Abstract: The finding that the young audience uses social media and mobile online communication to a much higher extent than older population is well documented by numerous quantitative survey studies (e.g. Lebo/Cole 2018; Newman et al. 2018). However, knowledge about the concrete usage practice of online and especially social media is rare. In particular, the questions of how young people find (audiovisual) content for what reasons and if content of public service media still play a role is little explored. One reasons for this research gap might be the methodological difficulties in order to analyze these questions. For this reason, this paper aims on one hand to explore the current search strategies and decisionmaking processes of young audiences in relation to their use of audiovisual content. On the other hand, it gives some methodological reflections about the use of observation in order to analyze this research question. The focus of the analysis lies on the offers of the Swiss public service broadcaster in comparison to traditional private broadcasters as well as to new (platform-) providers such as YouTube, Netflix and Instagram. By comparing the access of young people to PSM-content and to content of private broadcasters we are able to generate empirically sound knowledge about the selection strategies and decision-making processes of the young audience when it comes to selecting audio-visual services. This analysis is of great importance for political communication in democracies since public service media in most European countries are obliged to address the whole population including the young ones in order to legitimize its by attractive content and to fulfil its public service remit for democracy. However, in times of rapidly changing access channels and media usage preferences due to digitization and convergence, reaching the young audience is becoming increasingly difficult for national public service broadcasters in particular (Carlsson, 2014.; Fernández-Quijada et al., 2015; Reiter et al. , 2018). The study therefore focuses on the following four key areas:  1. Search strategies (pre-use) 2. Selection strategies (pre-use) 3. Expectations (pre-use/in-use)  4. Evaluations (in-use/post-use) of young audiences. Methodologically, the study (carried out from May to August 2019) relies on a qualitative approach with a combination of participatory observation, loud thinking and focus questions, based on the criteria of Grounded Theory (Gehrau, 2017; Pentzold et al., 2018). On the basis of a theoretical sample, 40 young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 will be interviewed from different contexts, which means that they are in the core field of the fiercely contested so-called ‘young audiences’. For the investigations a ‘usage lab’ will be set up, which is characterized by a target group-oriented design and multimedia equipment and thus represents an as natural survey situation as possible. The experimental arrangement is carried out in two settings. Setting 1 (n=20) focuses on the aspect ‘entertainment’, while setting 2 (n=20) concentrates on ‘information’. Both test settings include a twostage experimental setup. In the first stage, the participants will be accompanied in open usage scenarios, while in the second stage they will be confronted with specific audio-visual formats, which will be selected according to theoretical criteria. The paper thus aims to present the use of audio-visual media in terms of orientation, selection and evaluation strategies. To this end, results on relevance setting and preferences for both information and entertainment formats are to be achieved - in each case with a specific focus on the target grouporiented offerings of the Swiss public service broadcaster. This will enable previously unavailable indepth insights into the audiovisual media use preferences and strategies of the audiences, which are difficult to reach for the public service media. Based on the insights of this study the current discussion on the sustainability of publicly financed media services can be taken forward.