RTÉ2
RTÉ2 Launches Generation What? To Discover What Ireland’s 18-34 Year-Olds Think about Sex, Drugs & the Society They Live In
Could you be happy without alcohol? Would you participate in an uprising against those in power? Have you ever had sex with a stranger? Do you think Generation Y has been given a raw deal?
RTÉ2 today launches a huge nationwide survey of 18-34-year-olds to find out the answers to all these questions and more. Generation What? is a landmark project, in association with the EBU (European Broadcasting Union), taking place simultaneously across twelve European countries, which aims to define what Generation Y thinks, believes and feels about a huge range of issues from their sex lives to their prospects for the future.
An initiative of the EBU, the Generation What? survey is being carried out simultaneously in Ireland, France, Wales, Greece, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Germany.
When the results are in we will, for the first time, be able to see how Irish young people’s attitudes to sex, politics, gender and society compare directly to their European counterparts. Who is more conservative, the French or the Irish? Who is more likely to have had a one night stand? Will the Italians prove more patriotic? Who would be happiest without their phone, their television, the internet, or sex?
RTÉ2 channel controller Bill Malone said: “This is a major European survey of young people and, at a time when we mark the centenary of our proclamation, it is of huge value in understanding what it means to be young in Ireland today and how we compare to our neighbours throughout Europe. It will provide a snapshot of the views and values of Ireland’s young people and tell us what they really feel about the issues that matter to them.”
The EBU will collate all the data collected anonymously and then send it back to RTÉ. Our independent sociologists with the support of the Department of Sociology in UCD, will then trawl through the information to shine a light on the things that really matter to Ireland’s young people.
The results of the survey will be exclusively revealed in a two-part documentary presented by Eoghan McDermott, to be broadcast on RTÉ2 in late 2016.
Eoghan McDermott said: “We want you to enlighten us about what it means to you to be young and Irish in 2016. Generation What? is one of the biggest surveys ever carried out in Ireland for people in this age group and, coming off the back of the recession and marriage equality, it is the perfect time to reconsider who we are and what we believe. This is our chance to make our voices heard.”
The survey is now live on generation-what.ie. For anyone who wants to have their say on what really matters to their generation, their opportunity is now.
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For more information contact: Gareth Naughton, Press Officer, RTÉ Television, T: 01-2082667; E: gareth.naughton@rte.ie
Additional video clips are available on the RTÉ2 You Tube channel: