The Representation of Young People in the Media February 2011

Graeme Mason, Information Officer, Youth Justice Research Team

Introduction The media is often accused of propagating myths about young people and crime. Indeed the media and the tabloid press in particular, often appear endlessly preoccupied with the notion that all young people are a danger to their communities. Countless studies conducted over previous years have found that the representation of young people in the media is in fact biased and, on the whole, unfair. For example, a 2004 study by MORI found the majority of articles from a mix of tabloid, broadsheet and local papers offered negative perspectives on young people and their activities. Since the media plays an important role in creating public opinion and in turn in creating policy and laws, negative media hype about young people can have serious consequences. Negative media stereotypes can alienate young people from the rest of society and lead to unfair discrimination. Despite media hyperbole about children and crime there is evidence to suggest that youth crime in Scotland has fallen in recent years as a result of continued investment in initiatives to tackle youth offending. The central aim of this piece of research is to explore how young people in Scotland are presented in Scotlands national and local newspapers and to examine the claim that young people are habitually denigrated in the media.

Methodology A mix of tabloid, broadsheet and local newspapers were used in this study. The newspapers that were studied were: The Glasgow Herald, The Scotsman, The Daily Record and The Evening Times. Articles were accessed through NewsUK, an online service which combines the most popular British newspapers in one database. Using this online resource it was possible to search across all four titles simultaneously. The selected newspaper titles were searched for all mentions of children, young people and related terms during the period between 1st December 2010 and 31st January 2011. A total of 55 suitable articles were identified for inclusion in the study. These articles were then divided into three categories positive, negative and neutral to determine the overall tone of media coverage of young people. In addition articles were divided by subject on the basis of what the main focus of each article was. A word frequency analysis was conducted using various online text analysis tools to identify which terms appeared with greatest regularity across all articles. This process was repeated for articles according to newspaper type to establish how coverage of young people varied between broadsheet, local and tabloid newspapers

Discussion

The word cloud above provides a visual representation of the content of the articles included in this study. The bigger the word the more frequently it appears in the text. A glance at the cloud gives no real indication of any negative bias in reporting about young people. Given the nature of the study it is unsurprising that words related to youth appear most prominently. Beyond this, the prominence of jobs and work would suggest that youth employment is one of the most pressing concerns for young people in the view of these newspapers. Of the larger words in the cloud care is perhaps the only word which has negative associations i.e. the care system. However, this word could be used in many different ways depending on the context in which it is applied. Indeed, there is a notable lack of words typically associated with an unfair portrayal of young people in the cloud (e.g. crime, disorder, violence).

Tone of media coverage of young people

Tone

Positive 20%

Neutral 50% Negative 30%

Determining the overall tone of a newspaper article is clearly a subjective process and it can be difficult to discern how a given article aims to present young people to its readership. Nevertheless an attempt was made to categorize all of the articles included in the study as either positive, negative or neutral based on the content and structure of the article. As the chart above shows, half of the articles studied were deemed to be neutral in their stance towards young people. Articles were labelled neutral if they did not offer an overtly positive or negative view of young people. Indeed, these articles were often ambiguous in their portrayal of young people. The language deployed in neutral articles can often be misleading. Consider, for example, the article title below: FEARS FOR YOUNG SCOTS OVER CUTS This article title conjures up a negative image of young people suffering as a result public sector cuts. Moreover the article contains words and phrases such as devastating, poor outcomes and failure which give an overall impression of bad news. However while the article itself is broadly negative it makes no negative comment on the young people themselves but rather portrays them as being at the mercy of external forces out with their control, namely government action being taken to address the faltering economy. Therefore it is important to acknowledge that an article can be negative in tone without necessarily portraying young people negatively. There were many examples of this throughout the articles that were studied with young people often portrayed as being victims of harsh economic conditions, failing services and a general lack of opportunity.

