The First-Time Voters Project is following the process leading up to the 2025 Federal Election to identify barriers first-time voters may face in deciding who should lead our nation.
In the third instalment of the Voter Voices series, we asked our first-time voters how confident they were in choosing a party to vote for. We found out that people sat at two extremes, with first-time voters being either very confident or not confident at all. Many young voters didn’t seem to keep up with political news and the ones who did had a keen interest in politics.
Many had already mentioned social media as a primary source of information. It will also comes as no surprise that research also shows that almost half of Gen Z use social media as their main source of political news.
To find out if this is still a consistent source, today, we asked: Where do you primarily get your political information from? And do you actively seek this out or come across it passively?
Here’s what they said:
“I’d say probably social media, mates, the news, and my parents are pretty into it as well. It definitely falls in my lap, but sometimes I do seek it, and I go down a rabbit hole and go into it. The political information that I get on social media are from self-proclaimed experts.” Adam, 23, he/him
“I don’t really do a lot of political involvement; I don’t read the news or anything like that. If I wanted to, I’d go to news sources. I know there is one that is a non-political organisation, I think it’s called Straight Arrow News and it presents news articles without taking a biased side and will provide a good starting point. So that’s where I would go. It’s probably something that I actively look for, but I do definitely listen to friends on what they have to say and family.” Rosie, 19, she/her
“I get a lot of it from my dad, because that’s how dads are. I get a lot of it on TikTok like people joining the conversation. I’m not necessarily looking for it but just getting it [on my feed] and listening to it. I don’t watch the news because my Mum thinks it’s depressing but I get a lot of my news from Nine News on their Instagram. I have knowledge that I’ve acquired over the years but I don’t really know how I’ve got that knowledge. They just pop up and people want to have their say on what’s going on.” Holly, 18, she/her
“Probably like TikTok, social media, and being online. Nine News, that’s probably it. On Instagram, I am following some news accounts intentionally, but on other social media accounts I come across them accidently.” Helen, 18, she/her
“Probably Instagram, Nine News and X. I don’t follow accounts, but things pop up. I get a lot on Republicans and stuff. I probably get more American news, not much Australian stuff. So probably just from Nine News, but I don’t follow it that much” Stefanos, 18, they/them
“Instagram, that’s really about it. It just on my feed and my explore feed, I don’t really follow anything. I’m not really into politics. Or my grandma will tell me something, that’s really it.” Mei, 18, she/her
“Instagram as well, just like being online. It’s just on my feed, like whatever comes up.” Carmena, 17, she/her
“Probably like social media. Just TikTok and that. It just kind of falls in my lap really. More news outlets and some people, there’s a lot, but mainly news outlets.” Marlon, 18, he/him
“I mean a little bit of the news, but I do like to actually find out what policies they have themselves. Yeah, I’d say news, and a little bit on the websites and fact sheets. I do want to have somewhat of an idea before I vote but obviously you’re also pushed about it in the next couple of weeks as well, so it’s a bit of both. They pop up, I try not to be political on social media” Deklan, 20, he/him
“News, google, websites just to try and sus them out and see what’s going on. It just pops up when it comes closer to election time. It’s just like opinions and people stating their opinions and stuff like that.” Evelyn, 19, she/her
“Probably social media, like Instagram and TikTok. I’m not really on there, I don’t really get much if I’m being completely honest I normally just swipe past” Sive, 19, she/her
“Largely through like social media, a little bit from the news. Instagram probably, that’s the only one I really use. It just falls in my lap. It’s usually on people’s stories, so it’s really anything and everything that other people might be interested in. I don’t really get targeted things toward me so much.” James, 19, he/him
“Social media, like a couple of different accounts, and the news sometimes. It just comes in [my feed].” Mejed, 23, he/him
“Mostly YouTube. I have people that I follow, like FriendlyJordies for example, is where I get my Australian content. The things that fall in my lap are YouTube ads like from the Patriots or something like that. I don’t actively seek that out. Sometimes I get emails randomly, like a ‘Stop Coal’ or stuff like that email. I haven’t unsubscribed to that yet. I find that stuff funny, a lot of its just like ‘Stop Labor’.” Jacob, 19, he/him
Article: Cam Burt and Ruby Oosthuizen.
Photo: by Stanley Morales found HERE and used under a Creative Commons license. This image has been made black and white. The original image was colour.