Youth in the Media Exploring the impact of media representation on attitudes towards children and young people
About Us Youth in the Media is a year-long project looking at the portrayal of children and young people in the media. The research also explores how coverage affects attitudes towards children and young people, and how it could impact their future. The project combined a study of the Welsh newspaper media, and a programme of four workshops that was run in five schools in Wales. The project resulted in three separate pieces of work: Youth in the Media report A young people s version of the report Exploring Media Impact: A toolkit to help young people consider and challenge negative portrayal in the media. Further copies of this resource and the other Youth in the Media outputs are available via the Children in Wales website: www.childreninwales.org.uk Children in Wales is a Wales wide organisation that brings other organizations together to make the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) a reality in Wales. The Youth in the Media Project is funded by the European Social Fund, through the Welsh Government. Copyright: Children in Wales (2013) 3
Summary of project Children in Wales ran workshops with young people across Wales to look at representation of youth in the media. Also, a study of Welsh newspaper articles relating to young people was carried out. This study found a mixed picture in terms of what stories were covered and how children and young people were described. The young people felt that: They are influenced by the media The media often portrays them in a negative way The media reinforce stereotypes of young people These stereotypes affects how adults see young people, how young people see each other, and how young people see themselves. Young people who took part also: considered the key elements of what makes a fair article, and wrote articles on issues important to them formed ideas on how to questions articles and media representations of young people. The main report is available on the Children in Wales website (www.childreninwales.org.uk). 5
Contents: Background of this project.. 6 Rights in the media.... 8 Our aims..... 11 What we did and why... 13 Work in schools.... 14 What we found out.... 17 Does this make a difference to how young people are treated?.. 21 Final thoughts..... 26 Project recommendations.. 28 Background to this project The media has changed the way we communicate and how we find out what s going on in the world. It s everywhere, newspapers and magazines, TV and radio, the internet, films, magazines and adverts are just a few types of media that we see around us. It s also expanding. Most media coverage used to be on news, but if you pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV now you can find out about sport, fashion, celebrity, travel, culture and much more. These changes have led to the media becoming a global business, with different groups competing with each other for the biggest audiences and best stories. The competitiveness of the media has led to concerns over their practice, including how they portray groups like children and young people. 7
Rights and the media UNCRC stands for United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a list of rights that children and young people should expect to receive in order to be safe, develop fully and have a say. These rights are agreed as an international standard for all children and young people, no matter who they are, where they live or what they believe in. In Wales it is the basis for all the Welsh Government s work around children and young people. The UNCRC has 54 articles in all: The first 41 Articles each outline a Right or obligation setting out how children and young people should be treated. The final 13 articles are all about what governments should do to make it happen. The following articles are specifically relevant to Media Information: Article 13 gives us information on receiving and sharing information. Children and young people have the right to get and to share information as long as the information is not damaging to them or others. Article 16 protects an individual s privacy and reputation. Children and young people have a right to privacy, protecting them from attacks against their way of life, their good name and that of their families and their home. Article 17 tells us about the right to reliable and accurate information. Children and young people have the right to reliable information from the mass media. Television, radio and newspapers should provide information that you can understand and should not promote materials that can cause harm. To find out more about the whole UNCRC go to www.uncrcletsgetitright.co.uk where you will find more details about the Convention and a poster summarising all the rights. 9
What work has been done before? Every five years Wales reports back to the United Nations (UN) about its progress in making the UNCRC a reality for all children and young people, and the UN make recommendations on what they could be better at. Following the last report in 2008 they recommended that Wales tackle the negative perception of children and young people in the media. The Welsh Government has been doing more to understand the negative coverage of children and young people, as well as to recognise the positive things that young people are doing. They also developed Tell it Like it Is, a media guide providing practical advice to help young people present a fuller, fairer picture of their news, views, activities, and issues for the media. Wales also has a Children s Commissioner who stands up and speaks out for children and young people. The Children s Commissioner has launched See Me Dyma Fi, a campaign that is challenging stereotypes and helping people represent children and young people more positively. Works is also being done in the UK. The Youth Media Agency support youth media throughout the UK and have developed #Presschange4youth, a campaign calling for fair coverage of children and young people in the press. Our aims We wanted to: carry out a piece of research looking at newspaper articles in Wales; run a series of workshops and talk to young people about how the media represents them and how this coverage affects attitudes towards children and young people; build on previous work and support pupils to write fair articles around issues that were important to them. An additional aim was to produce a range of documents for different purposes: A project report has been written for the media, policy makers and professionals. The report identifies the powerful nature of the media and promotes positive coverage and a realistic image of children and young people in Wales A young people s report has been written (this!), that focuses on the work in schools and lets you know what happened Exploring Media Impact has been designed to support more children and young people to think about how they are portrayed in the media and write their own articles. 11