A further style of article which was classed as neutral was one in which the article was structured in such a way as to give both a positive and negative impression of young people. An example of this would be an article which reports on a drop in youth crime which both acknowledges the problem of youth offending while noting that it is improving. In some cases it was possible to determine whether the tone of an article was positive, negative or neutral from the article title alone. Overtly negative article titles include: CABBIE KNIFED IN BACK BY YOUTH YOUNG OFFENDERS COSTING ECONOMY 11 BILLION POUNDS TRIAL DATE FOR YOUTHS OVER MURDER BID Positive article titles include: YOUNG PUT NEEDS OF ELDERS FIRST YOUNG CITY VOLUNTEERS AWARDS WIN YOUNG SINGERS ARE A REAL HIT With articles such as these the language and structure was generally straightforward. The crime related stories involved a simple reporting of the facts while the article on the cost of youth crime painted a negative picture of both young people and the youth justice system without offering any counter views. Similarly, the positive articles generally showed young people in a positive light in a light-hearted and simplistic manner. To summarize, the tone of just less than three quarters of the articles included in this study were classed as either neutral or positive. This would indicate that the newspapers selected for this analysis tend towards offering a balanced portrayal of young people. This clearly runs contrary to the commonly held view that the media tend to portray young people as a blight on society.

Focus of media coverage

Article Subject
Other

Education

Achievement

Subject

Health/Lifestyle

Projects/Services

Violence/Crime/ASB

Employment/Economy

10

15 Frequency

20

25

30

Looking at the range of subjects covered in these articles is a further way of exploring how young people are portrayed in the media. As the chart above shows half of all articles focussed on either violence/crime/anti-social behaviour or the economy and jobs. The titles of some of the articles which focus on the economy and jobs include: YOUTH JOBLESS FIGURE SOARS YOUTH JOBLESSNESS INCREASES FOURFOLD OUR LOST GENERATION DOLE NIGHTMARE OF SCOTLANDS KIDS In the current economic climate extensive coverage of youth unemployment and related matters is to be expected. As these article titles show newspapers tend to perpetuate an atmosphere of doom and gloom surrounding young people and unemployment. However, in these articles young people are generally portrayed as being out of work through no fault of their own. The titles of some of the articles which focus on violence/crime/anti-social behaviour include: KNIFE DEATH YOUTH NAMED DISORDER BY YOUTHS HALVED IN THREE YEARS

YOUTHS SUSPECTED IN WREATH THEFTS CURFEWS MAKE CRIME WORSE While there is a high volume of stories focussing on young people within the context of disorder, the above article titles show that these are not always entirely negative. The Disorder By Youths Halved in Three Years piece charts significant gains that have been made in tackling this problem while Curfews Make Crime Worse is more a criticism of a specific deterrent than of young people. Indeed when looking at the articles which focus on violence/crime/anti-social behaviour, these articles generally fall into one of two categories. Articles which portray young people in a wholly negative manner tend to be concerned with the actions of one or two youths in relation to a specific crime or incident. Articles which offer a more balanced portrayal of young people on the other hand tend to be about young people as a whole. As was noted earlier, stories concerned with unemployment and crime often portray young people as being victims of circumstance. This perhaps explains why a high proportion of articles cover bad news subjects such as unemployment and crime while a lower proportion of articles were classed as having a negative tone. The remaining articles were relatively evenly divided across four remaining subject categories in addition to the 15% which were placed in the other category. Stories about projects and services were generally positive and were concerned with the reporting of a new initiative or local fundraising activities: YOUTH PROJECT SHRUGS OFF BREAK-IN TO RAISE 1000 POUNDS YOUTHS BACK BID TO BEAT CYBER BULLIES Health and lifestyle articles often adopted a slightly sensationalist tone: OUR CHILDREN ARE FATTER THAN EVER 1 IN 3 KIDS SLEEPLESS Stories on the achievements of young people were clearly positive: YOUNG CITY VOLUNTEERS AWARDS WIN YOUNG FILMMAKERS MAKE BIG SCREEN DEBUT Education related stories often reported on diminishing opportunities for Scotlands young people, often in the area of higher education: TUITION FEES ARE JUST ONE OF THE FINANCIAL HURDLES FACING YOUNG PEOPLE

Word Frequency

Word Frequency
Age Help Police Services Word Pound New Care Work School Year 0 20 40 60 80 100

Frequency

An online text analysis tool was used to identify the ten most frequently occurring words across all articles included in the study. A stop-list was applied in order to omit words which would appear frequently but do little to assist in the process of understanding how young people are portrayed in the media. This stop list included frequently occurring terms such as children, young people, Scotland and Glasgow. The frequent appearance of the word year relates to the timeliness of the information being reported. The frequent use of this word along with new relates to the theme of progress and the need for newspapers and the wider media to constantly emphasise the fact that the stories they choose to report are new developments. The frequent appearance of work and school relate to the themes of employment, the wider economy and education outlined above. Interestingly, while relatively few articles were judged to be about education schools are nevertheless clearly key to the portrayal of young people in these newspapers. The word care is generally used in the context of care services in relation to how effective they are in caring for young people. This coupled with the regular appearance of the word help would suggest a theme of concern for the quality of supports that are available to young people who need them. The appearance of the word pound in the top ten most frequently occurring terms again emphasises the importance of the economy to the way in which young people are portrayed while services would indicate that young people are often defined in relation to the services they receive.

