Media plays important role in shaping the attitude of society towards a specific group. Nevertheless, media influence is not always possible. Negative aspects of media portrayal are evident in the representation of Australian youth. Teenagers and young people have a clear presence in media. Images of young people are often abused to promote everything from cosmetics to charities. The portrayal of youth’s participation in society is a critical factor given the significant role of media in shaping the social concept of youth and the capabilities of young people.
Undoubtedly, media includes the voice of youth, but it tends to present only a selected group of people in the light of a certain range of issues. Publications are mostly devoted to individual achievements or faults, while there is an evident lack of portrayal of youth as a distinct social group with its own rights, desires, and qualities.
Positive Portrayal of Youth
Kuehn and Yarlett (2001) argued that a positive view of youth’s active participation in society was found in specific areas. In particular, young’s people who participated in the labor force were positive focusing on career achievements. Participation in education was portrayed also positively with a large proportion of young people presented as educated. In addition, young women’s role in deciding on social matters was also portrayed from a positive aspect.
Nevertheless, Kuehn and Yarlett (2001) expressed the concern that the diversity of youth presented was rather limited. Most articles under research presented young people as educated and having their educational status stated. For example, the young people represented in media were aged 19-21; while females enjoyed a greater range of representation from 12 to 22 years of age. In general, newspapers tend to present positive images of young people and their participation in the labor force, social life, and education. However, most of the articles are individualistic and there is a lack of focus on collective activities and involvement in decision making.
Youth and Criminal Justice
The perception of youth by society is also reflected in the corresponding national legislature. Bradley (2003) argued, “that it is possible to conceive of a different type of children’s court, one which wrests at least some of the control of the proceedings from the legal experts and hands it to the child; one in which proceedings are comprehensible, where children’s choices are therefore informed, and where the court carries an enforceable obligation to ensure that the interest of children are paramount”.
While legislators question the attribution of criminal responsibility of children at the age of ten, development psychologists point out that children can be held responsible for their actions only at the age of fifteen. Australian society is concerned with the rights of children and young people. However, there is an evident lack of consideration of the moral culpability of young offenders. In any case, the state is responsible to provide a fair trial and ensuring that the rights of young people are fully protected.
The negative portrayal of the young in Australia is traced in the article titled “Young People and Policing in Australia” by Blagg and Wilkie (1997). In particular, the authors wrote that “young people, particularly those from Indigenous, migrant and ethnic minority backgrounds, those deemed to be street present, homeless or in some other way marginal to society, have disproportionately higher levels of contact with the police than other social groups”.
This one sentence portrays all minority young in Australia in a negative light. In order to assess the scope of this negative portrayal of youth in the Australian Journal of Human Rights, it is worth referring to the social attitude towards African Americans in the United States of America. While U.S.A. law prohibits discrimination of any form, media does portray the black minority as socially unstable and more prone to criminal involvement. A similar attitude is common in Australian media which portrays minorities as more likely to commit crimes.
According to the recent article “Media Negative on Teens: Youth Forum” (2008), Australian teenagers are portrayed negatively in media. In particular, young people express a concern that media has a distorted portrayal of the correlation between young age and alcohol abuse. Jennifer Duncan, an executive director of the Youth Affairs of South Australia, points out that young people in Australia feel that they are negatively portrayed in the national media. Duncan adds that young people are portrayed in a positive light only through advertising. Therefore, Australian media creates unfair stereotypes of young people. While only a small proportion of young people does actually binge drinking, the media puts all young people under the category of abusive alcoholics.
Misconceptions About Youth
The author of the article “Are young people really the irresponsible, inarticulate pill popping louts many people believe they are? Or has the media not given them a fair go?” (2006) argued that every young person has his own experience with negative stereotyping. A shop attendant observes young people suspiciously or bus drivers refusing to give a concession rate despite the student card at hand. Most young people are likely to become victims of unfair judgment by others.
Researchers point out that negative experience is often a result of media failure to portray young people in a positive light. While media is focused on youth drug addiction and vandalism, very little attention is paid to positive aspects of youth in Australia. In general, Australian media tends to present the following misconceptions about youth in the country: young people steal and take drugs; young people are rude and do not contribute to the community; young people are lazy and do not want to work.
Media plays important role in shaping public opinion about young people and in turn, creates policy and laws. If the media portrays youth inaccurately, there is a threat that national social policies will not address the true needs of young people. On the other side, negative media images influence young people themselves. As media delivers the message that young people are socially incapable, they become protective and start acting in accordance with stereotypes imposed by media publications. Moreover, young people are at risk of becoming victims of discrimination because of negative stereotypes created by the media. In other words, media alienated young people by the negative portrayal.
Media Effect on Youth
On the other side of the argument, media has a negative impact on young people in Australia. According to the National Survey of Young Australians (2007), body image is reported to be the biggest worry for 11-24 years old. Ironically, young people in Australia are concerned with their body image more than with family conflict or coping with stress. When Australian youth is asked the questions “What do you value?” and “What issues are important”, they respond that having an ideal body was very important!