Study of the media We looked at 477 news articles from local, regional and national papers in Wales that were about children and young people. When we read the articles we decided whether the story was about a negative or positive topic. We found lots of positive articles that recognised and celebrated the achievements of children and young people, but there were also many negative articles as well about youth crime, anti-social behaviour and poor lifestyle choices. We also thought about how the articles described children and young people and whether they used unfair language. Around 40 of the articles had language or tone that could lead to readers developing unfair, negative opinions of young people. You can read more about the media analysis in the full report on the Children in Wales website (www.childreninwales.org.uk). 13
Work in schools We visited five different schools across Wales and met with groups of young people aged 11-15 in each school who took part in the four workshops. All workshops were designed to be participative and fun - giving all young people taking part the chance to have a say. This is what we did: Workshop 1 Representation We set the scene of the project, and the young people thought about what the media is and its different forms e.g. television, radio, newspapers, and the internet. We then looked at how children and young people are portrayed in the media, with pupils reading articles and thinking about their feelings. Workshop 2 Perceptions and Stereotypes We explained perceptions, and the groups thought about how we easily build a stereotype of a person s physical and social characteristics based on a single image of them. We talked about how these stereotypes affect the way young people are perceived by others, and looked at how this may impact young people s lives both positively and negatively. Workshop 3 Articles and Questions The first three schools looked at the key elements needed to write fair articles. They then chose an issue important to them and wrote an article about it. The remaining schools developed questions for the articles that would help other young people reading them to think about the language and tone of an article. These articles and questions are part of the Exploring Media Images resource. Workshop 4 Editing and design The first set of schools reviewed and edited the articles they had written in Workshop 3 while the second set commented on designs for the young people s report and Exploring Media Impact guide. All pupils thought about what the media could do to better represent children and young people and a top tips list was made (shown in Final Thoughts). How does the media portray young people? 15
Schools we visited A big thanks to all the pupils who took part in this project and to the staff who supported the project. In Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones, Ynys Mon, we worked with young people who were studying for their Welsh Baccalaureate. In Bishop Vaughan Catholic School, Swansea we worked with young people from their school council. In Abertillery Comprehensive School, Blaenau Gwent we worked with young people who were all doing Media Studies. In Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, Carmarthenshire we also worked with a group of pupils studying the Welsh Baccalaureate with a focus on Media Studies. In Abersychan School, Torfaen we worked with pupils studying for their Welsh Baccalaureate. What we found out Does the media influence young people? Of the 79 pupils we spoke to the majority felt like they were influenced by the media: Yeah, cos it s like everywhere so you can t get away from it really. It s even on the TV, in newspapers, on websites, everywhere. When asked girls and boys felt like they may be influenced in different ways. Boys were influenced by young male celebrities in terms of style as well as sports and being fit. For girls there was pressure over body image and appearance: It s like, they [young people] see popstars wearing things and they like, straight away, think that s what I gotta look like, or they see the majority of people wearing it and then that s what they gotta look like. They see it on TV all the time and then that becomes what pretty is, and it become what everyone thinks is acceptable. However some young people felt like the media had less influence on them, and that they could make up their own mind: Because some people are stronger than others. Some people listen to the media and then believe it, and want to act like them and be like them. Some people are strong and realise it s wrong, don t do it. 17
Of the young people we spoke to, the English riots in 2011 in particular had made them think about how they are portrayed in the media: Sometimes they make us very stereotypical like, when the riots happened it was all only teenagers are breaking into shops and everything, and they were just blaming all the kids and everything and then stereotypically you see a kid walking down the road and automatically assume he s doing something wrong. The pupils realised that there are examples of bad behaviour in Wales, but were keen to point out the problem of blanket statements where the media makes generalisations about larger groups of young people, based on the activities of a few: Its truthful but they re making it seem like all children and teenagers are like that, like stereotyping them a lot. They never mention children who aren t. It was also felt that these blanket statements could have the effect of making the behaviour seem normal: It could have the opposite effect, like if someone, a 15 year old boy in Wales is reading this, Oh if everyone s smoking and everyone s drinking then I can do it too, you know, because it s not a big deal if everyone s doing it. Many of the pupils told us that they feel proud when they see an article that recognises positive achievements by children and young people. However, despite our study of articles finding that there are more positive than negative articles, they felt that the negative articles overpowered the positive: If you do something good you ll only be recognised for a day and then forget who you are. You re only popular for a day. And the next day there s something about kids being fat. But the pupils did mention examples of positive news coverage, including young footballers and athletes involved in the Olympics: Although it was realised that this was true of other people as well, pupils felt that young people were more likely to be portrayed negatively because they are rarely the target audience: There s more negative things written about us than positive. Also newspapers work best with bad news as well...and young people don t read newspapers as much as older people so if they blame it on young people as well. It keeps them happy. You hear stories about kids that have been like competing in the Olympics, and then you see, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is 18 and he s playing for England so there are good influences on people that are our age. Some felt like there was a difference in representation between high profile young people, and others: I m in the middle, because like on Britain s Got Talent when there s someone that s really good that s like a child, they re like Oh my god, she s so good, because of her age and then like, old people and the people think we re like chavs because we re young people! 19