Police is the perhaps the only word which conjures up a negative image of disorder and crime. It must be acknowledged that this word is typically used within the context of youth offending. This word frequency count appears to support the notion that newspapers are generally neutral in their portrayal of young people. Just as the word cloud highlighted earlier there is, with the exception of police, a noticeable lack of terms that could be considered negative. Indeed there is none of the sensationalist or derogatory words sometimes associated with reporting on young people such as neds or yobs. Similarly, there are no words which would be automatically associated with a positive portrayal of young people.

Portrayal of young people by Newspaper Type The task now is to gauge how attitudes to young people vary according to the type of newspaper. It useful firstly to outline how the articles are divided across the three categories of newspapers included in the study: 42% broadsheet 35% local, 23% tabloid

Broadsheet newspapers carry the most stories featuring young people followed by local newspapers while tabloid newspapers account for just less than a quarter of all articles. This would suggest broadsheet newspapers are the most engaged with issues surrounding young people with tabloid clearly the least engaged. Tone by Newspaper Type

Negative Neutral Positive

Tabloids 36% 64% 0%

Broadsheets 18% 68% 14%

Locals 30% 30% 40%

The table above shows local newspapers carry significantly more positive stories about young people than either broadsheets or tabloids. Tabloid coverage of young people is the most negative while broadsheets carry the highest number of neutral articles.

Broadsheet Newspapers

Broadsheet Article Subject

Other Achievement Health/Lifestyle Projects/Services Violence/Crime/ASB Education Employment/Economy

Subject

10

15 Frequency %

20

25

30

Just less than half of all broadsheet articles covered young people in the context of either jobs and the economy or education while a relatively small proportion (13%) focussed on crime and antisocial behaviour. The high number of other broadsheet articles indicates that broadsheets are the most varied in their approach to representing young people, choosing to present them within a range of contexts.

Word Frequency - Broadsheet

Culture Parents Plans University

Word

Social Cuts Financial Education Years Services

10

15 Frequency

20

25

30

Services is the most frequently occurring term across all broadsheet articles included in the study. This suggests broadsheet newspapers are focussed as much on what is being done for young people as on the actions and activities of young people themselves: CONCERN FOR YOUTH SERVICES AFTER CHARITIES UNVEIL PLANS TO MERGE Frequent references to financial and cuts reinforce the notion that broadsheet newspapers tend to discuss young people against the backdrop of the troubled economy. The appearance of university and the lack of specific reference to schools would seem to indicate that broadsheets give more coverage to higher education than other forms of education: TARGET OF 50% OF YOUNG PEOPLE OBTAINING UNIVERSITY DEGREES HAS BEEN PROVED UNREALISTIC The regular occurrence of parents shows broadsheets often seek to define young people in relation to their family environment while specific reference to culture reinforces the stereotype of the broadsheet newspaper as being more high minded than any other type of newspaper.

Local Newspapers

Local Article Subject

Other

Projects/Services

Subject

Achievement

Employment/Economy

Violence/Crime/ASB

10

20

30

40

50

Frequency %

Just under half of all local newspaper articles discussed young people within the context of crime and antisocial behaviour. This would suggest that local newspaper articles are markedly negative in their coverage of young people; however, as was highlighted above, the local newspapers included in this study carried more positive articles about young people than either tabloids or broadsheets. Therefore, some of these articles while framed by a discussion on anti-social behaviour are positive in tone: The number of complaints about disorder by young people across the west of Scotland has more than halved in the last three years and has dropped more than another fifth so far this year. As with broadsheets and tabloids, local newspapers often focus on employment and the economy as well as projects and services aimed at young people. However local newspapers focus on achievement to a greater extent than either broadsheets or tabloids. These achievement stories largely focus on competitions and fundraising activities: Youngsters at a Glasgow youth project have gone from the despair of discovering their club had been raided to joy at raising 1000 pounds for the facility

