:00:02. > :00:12.Raymond Snoddy asks if a new BBC debate show will appeal to younger
:00:12. > :00:27.
:00:27. > :00:32.Welcome to the programme. Later, one of you were I thought BBC News
:00:32. > :00:40.showed too much of this. This is a low level election involving many
:00:40. > :00:45.candidates. Only one of which we will ever see. The chances are most
:00:45. > :00:50.of you are no longer in the first flush of youth. Statistics show TV
:00:50. > :00:55.has struggled to attract younger viewers to news and current affairs.
:00:55. > :01:05.80% of adults watch three minutes of TV news a week, averaging 2.5
:01:05. > :01:05.
:01:05. > :01:08.hours of viewing, among the 16-24 year-olds it drops. Last year one
:01:08. > :01:16.have you told us she was not getting what she wanted from TV
:01:16. > :01:20.news. I am 17 but when I was younger I watched Newsround which I
:01:20. > :01:26.loved watching because it used to be really simplified but I
:01:26. > :01:32.understood it. I think now when I watch the news although I get most
:01:32. > :01:37.of it, they are things I do not get. If I want to find out things, it's
:01:37. > :01:42.important the news gives me this information. In an attempt to
:01:42. > :01:47.provide context and reached out to viewers like Sabrina, BBC Three
:01:47. > :01:52.started an occasional programme called Young Voters' Question Time.
:01:52. > :01:59.Andy Brow contacted us to say it can we not make this regular, it
:01:59. > :02:03.may help to engage the youth in politics. On Wednesday, following
:02:03. > :02:08.in the footsteps of Young Voters' Question Time, BBC Three started a
:02:08. > :02:12.new debate show, free speech. I will be speaking to its executive
:02:12. > :02:19.producer, first, how did the programme attracts the elusive
:02:19. > :02:24.target audience? This is free speech live from east London, your
:02:24. > :02:29.chance to have your say about what matters to you. The first show went
:02:29. > :02:35.out in east London and with a panel of four, including a Conservative
:02:35. > :02:45.MP. The big issues like welfare and Afghanistan are covered and topics
:02:45. > :02:45.
:02:45. > :02:50.with more relevance like cycling safety and pricing of Arca Hall.
:02:50. > :02:54.Innovations were the power but monitoring audience reaction to the
:02:54. > :02:59.panellists and an emphasis on social media. Join the debate
:02:59. > :03:09.tonight. Getting into the spirit, we have been looking at the
:03:09. > :03:17.
:03:17. > :03:22.The reaction was positive from one viewer who spoke to us. I and 19
:03:22. > :03:29.years old and I loved how there was a range of people, especially
:03:29. > :03:35.younger people, on the panel that are influential, recognisable to
:03:35. > :03:42.people are rage. And I love the fact that you could interact
:03:42. > :03:48.through Twitter. That is how this generation communicates. And
:03:48. > :03:52.especially the power bar because it allowed due to be surely say he the
:03:52. > :03:57.viewers were agreeing with and what they disagreed with. For younger
:03:57. > :04:05.people, I do not think there's many programs that allow us to interact
:04:05. > :04:11.and get our sunny across. But will the new series succeeds and
:04:11. > :04:16.persuade its audience to get in front of the box? Well, the
:04:16. > :04:22.creative director at Mentorn Media which makes free speech for the BBC
:04:22. > :04:28.joins me. You have been in these encounter fair's most of alive, why
:04:28. > :04:36.are the young reluctant to sign up? I think we are on the cusp of an
:04:36. > :04:39.exciting period. For years this has been a big problem and the streets
:04:39. > :04:45.of broadcasting land are full of the corpses of TV programmes which
:04:45. > :04:51.have tried to reach out to the young and failed. Why do you think
:04:51. > :04:55.they have failed? They have been too patronising, it has been a top
:04:55. > :05:00.down service, it has been people like me sitting in ivory towers
:05:00. > :05:05.thinking this is what young people will like and guess what, they
:05:05. > :05:11.haven't. How did you go about making free speech different?
