Participation Works

A group of Young NCB members and young people from the National Youth Agency's Young Researcher Network, have published a report based on findings from their research project looking at the portrayal of young people in the British media, and how negative images and stories affect young people’s lives.

The project idea arose out of the concern expressed by young people regarding the negative portrayal of young people by the media with the majority of stories about young people focusing on the negative actions of a small minority. The young researchers point to research showing that media stories featuring young people are most commonly about knife crime, education, gangs, social exclusion or violent crime with young offenders in particular likely to be the subject of negative media portrayal.

The young researchers conducted an online survey to get views from young people across the country. Sixty-two young people took part in the survey. Two focus groups with fourteen young people aged between 13-18 years were conducted to find out how they felt about negative media portrayal of them in society and they interviewed seven journalists by phone, four of which wrote news articles about children and young people in magazines, one for national newspapers and magazines and two worked for a television channel.

Key findings from the report 'Media Portrayal of Young People-impact and influences' showed that the media produces both positive and negative stories about young people however overall the media as a whole tends to report more negative news stories. The research found that local/ regional media tended to cover more positive stories about young people. The young researchers found from the young people’s survey that young people felt that almost all of the stories (76-100 percent) on young people that the media covers are negative. The research data also found that young people feel that media stories are not representative of them as they tend to focus on minorities in the youth population; either young people engaged in criminal activity or extremely gifted young people i.e. athletes or high academic achievers.

The young people taking part in the research felt that the way the media portrays them and other young people can have an impact on the way they view themselves. Some young people felt that negative media reporting of young people can cause stereotyping and cause older people to feel that all young people are involved in negative behaviour and others felt that these negative stereotypes were having an impact on their daily lives by affecting how they dressed or where they could go to spend time with their friends and often felt that older people were intimidated by them.

Some young people taking part in the research said that negative media coverage of young people made them feel intimidated or scared of other young people they didn’t know. Other ways young people felt negative reporting impacted on their lives included being harassed by the police even though they were doing nothing wrong and young people felt this was due to negative media coverage. Many of the young people from the research felt that the media and public were ‘tarring them with the same brush’.

The interviews with journalists found that journalists do not feel that all young people are involved in negative behaviour and that they feel that negative portrayal of young people by the media is likely to lead to young people feeling negative about themselves or angry and alienated in society. The journalists also discussed pressures that they face to cover negative stories that often portray young people in a negative light. Some of the journalists that took part in the interviews said, “If it’s bad news its news worthy.”

The report argues that there are some key points to be considered on this topic including that there should a balance of negative and positive stories, young people should be given a voice to put across their views on this issue, negative, sensational reporting can have a negative affect on young people’s lives and negative stories have the potential to be used for education.

Wed, 25/02/2009 - 09:59