Nacro, a charity who supports thousands of young people a year, found that media coverage on young people is twice as likely to be negative (28%) than positive (14%). They found negative framing about under 25s in media coverage through the past year, labelling them as lazy, weak, selfish and dangerous.
The research, which analysed 153 traditional national and local media over the past year, found only 21% featured the voices of young people, or their perspective.
Elise Temple, Principal & Director of Education and Skills, Nacro Education said: “Young people are bombarded with negative messages about themselves. They are seen as a problem to be fixed not humans with agency who can act as part of the solution. This negativity has been internalised and they tell us they feel hopeless, powerless and voiceless. We felt it was vital to speak to young people and hear what their lives are like. To look beyond what we read in the papers and hear the truth about their experiences.”
Nacro spoke directly to young people, interviewing and surveying 245 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with high levels of social inequality.
Nacro spoke to them about how they felt about their world, their future and their communities. The results show a generation of young people who feel sidelined and distrustful of those in power, they are lonely and isolated, making their worlds smaller due to fear of crime and a lack of opportunities. All the results were more pronounced for young women, with them feeling significantly worse about themselves, more lonely and more worried about crime in their area.
