It's hard to pick up a paper that doesn't have a splash on young people being a nuisance. But the majority of young people don't have ASBOs and we're more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators. But you wouldn't know it from the way the media go on about how bad we are. Nyasha McLean, 12, tells us why she thinks our reputation is being damaged by journalists who just want to sell more papers…
The media like to publish bad stories about young people because they gain more publicity that way. When adults see a good story about a young person they think, "Ah I'll read that later," but when adults see a bad story about someone getting stabbed by a young person they think, "Oh my gosh what is this about!" and they read it straight away.
This shows that adults are interested in reading bad stories and they buy newspapers with bad stories in it because it's exciting. But I think that it’s not right because they will get the idea that all young people are bad and they will think that we cannot do anything good. Are you always bad?
I think print journalists should put the bad stories about young people onto one page so they take up less room because at the moment all the bad stories about young people take up lots of room. Instead the journalists should make lots more good stories about young people and make them visible to the public.
Then maybe adults will stop categorizing young people as YOBS because it isn't fair being kicked off a bus because you're wearing a hooded tracksuit, like I was. Last year a bus driver told me to get off the bus because I had my hood on - but I had it on because it was raining. But before I got a chance to take it off the bus driver told me not to get on the bus. I got off and waited for another bus.
The point is that the media really needs to change before all young people decided to stop reading newspapers. My friend has stopped reading them. She feels that she does her bit for the community, by going and cleaning up the park with her family, but she isn’t acknowledged for this and every time she picks up a newspaper all she sees is stories about young people getting into trouble. The media really needs to do something about this before it’s too late. Don’t you agree?
About this article
This article was produced by Nyasha McLean, 12. It was published on the Reach for the Sky website.