Does this make a difference to how young people are treated? Having looked at how children and young people are portrayed in the Media we then talked about how perceptions can impact on children and young people s lives. We looked at stereotypes the pupils had about certain groups of young people by using pictures including ones of hoodies, goths, a disabled young person and a sporty young person. We asked the group to call out words that they associated with these picures. Disabled young person Pupils came up with a list of words that focussed on bravery, sympathy, dependence, frustration and isolation. Some pupils recognised that there could be an assumption of dependence on others when most just want to be treated the same as everyone else: Because they want independence, they want to be treated like everyone else, but people treat them like something completely differently. Lots of the pupils also felt that they could be bullied or ignored: If I was fine and was hanging out with everyone but then, I was in a wheelchair, and everyone stopped speaking to me, I wouldn t like that at all. They felt that this bullying could then affect their future, including their education if they don t want to be in school. 21
Hoodies The word association activity mostly covered negative words such as violent, gangs, knives, thugs, hooligans and crime, whilst some saw beyond the stereotype and said they could be wearing a hood because they were cold: They must be doing something because they obviously don t want to be seen. Their faces don t want to be seen so they re obviously trying to do something bad. Hiding their identity. They could just be cold. Because they re wrapped up, I d rather be dressed up like that than be really cold. It was pointed out that lots of well behaved young people wear hoodies, yet most young people feel they are judged by what they wear: If you go to a shop and wear like a hood or something, they always expect you re going to rob something. I go in there there s a security guard and he always follows me around, he s always around me and he thinks I m going to steal something. The pupils from Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones, Angelsey found that this distrust led to a curfew in Bangor last year, which was aimed at antisocial young people but unfairly impacted everyone aged under 16: That automatically makes everyone that stay out after nine like, up to bad stuff. It says that police say the order will not affect young people who are well behaved. Young people who are well behaved stay out long but they don t cause any trouble, which it will affect them. They also looked at the impact of getting a criminal record or antisocial behaviour order, with the pupils feeling that it could affect their future job prospects, and then potentially their finances and lives: You won t get paid. Umm, you wont get money for your food, you won t get money to live in a house, and if you can t live in a house you d be out on the streets. 23
Sporty boy We showed the groups a picture of a sporty boy, which prompted associations including cocky, mainstream and fit. They then focused on popular with both positive and negative benefits attached. On the positive side they felt that he would have good role models around him and also that he would have better opportunities at school meaning a positive future: If you are popular, then obviously your teachers might, well they shouldn t, but they might like you more and then you get more opportunities in your education side of it. But it was also felt that it would also increase pressure on the young people to continue to succeed at rugby, and a loss of success would affect his popularity, and then his confidence and health. Goth We showed the groups a picture of a goth which led to labels including quiet, outcast, self reliant and stands out. They also chose black relating to a number of characteristics including their cloths, make up and hair. The pupils also focused on black as a label, focusing on it as a sign of difference which could lead to them being ignored or bullying: Because they re different they don t get a look in really because they re not mainstream people think it s wrong. The groups then felt that this could affect their attitude and behaviour. 25
Final Thoughts Here are some of the things young people said in the final workshop: It made me think about the media in a different way, it is not always good things that are said. I realise the media portrays young people in both good and bad ways and they also stereotype young people as trouble. I feel ugly when the media always fill magazines full of airbrushed pretty skinny girls. The media portrays young people to behave and act the same as each other. That each young person goes out drinking and causing trouble etc. We also asked the pupils to tell us how they felt the media could be improved. These are some of the things that they said: Get teens more involved in the media and ask us our views - interview teenagers and don t just take adults opinions Concentrate more on positive things that young people do e.g. school awards Don t assume that all teenagers are the same Stop judging us by what we wear Give young people a chance and opportunity to show people and change their perspective on young people today Stop making out that all young people are on drugs and were rioting. The media shouldn t say all young people are bad just because of a few individuals Don t exaggerate in stories or articles Less negative comments, look at both angles Project recommendations Based on all the things that the young people told us in the schools, these are the recommendations for the media: Don t discriminate against children and young people because of their age Don t use negative language to describe children and young people Don t use images that reinforce stereotypes of children and young people Do consider how pictures and stories about people like models and celebrities affect the self-image of children and young people Do make sure there is a balance of positive and negative news about children and young people Don t generalise negative stories to be about all children and young people Do have positive articles about all young people, not just those who are well known Give children and young people a voice in the media. They have lots to say! Stop Stereotyping. 27