Representations of Young People

The Independent published this article, under the Voices section on the 23rd February, and it had some interesting figures on the effects of media representation from the eyes of young people:

A report published last week, titled Introducing Generation Citizen, said that four-fifths of 14- to 17-year-olds feel that their age group is unfairly represented in the media. Of the 1,000 youngsters polled by the think-tank Demos, 85 per cent believe that negative portrayals are affecting their chances of getting a job.

This article, again in the Voices section, was also quite interesting. It talked about the way in which young people feel involved in politics and warns of the perils of not allowing them to do so:

•  The Generation Citizen report finds that 84 per cent of 14- to 17-year-olds plan to vote
• Kai, 15, and Jordan, 17, sitting by me, echo young voices I’ve heard across Britain when they say “politics just isn’t for us” – almost in the same breath as they give their deeply political views on Stop and Search, and inequality in education provision, and reel off all their voluntary work.
• Some are leading activism in their communities, like Camilla Yahaya, who at 16 bought 10,000 teenagers together in Lewisham to campaign for safer streets.
• Young people tell me that they want to see more authenticity and honesty from political leaders. They want to see Parliament reflect their classroom diversity and they want to be more involved in decisions. They want political parties to engage them over issues and they want to hear leaders talking about youth unemployment with the same fear, anger and urgency that they feel for their futures.

This Guardian article gave quite an interesting viewpoint; rather than portraying young people as being unruly and reckless, the opening paragraph stated:
British teenagers are an increasingly responsible and sober bunch. Teen pregnancies are at an all-time low, drug-fuelled dance culture is vanishing, careers are planned from a tender age, and preparations are made for a lifetime of tuition fee loan repayments and pension contributions. Most of the evidence shows that today's teenagers are altogether more sensible than their irresponsible, selfish parents ever were.