:05:11. > :05:16.big thing now is that young people, younger people, are becoming more
:05:16. > :05:22.empowered because of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
:05:22. > :05:28.I think the power is transferring away from people like you and me to
:05:29. > :05:33.this audience. If we don't actually acknowledge that and recognise it
:05:33. > :05:37.and work with it, we will be out of a job soon. What were the ground
:05:37. > :05:43.rules and how did you plan the programme, the panellists were
:05:43. > :05:48.rather younger, do you have a quota of people over 40 but do not become
:05:48. > :05:57.a panellist? Without giving too many secrets away, there was a
:05:57. > :06:03.certain n p over 40, she may not have looked it! -- Member of
:06:03. > :06:08.Parliament over 40. We know the people who are opinionated and two
:06:08. > :06:12.are not afraid to come forward with strong views on big subjects.
:06:13. > :06:19.Conservative MP who may or may not be on the wrong side of 40. She got
:06:19. > :06:25.a hard time from the audience on the power bar. Does this mean each
:06:25. > :06:31.of the programmes will be fairly hostile to established values and
:06:31. > :06:37.anti- authoritarian? That is an inevitable element of programmes
:06:37. > :06:41.like this. Largely kids will feel that they are having a hard time or
:06:41. > :06:45.their voice is not heard and essentially if they want to make
:06:45. > :06:50.their protest heard it is normally the people in charge he get it in
:06:50. > :06:56.the neck. Estimate they spoke to me, she liked the format and expected
:06:56. > :07:02.to get a hard time. Some of the comments I have been following
:07:02. > :07:07.online said that they quite like it and it she wasn't there playing of
:07:07. > :07:12.another politician, she was talking to the people.
:07:12. > :07:17.The wider implications for other programmes of this sort? I think
:07:17. > :07:20.there are but they have been there for long time. The message so
:07:20. > :07:25.greener made at the start of the report about not feeling she can
:07:25. > :07:35.engage with the news because the jargon is too dense, these are big
:07:35. > :07:35.
:07:35. > :07:40.issues. -- Sabrina. The language, the tit for tat battles but go on
:07:40. > :07:45.in politics, these are all for young people barriers to getting
:07:45. > :07:50.into the news. I think we need to address this in the future. This
:07:50. > :07:54.programme is trying to do that. Steve Anderson, thank you.
:07:54. > :07:59.The process of choosing a candidate to challenge Barack Obama in
:07:59. > :08:04.November is hotting up. This week sought Super Tuesday when 10 states
:08:04. > :08:09.cast their votes but not everyone was enthralled. That comes as no
:08:09. > :08:19.surprise to BBC management as a senior editor was heard admitting
:08:19. > :08:45.
:08:45. > :08:51.at a meeting the audience is bored Another viewer who found it less
:08:51. > :08:54.than super was a Laurence Williams. He explains why. This is a very low
:08:54. > :09:01.level election occurring at the moment involving a lot of
:09:01. > :09:05.candidates who only one of which we will see in the end in the election
:09:05. > :09:09.later this year. They are 10 states involved but it's not the people in
:09:09. > :09:18.10 states voting, it is a microscopic percentage of the
:09:18. > :09:23.entire electorate. This is the equivalent of the Labour Party
:09:23. > :09:29.recently collecting Ed Miliband to be the leader who presumably will
:09:29. > :09:33.run in the next general election. I do not think the Americans in any
:09:33. > :09:39.way would have covered the election process better cared for the Labour
:09:39. > :09:43.Party, they would concentrate on the general election. There are
:09:43. > :09:47.more important things to be covering to do with actual head of
:09:47. > :09:53.state elections for example the presidential campaign in France,
:09:53. > :09:57.there has been government elections in India this week, and the Russian
:09:57. > :10:03.presidential election. There are other things which are of more
:10:03. > :10:07.importance we should be covering. It's not an American election, it
:10:07. > :10:11.is a party election in America. It is for the leader of the Republican
:10:11. > :10:16.Party, this is nothing to do with the actual government of the
:10:16. > :10:20.country, it is to do with the work up to that and the real election we
:10:20. > :10:28.should be covering is the one up later in the year with the
:10:28. > :10:38.presidential campaign. Before we go, several wrote to us about the cameo
:10:38. > :10:41.
:10:41. > :10:49.appearance on the news of 10. -- So, there is the Downing Street cat,