Some 70 per cent of newspaper articles about young people are negative. Charlotte Goddard explains why Young People Now is launching a campaign that aims to improve the media portrayal of young people.

When you look at young people, do you see a group of uncontrollable yobs, a threat to the stability of the community and an example of the degeneration of society itself?

Probably not, because you are youth workers and it is your job to look behind labels and react to the diversity of young people's needs. But increasingly, that's what the majority of the media sees, or affects to see, and that is the image that it reflects back to society.

Stereotypes

In a survey of national and local newspapers carried out by research firm Mori for Young People Now, the majority of stories over the course of one week were negative, and even those that were not negative tended to peddle stereotypes (see box, p17).

That's why Young People Now is launching Positive Images, a campaign to improve the portrayal of young people in the UK's media. It is of course true that some young people commit crimes and others display behaviour that causes problems for their communities. But Young People Now believes today's media have created an image that is unbalanced. Young People Now is calling on the media to reflect young people as they really are.

Youth minister Margaret Hodge supports the aims of the campaign. "One of the things I get really angry about and that I'm deeply committed to is that we change the way people think of young people," she states. "The portrayal of young people has become almost like mother-in-law jokes.

You can make a mother-in-law joke and everybody thinks that's all right; it's almost getting to the stage where it's OK to see every young person as a yob. That just doesn't give credit to the vibrance and the contribution young people make."

Little protection

Peter McIntyre is a journalist whose 30- year career has included work on The Oxford Times and editing a Unicef book of guidelines for interviewing children. "Children in trouble with the law have some legal protection," he says. "But in some cases, because journalists are not allowed to name young people, they feel free to misrepresent them, contributing to the monsterisation of young people."

If images of violent yobs predominate, there is a risk that policymakers will respond to stereotypes rather than the true diversity of young people's needs, with measures such as curfews that affect all young people in an area.

Seventeen-year-old Karen Sutherland, who is involved with Citizen Y, an Edinburgh project aiming to improve the image of young people in the city, says: "When the Scottish Antisocial Behaviour Act was reported on the radio, it was usually followed by a story about young people doing something bad."

She continues: "People got a link in their minds between antisocial behaviour and young people. But antisocial behaviour is not just about young people.

When the Edinburgh Festival is on there are a lot of adults being antisocial."

And the Government seems to encourage the use of the word "yob". A sample of press releases from the Home Office include numerous headlines and references to "yob behaviour", "louts" and "new tools to tackle yobs".

The rise of the antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) has been seized upon by local and national newspapers as a chance to "name and shame" young people. From The Sun's proposal to hand out "SASBOs" (Sun Antisocial Behaviour Orders), to south London paper News Shopper's Shop a Yob Bingo, papers have been able to show pictures of these young people, because there are no automatic reporting restrictions on young people sentenced by civil courts, unlike youth courts.

Challenges to law

When ASBOs are breached, the offence becomes criminal and young people are offered protection by law, but even this is increasingly being challenged, and Home Secretary David Blunkett announced plans to lift reporting restrictions in his recent speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Mike Jempson is director of MediaWise, an organisation that has been involved in developing guidelines on reporting on children for the International Federation of Journalists and developing and delivering training on coverage of children for journalists in more than 20 countries. "One of the big problems these days is that editors constantly challenge the courts over identification of offenders under 18," he says. "Editors see legislation that prohibits the identification of young people involved in criminal proceedings as a restriction on press freedom."

Young People Now will be celebrating those newspapers that have presented a more diverse image of the young. These stories can be found everywhere, from unlikely sources such as the Daily Mail's defence of a young father ("He's still with the mother, doesn't claim benefits and utterly adores his daughters") to regional papers celebrating the achievements of young people on youth inclusion programmes.

Young People Now is launching an awards event to recognise those media outlets that make the effort to provide a balance. Our research found that in only eight per cent of stories about young people are the young people themselves actually quoted.

Government responsibility

But it's not all down to the papers. Youth minister Margaret Hodge has said that keeping an eye on the media will be part of the job description of the children's commissioner for England. Local government also has a role. Andrew Stephenson, Macclesfield Council's "youth champion", believes promoting a positive image of young people is part of his job description.

"While this is relatively easy, overcoming the long-established beliefs and stereotypes of young people held by certain sections of the community is far more difficult," he says. "Most young people only make the national press for committing criminal offences, but the local press can be very positive when covering successes at school and sports."

According to our reader survey, 93 per cent of youth workers believe youth groups should be more proactive in promoting positive stories. The Young People Now Positive Images Awards will reward youth groups and young people who have been proactive in obtaining positive coverage in the media.

The awards will also recognise councils that are doing the most to champion the rights of young people.

For more information on how to enter, keep an eye on Young People Now.

Next week we will be publishing guidance about how to get positive publicity.

AIMS OF CAMPAIGN

- To encourage the media to look for positive angles when reporting stories about young people

- To incentivise youth groups and young people to be proactive in contacting the media

- To create a press code, in consultation with young people, youth groups and the media, that will help to give young people a voice on the issues that affect them the most

- To ensure that local government makes a real attempt to celebrate young people as part of a long-term youth strategy

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Young People Now carried out a media analysis through research firm Mori, looking at tabloids, local papers and broadsheets over the course of a week. Seventy-one per cent of articles concerning young people had a negative tone, while 14 per cent were positive and 15 per cent were neutral.

In addition, 48 per cent of articles about crime and violence depicted a young person as the perpetrator, whereas only 26 per cent of young people admit to committing a crime, and of those only seven per cent involved the police and only a minority were violent - the most committed crime was petty theft.

The picture being painted in the media is one of violent young men, with nearly 70 per cent of violent stories involving boys describing them as the perpetrator and 32 per cent as the victim, while girls are described as the victim in 91 per cent of cases and the offender in 10 per cent.

In reality, 31 per cent of boys in mainstream schools admit to having committed a crime compared with 20 per cent of girls, and boys are more likely to be victims of violent crime than girls.

Young People and the Media, 2004

DRAFT YPN MEDIA CODE

Young People Now has put together the following draft code to help the media ensure that their stories are fair and accurate when covering young people. Once feedback has been received from young people, youth workers and members of the media, a final version of the code will be formulated. Please send any comments by email to ypn.editorial@haynet.com.

1. The media should ensure that young people have a voice and are given their chance to comment on issues that affect them

2. The media should use loaded words such as "yobs", "thugs", "monsters", "evil" and "gang" with care, not as catch-all terms to describe all young people in trouble with the law

3. Young people are part of the community. The media should ensure that young people have a voice and are given their chance to comment on issues that affect them

4. The media should recognise that most young people do not become involved in the criminal justice system, and the majority of those who do have committed non-violent crimes. While it is the media's duty to provide coverage of young offenders, it should provide a fair representation of young people, balancing negative stories with positive portrayals

5. The media should recognise that publishing the names, addresses and photos of young people who are the subjects of antisocial behaviour orders can put their safety and the safety of their families at risk

6. The media should always refer to the relevant press codes when dealing with young people, including the Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice, Clauses 6 and 7, the International Federation of Journalists' Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Issues Involving Children, and Unicef's Principles for Ethical Reporting on Children.