How are teens portrayed by the news media?
Teens are portrayed in various lights in the news media, according to the kind of news they appear to generate. When the topic is crime, teens have special treatment because of laws that don't allow their names to be printed or disclosed. And crimes at schools might not be revealed as quickly as other crimes. For instance, there was a threatening letter that was found at a high school in South Bend, Indiana. The letter was found on a Tuesday but wasn't reported in the media until a Friday. And the Jena 6 case was not hot news for months.
Many times teens appear to be people who commit many of the crimes if only certain kinds of news are considered.
Now, what about the outstanding teens who work hard in school and on the athletic fields? There is some news that hightlights those achievements, such as in the South Bend Tribune.
1 comment:
Good points...these stories can be covered by local news media in print and on air/online just as easily by their community reporters. But are they? If not, why not? Proves out the imbalance in current news coverage...because "good" stories don't pull ratings.
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