Age -representation

• Age

Ageism, also called age discrimination, is stereotyping of and discrimination against individuals or groups because of their age.

Our ideas about age are often more stereotyped when thinking about people who are much older or younger than us, because they are the most ‘different’.

Young People

Young people are often represented in a negative way, unless very young, then they are quite often seen to be innocent.

Young people are often represented negatively as immature, stupid, greedy, lazy, selfish, violent, callous, gullible, unreliable, careless, self-entitled, never going to achieve anything...

Wayne et al. (2008) conducted a content analysis of 2130 news items across all the main television channels during May 2006. They found that young people were mainly represented as a violent threat to society. They found that it was very rare for news items to feature a young person’s perspective or opinion. They note that the media only delivers a one-dimensional picture of youth, one that encourages fear and condemnation rather than understanding. Moreover, they argue that it distracts from the real problems that young people face in the modern world such as homelessness, not being able to get onto the housing ladder, unemployment or mental health and that these might be caused by society’s, or the government’s, failure to take the problems of youth seriously.

When young people are represented positively, they…