Youth representation in

the Media

Roxana Morduchowicz

School and Media Program

Ministry of Education

Argentina

Media as “agenda setting”

• Select information (on what to include / exclude)

• Evaluate what is most / less important

• Install / prioritize subjects

• Influence on what people talk

• Define frequency and continuity (of the subject)

• Offer images of the world, social groups, places

• Represent, construct / are not transparent

Media reinforce stereotypes

• Conventional images on a social group

• Simplified way to talk about someone

• By using few images, categorize a whole group

• Reinforce a particular judgement of a group

• Classify by selecting only some characteristics

• Naturalize this image in the society

• Legitimate what is “normal” (life style, values)

Young people in the news

• Related to negative situations

• Violence, school failure, drugs, alcohol,

anorexia, bulimia, pregnancy, drop out.

• Anti – social behaviors

Young people in the news: the

way they are filmed

• Mainly adults interviewed -in youth`s news

• Adults, alone: the camera only for himself

• Youth, in groups: danger / scary image

• Adults in their work places

• Young people in streets

• Adults talk, literally reproduced

• Youth: references in journalist`s discourse

Young people in teenage fiction

• The other side: rich and good students

• Live in close neighborhoods

• Exclusive schools

• Successful lives

• Their problems: lack of love

• Poverty –even middle class- does not exist

• (Beverly Hills, Greek, Gossip Girl)

Young people in docu realities

• Victims: abused, raped, beaten,

abandoned, exploited, exposed to

prostitution…

• Victimizers: beat, kill, threaten, abuse,

are drug dealers…

Risks of this representation…

• Legitimates: “young people are violent”

• Ignores millions of young people

• Reinforces idea: youth related to conflict

• Leaves two main questions opened:

Do young people feel represented in the

media? What can be done?

The main answer

• Media Education:

• Access

• Analysis

• Production

Media education

is Access

• Equal access to culture, media and

technology for everyone

• Compensate culture gaps. Strength the

students´ culture capital

• Avoid social exclusion among the young

generation

Media education

is Analysis

• To critically read the media and analyze

the way the world is represented.

• To understand how messages are put

together, by whom, and in whose interests

• To challenge media stereotypes

Media education

is Production

• Students become cultural producers.

• They learn how to use the media to

express themselves

• They get a new visibility in the media

School makes TV

• Primary school students

write a story. Six stories

are selected and produced

as short films –by well

known film makers- and

shown on all Argentine TV

channels.

School, camera… action

• Secondary school students write a story.

Three stories are selected, produced as

short films –by well known film makers-

and shown on all Argentine cinemas for a

month, before the film programmed.

Journalists for a day

• Secondary school students investigate

and write an in depth report. Each

newspaper in Argentina selects one story

and publishes it, whole page, signed by

the students, the same Sunday all over the

country.

“Radio dreams”

• TV program : adolescents in three high

schools, in 3 small towns (1000 people

each), had to create a radio for their

village. None of these towns had a radio.

Media education in Argentina is

• The right to culture

• A space for critical analysis

• A site to become culture producers

• To reinforce the civic culture and the

engagement with democracy

Thank you!

¡Muchas gracias!

For more information:

• Web site:

http://www.me.gov.ar/escuelaymedios

• E-mail:

escuelaymedios@me.gov.ar