Abstract

The paper “Improving Communication. Case study: Anti-COVID Speech for Young People” focuses on the contemporary discourse generated by and addressed to the young generation, with emphasis on the digital setting, the public discourse and the current pandemic. The aim of this paper is to identify up-to-date communication techniques meant to facilitate communication with young people. At a time when young people feel at home in the virtual world, communication needs to adapt and communicators need to assess how to best convey information so that the intended message is received correctly. Moreover, given that we are currently experiencing an unprecedented pandemic, it is even more important for communicators to find the right way to be heard. In order to assess best practice when communicating with young people, we first need to ascertain their own specific way of interaction. To this aim, in this paper we shall first analyse several articles written by and for young people according to an analysis grid, in order to identify specific communication features. Then, we shall discuss the findings of a quantitative analysis of anti-COVID communication during the pandemic, which we performed by means of an anonymous questionnaire addressed to young people aged 18-35. The results of these two research approaches will determine what young people expect from public discourse and the best ways to convey information efficiently to this age group, especially in a time of crisis such as the current pandemic. Therefore, this paper addresses a present-day issue, in an attempt to identify efficient communication methods that reach the young generation and improve overall public discourse.