How young people are represented in the print media and what effects this could have on the public and young people themselves.

We see many stories about young people in Newspapers and other forms of print media. As well as positive stories of inspirational young people, it's more often that we read about crime and negative views of young people. These stories are read by both young and older people who all are affected in different ways by them.
Young people are often referred to as 'thugs' and 'yobs' as well as other negative words. When the public hear these words being used they can only be influenced to believe that the majority of young people are like this. As well as these words there are many stories of young people who are involved in crime in the print media. This gives the public the idea that all young people are criminals and can even make the public fear young people. Even though it is a small number of young people who commit serious crimes, after reading story after story of young people offending, the public are lead to believe that they are mostly criminals. It is not often that we read in the media of teenagers doing inspirational things such as raising money for charity. Although many young people are doing positive things in Britain, these stories are not often in the print media. This means that people do not know about the good that young people are doing and they gain a negative understanding of teenagers as a whole. We also read about young people who are failing to achieve and get jobs, as well as this there are stories of young people drinking and smoking. Reading about this reckless behaviour, the public can be affected. They may believe that teenagers and young people are not intelligent and that this generation of young people is the worst. As well as this the readers may feel that young people are easily influenced. Gangs are also something that is written about in the print media. The amount of stories about gangs and what they do means that the public fear groups of young people. They may be affected by this in their own life and may be scared when they see a group of young people together. There are some stories of the good that teenagers do in the print media. These stories help to give some hope to the public that there are good young people out there. However these are not enough to show that most of the younger generation are good as they are outweighed by the negative articles and stories in the print media.

Young people their selves can also be affected by the stories and articles printed in the media. When a young person hears of gangs and the crime of people their own age they can be influenced to act like this their selves. They may begin to believe that acting this way is normal behaviour and therefore may imitate and copy the stories they read. Also, by hearing about what gangs can do to other young people, they may fear that if they are not part of a gang they will become a victim. However, some young people will feel disgusted by the stories they have read. This may make them feel that they can change the views on young people and they may want to be a positive example of a young person.