Channel 4 chief Alex Mahon has proposed a trio of interventions to promote impartial public service content and counter the online spread of false information.
Unveiling the broadcaster’s research into ‘Gen Z’ – today’s 13-27 year-olds – Mahon said: “The way in which Gen Z learn to judge fact, fiction and fairness as they grow older may become the defining issue of our age.”
She suggested introducing a ‘trustmark’ for professionally produced and regulated media, to allow technology companies, their algorithms, advertisers and consumers to distinguish instantly between fact-checked and false content.
Mahon also called to extend promoting public service content on TV platforms to social media, to ensure it is “boosted – not throttled” and rises to the top, with revenues fairly shared between providers and platforms.
Furthermore, Mahon said, AI large language models (LLMS) should be mandated to use PSB content rather than “the vast and variable global internet”.
The Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust survey of 3,000 people aged 13-65 – two-thirds of whom fit the Gen Z bracket – was conducted for C4 by insight agency Craft.
It found that friends’ social media posts are the most trusted content sources for Gen Z, identified by 58%, ahead of the BBC (43%), influencers and internet personalities (42%) and advertising (39%).
Among 28 to 65 year-olds, the BBC leads the way – just – with 38%, ahead of friends’ social media posts (37%), advertising (17%) and influencers and internet personalities (8%).
Its most striking findings include the statistic that 52% appear to advocate a dictatorship by agreeing that “the UK would be a better place if a strong leader was in charge who does not have to bother with parliament and elections”.
A third believe the UK would be better if the army was in charge, and 45% of Gen Z men believe advances in promoting women’s equality have led to discrimination against men.
Mahon highlighted four ways that the change in consumption by platform impacts what is consumed: short form means less detail; speed means less context; the algorithms move the salacious faster to the top of feeds; solo viewing reduces socialisation of points of view, therefore reducing the likelihood that radical or socially destructive perspectives will be questioned.
“We are now at a point where we need to think much more urgently about the risks,” she said.
“Algorithms designed to elicit anger, surprise or outrage have a devaluing effect on the currency of reliable information. The business model of the technology giants is at odds with the safety of our societies.
“A world where trust declines, truth is not universally accepted, the gender divide is widening and young people increasingly feel they are missing out is dangerous world.
“We will lose the connections that bind us into community. And increasingly disconnect from democracy. The breakdown in cohesion around a set of shared facts leads to weaker civic society. If we cannot even agree on the facts, how can we reconcile our interests?”
Read Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust here
