Background & statistics
Australia has been a religious nation for many thousands of years and Christianity is the largest Australian religion. However, Australians are turning away from God especially young people according to the 2011 census. It shows a rise in the percentage of Australians stating ‘No Religion’: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) analysis shows that 22 per cent of Australians selected this option in 2011, compared to 15 per cent of Australians in 2001. The figure is even higher (28 per cent) among people aged between 15 and 34. Christianity performs poorer with over 20% reduction rate from 1976 to 2011 in 18-34 age group (ABS, 2013). It suggests generational change is part of the reason many Australians are leaving religion behind.
Research perspectives
It is a fact that some young people in Australia are struggling with the role of faith and religion in their lives when there are increasing young people turning to be religiously unaffiliated. According to my online research, I have found out some factors leading to Aussies losing their religion faith. Dr. Andrew Singleton, a sociologist, says it is because of the role of church and religion in society. Church used to be a place for growing families to socialize and participate activities, but with social development people have substituted the role of church with other different places. Today, Church has been marginalized and religion has become relatively unimportant as a result.
Also, America shares the same situation with Australia where young people are unlikely to participate in form of organised religion than their parents and grandparents. Professor Robert Putnam points out that those young people are not necessarily atheists, but they have spirituality faith rather than affiliate organised religion (Harris, 2009). This is because “they grew up in a period in which being religious meant being politically conservative, especially on social issues” (cited by Harris in ABC News, 2009).
Story angle & my approach
In my point of view concerning the reason of Aussies turning away from religion, the youth are the main driving force behind the rise of no religion. I will focus on three factors. Firstly, I will explore the social change that has brought about the tension between traditional religious values and modern social lives. It is not uncommon that some modern social practices clash with some religious value, such as abortion and gay marriage. Thereby, I am going to contact with the Christian Research Association studying the Christian faith in Australia, and interview a member of the organization. Secondly, I would like to present a vivid and emotional picture to my audiences, so I will dig into complex individuals’ reasons that lead them to be religiously unaffiliated, for example, personal living environment and influences of social relations. To get the attracting materials, I will interview an Australian university student who had gone through a difficult period since he decided to leave his Christian faith. Also, I am going to interview a Christian Bible teacher. His opinions will benefit me to explore religious involvement among young people leading to the rise of no-religion.
Target publication
The feature story aims to be published on the participatory online journalism Upstart, which welcomes contributions from students and emerging journalists. It is categorized in Culture & Lifestyle on this online publication.
Tags: religion, culture, social change, Christianity, Australia, youth
References:
Australian Bureau of Statistics. ( 2013). Australian Social Trends (Cat. No.4102.0). Canberra, Australia: ABS.
Australian Censusstats. (2012). Religion and the 2011 Australian Census. Retrieved from http://censusstats.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/religion-and-2011-australian-census.html
Harris, D. (2009, May 6). Young Americans Losing Their Religion. ABC NEWS. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=7513343&page=1
Hunt, R. (2013, March 20). Losing Faith? Religion In Australia Today. Aphra Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.aphramag.com/losing-faith/
onlinejournalism004 
Love the headline! Super cool!
OK, this sounds like a well-researched proposal. It provides ample evidence to depict the existence of the problem. Which is wonderful, cause it actually gives audience a reason to consume your piece.
Second, it seems like this piece would use massive amount of works around interview. Which actually puts certain questions in my mind: 1. How would you manage to conduct so many interviews and put them in use within a month. 2. Do you really need all that interviews? What‘s the difference between the outcome you get from interview and the research online? 3. Just in case you can’t find all that people to interview with, can some of the results you need for your piece be achieved in ways other than interview?
Clearly you’ve already put a lot of thoughts into your work. And perhaps those people you listed up there are just choices so that you won’t go through them all. Anyway, I’m just try to remind you to have some backup plans for your work and don’t be afraid to cut some points down if necessary. Cause judging from your proposal, it seems like you wanted to cover a broad range of stuff under the topic.
Hope that’s useful for you! Good job by the way. 🙂
Lin.Chen
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