Lesson plan two: Young people in the media
Duration: 50 - 75 minutes
Icebreaker
Aim: To introduce students to some of the issues around young people's portrayal in the UK media.
Duration: 10 - 15 minutes
Split the class into four or five groups. Tell students that they are going to compete in the Lord Speaker's competition about how young people are represented in the media. In class discussion, ask students to say what they understand by media and the different forms of media there are (TV, radio, internet etc).
Ask each group to think of a show, website or broadcast that they recently saw that they felt portrayed young people in a positive or negative light. (Alternatively, you could circulate copies of newspaper articles). Give each group five minutes to write down:
what the show was about
whether the portrayal was positive or negative
whether the portrayal was fair
Get each group to nominate a spokesperson(s) and present their example back to the group. Next, briefly review what skills they have used (presentation, time management, team work, etc) and explain that these will all be involved in the competition.
Young people in the media
Aim: To introduce the competition and offer students an understanding of the different areas they can investigate.
Duration: 30 - 50 minutes
Hand out the Student Brief (pdf 49KB) (PDF) and run through the competition rules. Highlight the questions posed in the Getting Started section and explain that the House of Lords committee is keen to hear their views on the subject.
Explain to students that their submission to the competition can focus on one or more of the areas highlighted in the student brief; or they can explore something else if they have a really strong idea. To encourage students to start thinking in depth about the issues, split the class into groups to look at the following three case studies and respond to the prompt questions for each case study. You could ask students to report back to the rest of the class, particularly if they have been looking at different case studies.
Barnardo's 'Breaking the Cycle' campaign
Barnardo's, a children's charity, released a film which shows a group of adults who think children should be hunted like animals.
The shocking but real dialogue in the film is supposed to draw attention to the increasingly negative way in which, Barnardo's believes, young people are viewed by the general public.
This is backed up by a poll with an organisation called YouGov which found that:
just under half (49%) of people agree that children are increasingly a danger to each other and adults
43% agree something has to be done to protect us from children
more than a third (35%) of people agree that nowadays it feels like the streets are infested with children
45% of public agree that people refer to children as feral because they behave this way
nearly half of people (49%) disagree with the statement that children who get into trouble are often misunderstood and in need of professional help
Do you agree with the video and poll which suggest that adults have a very detrimental opinion of children?
Do the media, knowingly or unknowingly, help to nurture these views?
What can we, or the media, do to change these kinds of views among adults?
Case study 2: Respect? campaign
In 2005 YouthNet and the British Youth Council (BYC) began a campaign to improve young people's representation in the media. The ' Respect?' initiative is led by the Respect Young People's Advisory Group (RYPAG), a group of eight young people aged 16 to 24. The campaign began because of research undertaken by YouthNet and BYC which showed that young people were increasingly worried about their representation in the media. Some of their work includes asking 1,000 young people to sign a pledge to speak up when they see a media story that affects them. The target needs to be reached by the end of January and you can sign it on the PledgeBank website.
Also Respect? will be producing a best practice guide for elected representatives on working with young people in Spring 2009. The campaign has a Facebook group and Dawn Butler MP tabled an Early-Day Motion in Parliament to call for an end to negative representation in July 2007.
Are you concerned with how young people are represented in the media?
How successful do you think the Respect? campaign will be?
What could Respect? also be doing to improve young people's representation?
Case study 3: "Feral youths on 'rampage of fear'"
On 17 May 2005, BBC Manchester produced an article on how gangs of young people around the country were "terrorising" locals. In one particular case a 48 year-old man 'suffered serious head injuries after challenging the gang who had thrown a stone at his car.' Mr Carroll was critically ill in hospital following the attack near his house in Salford and 'his brother, John, said the area had been "terrorised" by youths.'
Chief Superintendent David Baines said 'Gangs of feral youths are rampaging in cities around the country,' and that 'abusive and alcohol-fuelled gangs of young people all over the country are hanging around on street corners intimidating people and causing trouble.'
Obviously what happened to Mr Carroll is horrible but does the article give a negative representation of young people?
Could the author have written this piece differently?
Do young people bring this negative representation on themselves or are the media over-exaggerating the issue?
Being heard
Aim: To establish how students want to present their ideas for the competition.
Duration: 10 - 20 minutes
At this stage, it is up to teachers to decide what groups students will work in. Groups can be any size; however, please bear in mind that a maximum of five young people per winning team will be able to visit the House of Lords and receive the prize money.
You may have decided that all groups will focus on one specific question or that they can choose for themselves. You may wish to give students a list of methods and media through which they can submit their views, depending on the facilities and time available.
In their groups, ask students to think back to the case studies and look at the Getting Started page of the Student Brief (pdf 49KB)(PDF). Each student should pick the issues and questions which interest them and a scribe should list these all on a sheet of paper. As a group, students must then eliminate ideas and agree on one question or issue that they wish to research and present. It helps if groups can agree on one succinct central idea.
Next, ask groups to think back to the icebreaker activity; who presented their idea well? What worked and why? Thinking about this, they must now decide on the best medium to present their views on their chosen question or issue.
Finally, students should divide up their work; areas to research on the internet, interviews to conduct (local politicians, business people, young people, etc). Remind students that the competition is about getting their views heard. They should think about the most effective and creative way to present their ideas - which could include a newspaper article (up to 750 words), a short film or a podcast (of up to three minutes). Remind them to stick to their subject and concentrate on getting their messages across.