how are young people represented in the media
The media works by using certain techniques of representation, for example, words, text, and pictures. ... It also matters what and who gets represented and what knowledge we already have on society depends on how it is presented and it can also effect what society is willing to accept as policies. ... The media portrays young people and crime as either a problem or it portrays them as being at risk, and these perceptions are at the centre of creating and strengthening societies perceptions of childhood. Young people are presented as either a threat to adult order or as cause for concern. The social representations of young people give them a negative reputation and these representations reflect the priorities and practices of those who are in power rather than the views and experiences that young people have. The media is at the centre of the process of hegemony and it also affects the control and silencing of young people. State intervention is shaped by the negative representations of young people and these negative representations fundamentally challenge the principle of the liberal state to protect. ... The media do not neutrally report young people and crime. ... Following on with Coleman’s idea stated in the first paragraph, immediacy, dramatisation, personalisation, simplification, titillation, conventionalism and structured access listed by Chibnall (1997) all come into play when reporting young people in the media. These techniques which are used in most types of media representation all add to the social representation of young people and create, in some ways, a biased view, and may also create moral panic. The characteristics and types of young peoples offending mean that though their crimes may not be particularly serious, these crimes are highly visible, and the visibility of young peoples offending has increased and is sensationalised by the media. “Media images of youth crime often create the impression of youth crime waves” (Bessant and Hil 1997). At times the media have focussed on increases in violent offending by children or young people. It was highlighted in an edition of ‘Lawtalk’ in October 1999 that the number of violent offences as a whole increased over the previous 19 years but the increases in violent offending did not represent any significant change in the percentage of young people involved in violence, which had fluctuated between 11 and 13% since 1991/92.