Word Frequency - Local

Legacy Jobs years areas

Word

Project Disorder Community Council Games Police

8 Frequency

10

12

14

16

The high frequency of the words police and disorder further illustrates the emphasis that local newspapers place on anti-social behaviour and young people. The regular appearance of the words games and legacy relate to the Commonwealth Games due to take place in Glasgow in 2014. Since these games are expected to have a lasting positive effect on deprived areas of the city they will inevitably receive regular coverage: COMMONWEALTH BONUS: ALMOST 2000 YOUNG PEOPLE HELPED INTO WORK Taken together the regular mention of council, community and projects fit the overall local nature of the reporting while consistent reference to jobs as opposed to financial etc. indicates that local newspapers refrain from discussing the wider economic situation and instead focus on employment in their area.

Tabloid Newspapers

Tabloid Article Subject

Projects/Services

Employment/Economy

Subject

Violence/Crime/ASB

Health/Lifestyle

Employment/Economy

10

20 Frequency %

30

40

The bulk of tabloid articles cover young people in relation to either employment and the economy (an ever present theme across all newspapers types) or health and lifestyle. Stories on health and lifestyle perhaps lend themselves to the more extreme style of reporting which can often be found in tabloid articles. Indeed these stories tend to be shocking and dramatic in tone: A vitamin deficiency linked to a crippling bone disease caused a girl years of pain because she used factor 50 suncream. The remaining tabloid articles are evenly divided across anti-social behaviour and crime, employment and the economy and projects and services.

Word Frequency - Tabloid

Figures Labour Curfew s Government

Word

runaw ays Health Kids Girls Obese Unemployment

6 Frequency

10

12

Terms such obese and runaways reflect the sensationalist element of tabloid reporting. Consider the style of reporting used in the two examples below: Unemployment is wrecking the mental heath of young Scots, a charity claims. The number of 16 to 24-year-olds claiming unemployment benefit has risen fourfold since before the recession, costing the UK economy up to 155 million pounds a week, according to a new report. These opening sentences are taken from a tabloid and broadsheet respectively. These examples illustrate the differences between tabloid and broadsheet reporting styles with the former short, informal and dramatic while the latter is sober and measured. While tabloid newspapers generally cover the same range of subjects as broadsheets and local newspapers the style in which they report tends to be more extreme.

Conclusions The findings from this study have revealed that the Scottish press are largely balanced in their portrayal of young people. Just less than three quarters of the articles included in the study are either neutral or positive in their overall tone. Yet, while the majority of articles do not seek to comment on young people in a negative way they often discuss young people from within a negative context such as unemployment or anti-social behaviour. In this respect young people are often portrayed as being hindered by forces out with their control such as economic instability or failing services. Moreover many articles portray young people both positively and negatively, ultimately creating an impression of young people which is neither wholly positive nor wholly negative. It is worth noting that the vast majority of overtly negative youth related stories focussed on individuals and isolated incidents of crime and violence such as muggings, stabbings etc. In this sense, it could be argued that bad news stories are by and large limited to individual young people whereas young people as a whole are presented in a more balanced manner. In terms of the focus of these articles across the board, exactly half were concerned with both the economy (and the knock on effects on employment) and crime and antisocial behaviour. There can be little doubt that the global recession will have increased the volume of discussion on young people and employment and it is possible to speculate that this may have reduced the volume of other subjects which may have ordinarily been the focus of youth related stories. There are some key distinctions which can be made between the ways in which each type of newspaper presents young people to their readers. Broadsheet newspapers are on the whole the most balanced in their portrayal of young people while tabloids tend to be more negative. Local newspapers, while focussing many of their articles on crime and antisocial behaviour, also carry the highest proportion of good news stories about youths. In addition the findings of this study indicate that broadsheets are the most engaged with youth issues while tabloids appear to be the least engaged. In terms of style both tabloid and local newspaper articles tend to be written in a more emotive fashion than broadsheets with tabloids in particular employing a more extreme and sensationalist style. Interestingly less than 10% of articles featured quotes from young people themselves which means young people rarely get the chance to voice their opinions and feelings through newspapers. Generally speaking quotes that were included involved adults either speaking on behalf of young people or making some kind of comment on them. In conclusion it is important to stress that this has been in large part a subjective process and newspaper articles could undoubtedly be interpreted in numerous different ways. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this short study has shed some light on how the media in Scotland choose to present young people to the public.