Young activists making the news: the role of the media in youth political and civic engagement

This chapter explores the different ways in which various forms of media playa role in young people's political and civic engagement, focusing on mainstream print and television as well as the Internet. Media appear to be both an enabling and disabling mechanism for young people's political engagement. On the one hand, media provide sources of information for young people, but on the other, they can contribute to stereotypes of lazy, disinterested and disengaged youth. It is important to acknowledge the role that 'new' media, particularly the Internet, play as both a source of information and an arena for political activism. New media pose the possibility of providing a 'substitute' for more traditional forms of commentary on political engagement by young people, yet the significance of the Internet alone as a site for new forms of meaningful political and civic engagement appears to be at risk of being overstated with new media forms more likely to conform to wider political realities than to challenge them. Our critical discussion begins with a review of the dominant conceptualisations of youth in the conventional print media. We argue that these approaches draw on different understandings of young people as 'the new generation', and of the process of social change affecting young people, and wider society. We argue that media representations of youth throughout mainstream media playa signilicant role in perpetuating a view of young people as lacking the political knowledge and skills to engage in contemporary political and civic action. We continue with an examination of the ways in which discussion of young people and the media has become a meeting point for research focussing upon their political literacy, efficacy and engagement. In practice, the media (and at times researchers themselves) take up a variety of positions along a continuum. The past few years have heralded a perceived crisis for politics with some commentators suggesting stagnation in Western-style democracies. The traditional institutions of political parties and trade unions arc hecoming less relevant and attractive to the electorate generally, and young people in particular.This insight is given more