SalientTV release “Once Were Students"
Once Were Students is an online news show,
produced by Victoria University’s Salient TV, which aims
to get 18-24-year-olds engaged with politics. Doing away
with discussions about policy and legislation; Once Were
Students is focused on connecting with youth, by asking
politicians unconventional questions that students can
relate to. Presented by 23-year-old Joseph Coughlan,
the mini-series interviews the likes of Winston Peters,
Simon Bridges, Trevor Mallard, Chlöe Swarbrick, David
Seymour, & Golriz Ghahraman; as they look back on their time
as students, and reveal a refreshing and entertaining
insight into their private lives.
“Are
their certain people in parliament, that when you see them
stand up you think…oh
no!”
“Yeah”
“Blink once if
it’s Simon Bridges”
“I’m working really
hard not to blink at all”
– An excerpt from one of the interviews between Joseph Coughlan & Trevor Mallard
The show will consist of two
episodes, both available on Facebook and YouTube. The first
installment was released on the Salient Facebook page
on Thursday the10th of October.
Despite having the second biggest age demographic in New Zealand (with an estimated 464,620 eligible population), the 18-24 age bracket had the lowest voter turnout of 61.21% in the 2017 New Zealand general election (New Zealand Electoral Commission). Begging the question, why aren’t youth interested in New Zealand politics.
“I think the
biggest problem with engaging youth in politics is the lack
of accessibility and relatable content. Whether you’re
eligible to vote or not, as a youth it can be incredibly
daunting and confusing to try and understand how government
works. Whilst many youths are aware of the key people in
government, whenever anyone mentions policy or legislation,
youth feel disconnected, and with only one member in the
house that’s from the same demographic, it’s fair to
ask, ‘how does what they’re (MPs) saying relate to
me’,” says Joseph Coughlan.
Joseph explains that
the idea for the videos came from, what started out as an
opportunity to interview the Deputy Prime Minister Winston
Peters, for a one-off hot-takes video for Salient TV:
“It was during my interview with the Deputy Prime Minister, that I felt worried my line of questioning was too conventional, and lacked any originality: hearing responses, that Mr. Peters had likely already said multiple times in his career. In a panic, I asked him: What’s your go to flat-meal’, something that had absolutely nothing to do with politics, yet spawned a hilarious and rare anecdote about a young Winston Peters:
“One of the best jokes I used to have was, I would go out and shoot a whole lot of goats and serve it up and tell the guys it was lamb…they thought it was delicious”
The purpose of Once Were Students was to show notable members of parliament talking about a variety of student-related topics that would entertain and engage youth, to ultimately encourage more young people to involve themselves in politics and be interested in members of parliament and what they have to say”.
The first video has already been released and has been very received by the target audience.
The links to the video can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlxdUdcjDHI
https://www.facebook.com/salientmagazine/videos/382724496004989/