Media Portrayal of Young People
Class 8HP of Cathays High School taking part in the U-Share PSHE Citizenship day on 12th June 2008 gave their opinions about the way in which young people are portrayed in the media and how that makes them feel. ?
We have put some of their opinions and articles together:
"The media always show the bad side about children but never the positive. They always write about knife crime and hoodies and I’m not saying they shouldn’t write that stuff, its just that they never tell the positive side to young people." - Ruksaar Akhtar
"Teenagers like treated as if they are all criminals if they are wearing hoodies. People should talk to young people about the good things that they could be doing instead of the bad things. Teenagers want more responsibility and the adults won’t give them more responsibility." - Ben Cross
"Young people are given a bad image especially on the news, gang wars, knife crime etc. Young people nowadays set a bad example to other kids and they might think that being in a gang is a cool thing, killing people earns them a reputation in their neighbourhood but they soon find themselves behind bars. Not all young people are heading down that path, some will get a good education and a good job in their future. Teenagers also think that drinking and smoking are some of the things that will gain them the popularity and respect that they want to get from others." - Aicha Deta
"Young people are portrayed as evil and unwilling. As a young person I don’t think that I am evil but very polite, I don’t think that I am unwilling or anything else we are described as in the media. I am aware of the knife crime and gang problems around Britain; there are circumstances where young people take part in stabbings and murders etc., and think that there should be harsh consequences for this.? But I don’t think this stands for every young person especially black and other minority communities and this should not be the overall image of teenagers and other youngsters. Whoever reads the newspapers and watches the news just believe it and I don’t think this is very fair at all." - Samiya Ahmed
"Young people are treated as if they are all hooligans and hoodies. In the newspapers when they write about teenagers they always write about the negatives and never about the positives. Not all kids are violent and horrible, most of us do good things like helping out in the youth clubs in our area." - Thomas Powell
"At the moment teenagers are blamed for everything, if there is a crime adults automatically think that it was by teenagers.? Some teenagers deserve to be judged because they go around in gangs, trying to impress their friends and girlfriends. ?In the last ten years the behaviour of all children has changed, most of them now drink, smoke and use bad language.? Ten years ago they were really respectful and looked out for each other no matter what type of group they belonged to, geeks or gangsters.? It doesn’t matter if they are your enemy, you should always look out for each other. ?Everything we hear about teenagers at this moment in time is negative and we should be showing positive things about them like when a teenager has just saved someone’s life or something." - Gabrielle Walters
"I think at this time in Cardiff, kids are too aggressive, the reason I've written “this time” in Cardiff is because about 10 15 years ago people were disciplined.? But now things have gotten out of hand. In the last 15 years kids have become more and more angry and nasty.? All you hear on the news and in the newspaper is negative things and nothing positive, its not really fair." - Lena Jayne
"The media always portray young people as bad, saying only the negative things e.g. drugs, alcohol, smoking, violence.? They should be talking about all the positive stuff like all the good grades that are happening in schools, all the communities getting young people off the streets and stuff like that." - Charlotte
