Young people 'teenagers' are featured frequently in the eye of the media. It is common that they are portrayed as either anti-social thugs that all drink, smoke, partake in pointless acts of crime and have sexual intercourse on a daily basis.
These factors are true to some extent but the media magnifies these situations and only focuses on the bad points, typically stereotyping all teens as ruthless thugs. Many people complain about the view of teenagers in the media and state that 'children are the future' and that they are misrepresented. This is not entirely true in most cases as there are many teenagers who act in exactly the way that the media portrays them, however I argue that not all of them act like senseless yobs. There are many teenagers who are very intelligent individuals, who care about the world and the people in it.
Journalists decide in their line of work what is deemed as 'newsworthy.' Journalists seek stories which present a point of view which is both current and relevant to a large number of people at a specific time. Stories in newspapers of human interest rarely feature young people and they are rarely approached by the mainstream media to give their opinions and views on the issues. This leaves teens destined to be represented only in stories about gang crime, other criminal activities and more. By featuring stories about anti-social behavior, gang crime, drug and alcohol abuse and other criminal activities, the press generate strong feelings of often moral outrage from society. This is why they love to feature stories about failing teens.
I did some research on the internet of news stories of teens. There were videos of many news stories of senseless acts of crime made by teenagers. I found an interview on Sky News of four teenagers talking about their involvements in the London riots in 2011. The interview displays teens in a bad light as the boys are saying how they think it's alright to steal. One teenager talks about how he stole stuff for his baby, the presenter then says, 'your 16 years old and your getting stuff for you son?' The teens talk about how there is a lack of jobs and blame this for the reason that they stole in the riots, 'that up there (pointing to Grande Canary Warth) is who the government are looking after, they're not thinking about us they're thinking about that one pocket up there.'
Heights Observer Blog
'Rioting teens are terrorists'
Writer Mike Glacier expresses his frustration on the Suns Press editorial on July 7th. In the editorial they labelled the rioting teens as "terrorists" and conducted an analogy with 9/11. He states 'they went on an labelled these juveniles "terrorists" which is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. Yes, these teens committed crimes and behaved like thugs, and innocent people were harmed. Local businesses have suffered. Our community was shaken. That doesn't make these teenagers "terrorists". There were no bombings or senseless murders. Out of control delinquents yes. Criminals to prosecute, yes. "Terrorists," no."
"Almost all of the publicity that the media gives to young people is negative"
"Some newspapers aren't interested in young people having a voice, because either it doesn't fit in with what they're generally writing or saying, or because they don't even think it's an issue." - David Seymour, the Political Editor of the Mirror group.
Headlines
'Shameful state of the nations teenagers'
'Our 15 year-old girls lead the world in boozing, obesity and taking drugs.'
In a few paragraphs the media can convince the newspapers reader's that all teenage girls were overweight slobs, who spent hours slumped in front of the television drinking alcohol and smoking drugs. Many stereotypical views, similar to this one are seen across the media.
Newspaper Research
Another media institution which represents teenagers in a negative light is television. There are many TV serious, documentaries, soaps, dramas etc which stereotype the younger generation and show the bad side of teenagers.
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