Media portrayal of young people: impact and infl uence

Abstract

In early 2008, the YRN invited its members to apply for funding to support a group of young researchers who would carry out a piece of research on a topic of their choosing. Emrys Green and Naushin Shariff, who are both members of Young NCB, were the fi rst of the four young researchers to be involved. Emrys and Naushin were both interested in the media, and how the media portrays young people. This was an issue that was important tothem and something that clearly was affecting their, and other young people’s, lives. Together they worked with Louca-Mal Brady from NCB’s Research Department on the application, and were awarded the funding in May 2008. Amrita Ghosh and Catherine Clark, the other two young researchers, became involved in the project in June 2008, after responding to an email advertising the project. [...][This research was undertaken as part of a wider Young Researcher Network programme facilitated by the National Youth Agency.]The broad aim of the research project was to explore how young people aged 13-18 are portrayed in the media, and fi nd out what impact this has on them. Through gathering information from young people and journalists, we wanted to answer the following research questions:How are young people portrayed in national and London local papers • and BBC/ITV news broadcasts? What do young people identify as positive, negative and neutral images? • How do young people feel about these images? What do journalists think about young people’s views? •We asked Amanda, one of the researchers at NCB, to look in the NCB library at what research had been done already in this area and this is what she found.