Believe The Hype?
On Tuesday 25 November, theSprout visited Llanrumney High School, where Year 11 were taking part in a Super Learning Day.
We thought we'd ask some of them their opinions on how they are perceived in the media. Here's what they had to say:
"Young people today are not given good portrayals in the media. The media focuses on the bad youths and never mentions any of the good. Lots of adults are afraid of children when there is absolutely no need to. Us kids should be allowed to have our own image, not be stereotyped as gun and knife-possessing people who always cause trouble.
"I know a lot of people who are young that have done worthwhile things, I know a person that has done charity runs and is going to be building medical centres in Kenya. Nothing like that gets into the newspapers or on the TV news, all you hear about on there is youths fighting and stabbing each other, or youths attacking adults.
"I think we should have news that shows youths in a good way too. If a young person wears a hoodie we shouldn't be stereotyped as a 'gangster'. You don't see any of the adults that wear hoodies being called a gangster or being feared, they are accepted. Something that is true for one group of teens isn't necessarily true to the rest of us". -- Stephanie Hewlett
"The media describe young people as troublemakers and yobs. Not all young people cause trouble; we should have more credit for the good things we do as young people. People should stop assuming that all young people cause trouble and stop stereotyping". -- Laura (lauraashley)
"Young people in the media today are portrayed as violent, cheeky and looking for trouble. You hear about a lot of gang violence in the streets, but never about the good things. You never hear of the achievements of younger people. I think we are portrayed in the wrong way". -- Derry
"Young people are portrated as thugs or hooligans in the community. The older community are sometimes too afraid to go outside their house if they see a teenager. I feel it is not right that the media say that all teenagers are 'thugs', as most of them are not.
"I feel that people presume if they see a teenager with their hood up or in a gang that they are up to no good and are worried they might do something, when most of the time this isn't the case. If a teenager has been written about in the press, most of the time it is bad news. Teenagers never get on the good side of the news, just the bad, which I feel is unfair.
"The only good news is if teenagers have done well in sports, but not every teenagers is great at sports. Some are smart and have done well in that department, but unless the teenager is a super genius they would never publish an article about them which I feel is very unfair.
"Teenagers who do well for the community (charity work, for example) will only get published if they get the government involved. If it is something for the community they would never write something about teenagers, which I feel is unfair". -- James (jdf2k8)
"'Hoodies', 'vandals', 'knife-wielding teens', 'gangs of youths', and much more. These have been the stereotypical images that the media have given to teens of this generation. All the media has to say on teenagers is 'so and so stabbed him', 'a group of boys set fire to this', 'this boy was murdered by rival gang members' and so on.
"Yes, I accept that this does happen in the world. Yes, some teens are the stereotypical image, but the majority of us aren't. Most of us are honest, well-mannered kids who deserve to walk down the street without getting looks just because we are with our friends. We aren't the ones causing the trouble.
"Yet, where are the good things about the teens of today? Where are the commendations and the achievements that most of us achieve and aren't recognised for? Well, I'll leave that for you to decide". -- Steffan Bonifay
"The media gives a biased understanding of youth culture. Every day, a young person between 12-18 is accused of being a gang member or a menace of society. This isn't helped by the fact that over the past two years, the United Kingdom has seen an increase of violent youth knife attacks. Rival gangs in the UK's biggest cities are often in the news with murdered and injured people in the headlines.
"The media blow the situation out of proportion due to the extensive coverage of this with the government's anti-knife advertising drive which got underway in May, when images of real injuries inflicted by knives were published in Internet advertisements. This has seen a dip in the number of gang-on-gang violence, and most of all innocent lives being taken". -- Andrew Griffiths
"In the media, young people are said to be very violent and destructive. If somebody were to see a group of teenagers outside or some who were wearing hoodies, they would feel frightened and would maybe walk away. This is because the media is telling us that teenagers who wear hoodies are very harmful and may even be carrying weapons. But this is not always true.
"If police walk or drive past a small group of teenagers who are wearing their hoods up they may be questioned why. They may be offended by this as they may be very kind people. But just because they have their hoods up, other people immediately think of them as dangerous and try to keep a distance.
"Also, as the weather is very cold, they may want to wear hoodies to keep them warm and may not be able to do this if they are always questioned and misunderstood by other people". -- Laura Kennedy
"The media does not give a good impression of young people. Although I think that some young people's actions may be the reason for this, I think older people should judge young people individually, as not all young people are bad". -- Nicole Davies
