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Youth in the Media: Overview
Back to Youth in the Media main page.Consider the young people portrayed on TV, in the movies, and in magazines and newspapers. What image flashes into your mind? For a majority of Americans, the picture is not attractive, not hopeful—and not true to reality.
 Included in this distorted picture are gangs of teenagers who care nothing for themselves; angry, gun-wielding young males, especially black males; out-of-control students in unsafe schools; sexually provocative young women; and fad-obsessed youth who don't respect hard work or the value of a dollar.
In reality, these images are dwarfed by the great majority of ordinary young people trying to achieve their goals and grow up ready to contribute to the world. Stories of ordinary life, however, receive little public attention.
If most of us see ordinary young people most of the time, where did the powerful negative images of teens come from? Youth advocacy organizations and many scholars point to the media, which are quick to cover the crime of the day, day after day. A majority of adults now believe—wrongly—that youth are responsible for most crimes. In fact, youth commit only about 12% of violent crimes, and the trend is going down. Mike Males, author of the book The Scapegoat Generation: America's War on Adolescents, says that 60,000 fewer youths were arrested for homicide, rape, robbery, and assault in 2001 than in 1994, even though the teen population had increased during that time.
Sensational coverage of crime tends to fuel the American urge for quick solutions. In the case of youth crime, the coverage has fed an appetite to lock up young offenders. Children as young as 13 are being tried as adults in some states, and schools, likewise, have become punitive, quick to expel students and to institute military-style security measures. Crime stories also tend to focus on minority perpetrators, reinforcing racial discrimination.
 Media portrayal matters because Americans get so much of their information from newspapers, television, magazines, and movies. As the Benton Foundation, in a 1999 publication "Effective Language for Communicating Children's Issues," notes, the media shape the way Americans think about social issues. With crime stories dominating youth coverage, the public lacks the facts to make sound policy decisions.
When the public distrusts or even fears its youth, society is the real loser. A public unwilling to invest in positive experiences for youth, including education, will quickly learn the cost of that. Everything depends on the next generation—from taxes to pay for services and pensions to a strong consumer economy.
We need to demand balanced coverage of a breadth of youth issues—health care, learning, family life, poverty, neighborhood schools, parks that are child-friendly, youth leadership, and more—to ensure that we make well-informed, effective policy decisions that keep our society strong.
One effective, powerful way to ensure balanced news coverage is through youth-created media. There are many young people at work today doing just that. Take, for example, New Moon magazine, developed a decade ago as a magazine written by and for girls ages 8-14, which is now in circulation around the world. Or Dreams of Ours, a 'zine written by teens for teens, sponsored by the Minneapolis Public Library in Minneapolis, Minnesota. "Youth Radio," in Berkeley, California, is a youth-run radio show created and produced by youth. These media programs provide the tools, training, and guidance that young people need to find their voice and make sure it is heard. Finally, Mind on the Media in Minnesota and the Youth Media Council in California both monitor the mainstream media's portrayal of youth as well as train other youth organizations to do media work.
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Next: Framing the Issue
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