Učešće mladih u medijima i analiza prelivanja informacija o njima od jedne ka drugoj vrsti medija

Abstract

The participation of young people in the community's social life is a prerequisite for societal progress. Media serves as a means of ensuring their participation by shaping certain patterns of social behavior. The research question of this study is: Is the media space sufficiently open to young people? While young people convey messages, there have been no research studies addressing the content of these messages and whether they circulate within the communicational space. Through a one-month observation of five informative TV shows, six daily newspapers, two youth portals, and the programming schedule of RTS (national public broadcaster), the following observations have been made: the communicational space between young people and the audience is limited, with no information overflow between different means of communication, and the complexity and seriousness of the content depend on the media from witch said content originates from. At the same time, young people are exposed to content that distances them from real-life topics. On television, young people mostly talked about culture and society, but little about ecology, politics, agriculture, and science, indicating the areas where they were more visible. They spoke from an experiential perspective, focusing less on phenomena. In the press, news mostly revolved around entertainment and crime related reporting. The youth portals had no connection with the mentioned communication channels, and the RTS programming schedule did not provide easily accessible information about content offerings for young people. The criteria for information overflow that guided the research were objectivity, credibility, and the importance of information for public interest, aiming to ensure that young people are informed about events in their environment. This is a prerequisite for critically examining their role in society and promoting activism. The knowledge gained serves as a basis for further theoretical considerations, and a broader inclusion of media in future similar studies would improve their work in the future.