Health officials are used to distributing information via the media through press releases and conferences but this means they’re often talking to a half-empty theatre.
Many young people aren’t comfortable getting information about coronavirus through the mainstream media recent research found, and while they have been consuming more news than usual, they have also been avoiding it more.
“They’re just not used to the sheer volume, it’s hard to see, especially COVID-19 news, so I think that explains why they are avoiding it more,” says lead researcher Sora Park from the News and Media Centre at the University of Canberra.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-08-07/why-young-people-are-avoiding-covid-news/12531468