The survey result had significant positive results though. In particular, it revealed that young people rated the environment as an important concern. At the same time, a quarter of young people mentioned bullying, emotional and physical abuse as major concerns. Nevertheless, Australian media fails to address these issues. As the result, the real concerns of Australian youth are not taken into account. While the media representatives strive to increase their audience through terrifying headlines covering youth violence, the true interests of young people are not mentioned.
The survey identified that 76 percent of American young people rank family relationships as their top valued things. The media does not present this value in association with young people. Based on the media portrayal of young people in the Australian median, youth does not care about anything. However, a national survey revealed that approximately 40 percent of 20-24-year-olds are involved in volunteering. Unfortunately, the media does not cover this aspect of young people’s involvement in social life. Journalists prefer writing about crimes and rapes because such topics attract more readers while the positive aspects of youth’s life in Australia are not covered sufficiently.
Sternberg (2005) provided an interesting example related to the negative portrayal of youth. He outlined the “Today Tonight” show in which ten kids were invited to trash a house. The show was presented as a unique experiment – young people aged 10-15 were allowed to live one week without their parents. Their actions were recorded by hidden cameras and broadcasted each night. As a result of the show, the most negative stereotypes of young people were created.
On Monday, children talked about sex. On Tuesday, they spent $500 on food. On Wednesday, they started a fight. While on Thursday, they decided to return home. Sternberg argued that shows similar to “Today Tonight” placed the youth into a situation where they were doomed to failure. Moreover, most media presentations are subjective in nature and portray youth in a negative light only with the hope to expand their audience reach.
Ephebiphobia
Ephebiphobia is a fear of young people. Despite the rare use of this term, ephebiphobia is not a new concept. There are many people in society who refuse to deal with and/or communicate with young people. They move away and lobby against anything positively affecting the lives of young people. The phobia is based on the negative stereotypes of young people created by media or as a result of a bad experience from childhood. The fear of young people may often lead to discrimination against youth. Males (2002) noted that “ephebiphobia is a full-blown media panic”. In other words, media creates distorted images of young people contributing in this way to fear of youth.
If the media continuously presents young people as materialistic, aggressive, and irresponsible, the social image of young people will be steadily negative. Young people are the future of the nation and media should encourage positive portrayal of youth to promote healthy social relations and progressive development. Negative portrayal, on the contrary, leads to social instability when young people do not feel secure. Moreover, adverse effects of negative portrayal are far-reaching and may in fact result in increased aggressiveness.
“Some cultural groups are shaped by a shared background and experience, such as birthplace-related cultural groups. Other groups emerge or develop because the members share a distinct or unusual commonality” (Scott 2007). The problem is that Australian media tends to portray young people as thugs who have no values in life and are just waiting for an opportunity to harm others or steal. Scott (2007) provided evidence to support this statement: young people are more likely to be stopped by police for committing a crime. The offending rate is four-time higher than the average of the rest of the Australian population.
Therefore, young people are put through police processes more often than other groups of people. Youth are more likely to be stopped by police and asked to move on to a police search. Whether or not a young person has committed a crime, he/she is more likely to be searched and processed by police only based on age. Ironically, the media rarely portrays young people as victims of crime. As the result, Australian grandparents fear for the safety of their grandchildren more than for their own (Graycar & Grabosky 2002). Nevertheless, according to statistics, young people are victims of crime more often than they commit crimes. For example, elderly people are five times less likely to be a victim compared to the youth.
In conclusion, the media in Australia fails to portray young people adequately. While journalists are interested in writing articles about young violence and antisocial behavior, they fail to cover positive aspects of youth involvement in the social life of the country. The image of young people as created by media is negative and it affects the perception of youth by society. As the result, young people are feared. The solution to negative stereotyping by media is evident: journalists need to adopt a positive attitude towards young people. However, the problem of negative portray is not new in Australian society, but little progress has been achieved.
References
‘Are young people really the irresponsible, inarticulate pill popping louts many people believe they are? Or has the media not given them a fair go?’ 2006, ACT NOW. Web.
Blagg, H & Wilkie, M 1997, ‘Young People and Policing in Australia: the Relevance of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’, Australian Journal of Human Rights. Web.
Bradley, L 2003, ‘The Age of Criminal Responsibility revisited’, Deakin Law Review. Web.
Graycar, A & Grabosky, P 2002, The Cambridge Handbook of Australian Criminology. Cambridge University Press.
Kuehn, R & Yarlett, K 2001, ‘Media presentations of youth participation’, The Source. Web.
Males, M 2002, ‘Intro to Ephebiphobia’, Free Child. Web.
‘Media negative on teens: youth forum’ 2008, ABC Net. Web.
National Survey of Young Australians 2007, ‘Body Image the main concern for young Australians’. Web.
Scott, C 2007, ‘Youth culture and crime in Australia’, Helium. Web.
Sternberg, J 2005, ‘Demonizing youth of today tonight’, The Age. Web.