Editorial: The chance to reward a balanced media

Launched in October 2004, the campaign comprised exclusive research by Mori into the coverage of young people in the national and regional press, a media code of practice and annual Positive Images Awards (YPN, 13-19 October 2004, p16).

The initial research analysed one week's coverage and highlighted some damning trends. It showed that almost three out of four articles about young people were negative, one in three stories about young people concerned crime, and young people were only spoken to in eight per cent of stories about them.

To coincide with this week's presentation of the second Positive Images Awards at a reception in Westminster, we commissioned Mori to produce an identical piece of research one year on (see p8). The new figures showed some improvement, with the number of negative stories falling from 71 per cent to 57 per cent, and stories where young people are quoted rising from eight to 13 per cent. On the downside, stories about young people that concerned crime rose from 33 to 40 per cent.