Tarred With The Same Brush
Young people are seen as unruly terrorisers.
When a young person walks down the street with their hood up and an older person sees them coming and crosses the road, does this mean the elder has a misconception of ‘the hood’?
But why are we, as tomorrow's future, misconceived?
The media are partly to blame for the misinterpretation of the young residents of Britain. In the newspapers there are always headlines that link the youth of today to ASBOs and bad behaviour.
You could pick up almost any newspaper in Britain and be greeted with a headline using terms such as: "Like a plague, the city seems to be in the grip of lawlessness among the young" (Peterborough Evening Telegraph).
The people behind the media argue that a ‘success story’ wouldn’t sell as well as young people behaving badly and that they have to ‘entertain’ their audience. It’s understandable that they have to generate an audience but using terms that imply that all young people are to blame is just despicable.
The British Youth Council (BYC) carried out a questionnaire across the country. 82% of young people asked said that they felt that older people had less respect for them because of what they see in the media.
86% of young citizens disagreed with the comment, “Young people deserve the bad representation they get in the media”. Also, 91% of teenagers said they feel that the media represent their generation as antisocial.
As many young people have mentioned, they would be very pleased if the media were to compromise and balance the news they produce by adding a success story for every bad story they broadcast. It would also be rewarding to youths if the media would stop branding us all as ‘behaving badly.’
Therefore, instead of using terms like ‘youngsters’ and ‘yobs’, use words that imply it’s the minority of youth causing trouble. Just little words such as ‘minority’ and ‘some’ would change our image. Surely it wouldn’t take a lot of effort, money and time to do this?
Because of the misleading media, people are afraid of us, or will even ban a group of us from entering a shop together. It’s becoming unrealistic and silly and it is about time we stood up for ourselves and let Britain know that the majority are not the minority.
A young person who completed the BYC report exclaimed, “Don't lump us all together in the same box. There are many decent, hard-working young people out there, with the minority who are antisocial and disruptive. It's a hard world to grow up in, so give us a chance.”
The older generations moan that young people are up to no good and are lazy. My argument against this is that the young people they are moaning about are their offspring. Young people were brought up by older people so for the ‘unruly’ teenagers that they do complain about, isn’t it down to the elders that they are like that? Younger generations have been influenced by older people, yet they are the ones complaining.
People complain that the youth fill cinemas showing ‘smutty or violent films’. Young people don’t make those kind of films. People who are thirty plus make them. So perhaps they should think twice about pointing the finger, when in fact they created the very things that influence some younger people.
Not many politicians care for what young people think as they don’t have a vote so they are therefore not important to them.
“Politicians don’t treat young people as equals because they cannot vote, teenagers mean nothing to them.” explained one boy from Neath Port Talbot.
But there are a lot of members from the Welsh Assembly Government who take young people’s views into account. People like Gwenda Thomas, Huw Lewis, Leighton Andrews, Jane Hutt and more. There are some politicians that do believe in us.
There are people who believe in us and can see good in young people.
However, some older citizens of Britain stand up for the youth and defend them. A thirty year old man says: “When I was young I lived my life and to be honest I was a lot worse than young people now.”
Also, the Children’s Commissioner For Wales, Keith Towler, believes strongly in young people and his job is to champion young people’s rights.
In a interview with Community Care, Keith said "This is something else. You have powers and responsibilities and people will listen to you," he says. "My friend said to me, 'you have been given this power, now you have to make sure you use it well.'"
Young people try to bring together both generations.
There are many young people and organisations that strive to encourage intergenerational work. There are also award schemes that praise young people and older people for working together.
Many young people do a lot of intergenerational work to try and bring together both old and young generations. Members of Neath Port Talbot Youth Council are due to meet with Age Concern to discuss the problems that split us.
A member of the British Youth Council has tried to bring together generations but it was made difficult. She said, “I am a 20-year-old woman, at a good university and doing well. However, I once tried to help an old woman and the look she gave me was full of fear. It’s not fair that she’s been made to feel like that about all young people.”
So, what can young people do to improve their media image?
There are lots of award schemes around, such as the Philip Lawrence and Duke Of Edinburgh Awards. Through these award schemes for young people we can show Britain what we are capable of. We can gain trust, praise and understanding from our elders.
Youth workers and people working with and alongside youth help us to gain a positive profile by correcting and telling people that have misunderstood us that we do well and are contributing to our community.
We could help ourselves by producing our own magazines or online blogs and broadcasting them, allowing our elders to understand who we are and what we stand for. Not all of us are alcoholics, drug addicts or antisocial yobs!
What would happen if the tables were turned?
Can you imagine a woman in her mid-forties walking down the street with a hood up and because 40-year-olds are seen as ‘trouble’ a young person crosses the road? It’s just not realistic, no one would jump to such an outrageous assumption. So why are we being treated like this?
What is your view on the way we are represented?
IMAGE: Ezyan Y.
1 Comment – Postiwch sylw
cheeky.charly96
Rhoddwyd sylw 14 mis yn ôl - 15th March 2011 - 12:42pm
I completely agree with this! Young people are given such a bad image. In my area there is nothing for young people to do so most of them get involved in gangs and cause problems. If the council provided entertainment for us then I am sure problems linked with the minority of young people would decrease dramatically.