Media publishers team up to encourage young Australians to enrol for marriage equality vote
A group of Australian youth media publications have joined forces to launch a campaign encouraging young people to enrol to vote ahead of the country’s postal vote for marriage equality.
Youth media brands have teamed up to urge young Australians to enrol to vote in same sex marriage vote
The publications; Vice, Broadsheet, Pedestrian.TV, Junkee, and FBi Radio, will black out their websites for three hours tonight (Wednesday 23 August) blocking access to content with messages urging readers to register to vote and confirm their voting details.
The blackout will cover editorial content as well as advertising units and will include over-the-top placements and full-screen takeovers, which will direct users to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) website.
The five media outlets will also dedicate their social media platforms, which boast a combined Facebook following of more than 1 million Australians, to support the campaign.
The publishers will share bespoke content which aims to drive the conversation and encourage young Australians to get involved.
The campaign is the first time the youth publishers have teamed up to support a cause, according to Vice Australia’s features editor Maddison Connaughton.
“We know the vote has been purposefully designed to disenfranchise young people. There are hundreds of thousands of people under 30 who aren't enrolled to vote, and many more who don't have a permanent address, or are travelling, or are overseas. But we don't accept that as the end of the story. These young people can make or break this marriage equality postal survey. So, our goal with this blackout is to get every young person in Australia signed up to vote," said Connaughton.
The campaign will also be supported by youth mental health organisation headspace, Amnesty International Australia, The Ethics Centre and Perth’s community radio station RTRFM.
The campaign comes two weeks after the Australian advertising community joined together in a campaign pledging not to work on the ‘No’ campaign.
Australia will next month host a voluntary postal vote on same-sex marriage, the results of which will be used by the government to determine whether it will vote to legalise gay marriage.