Leaves Teens With The Confidence In Society example essay topic

The Media Exposed Written by Ian Melville Kirk, a 16 year old, male, living in Ohio America, and he is seen as an antisocial thug through the eyes of many. "I have never committed a crime, yet when I walk into a department store I am treated like a common thief. Clerks feel compelled to scrutinize and / or follow me around. I often hear sarcastic remarks such as; "Can I help you?" Translation; if you " re not going to buy something, leave". As Kirk Butcher explained, this type of discrimination is often caused by the media. Another time that he went to a hardware store to buy some spray paint, to paint the bike that he and his father had just rebuilt.

Kirk describes the incident; "As I walked in to the shop the shop clerk looked at me with a look on his face as it to say, what are you doing here, I then proceeded to walk into the paint isle when he came across to me and said", Are you looking to buy some spray paint"? I replied "Yes I have just fixed my bike now I want to paint a bluey black color over it". The clerk looked at me and said "Well sorry I can't sell you this can of spray paint, it's against the law" He then asked me to leave the shop. I then thought to my self, why? What I did wrong. Later that night I watched the news.

All that I saw on youth was the fact that a bunch of 16 year old males had lit a toilet block on fire at the park. Then I thought to myself, does the man at the store think that I was just as they are? He must! The average teenagers The reason for this stereotyping is because the media has told people to think this way about teens. The media today has turned the representation of teens into something vile and uninviting. For example, the way that the media portrays teens today is that they vandalize, are disloyal and immature with no future or no solid past.

In actual fact teenagers have no body to blame for their future but teens themselves, and as for their past, teens have only the elder people in society to blame for that. Teenagers as children did not have complete control of their past. Now as teens discover all of these options we start our journey in to configuring, to take control of their life youth want to do something with it. However, there is something stopping them from striving to be there best, this is that of the media. The media has twisted the way that people look at teenagers. For example young people can't even go into a shop and buy some spray-paint to paint the bike that you and your father have just rebuilt.

You cannot, because there are some (very few) teens that do vandalize and destroy things. Therefore, instead of singling out an individual the media stereotype and generalize that all of the youth of today is bad evil, inconsiderate, un trusting and manic delinquents. Which then leaves teens with the confidence in society to do absolutely nothing, but to be brainwashed by the media that teens are the stereotyped teen and that is what we evolve into? Who is to blame? "Not I" say the media, well who else is there? At this stage in a teenager's life, they are still learning.

In fact they are going through the biggest learning curve imaginable. So the media will use that to their advantage, because teenagers are still experimenting with friends, trying new things, therefore still learning about whats wrong and what's not, so when the media complains about the youth, it just generally gives youth more ideas to experiment with. At this time in a teen's life he / she has a lot of things to think about, let alone trying to uphold a good reputation in society. The figure below explains what teens actually worry about, which is just some indication of the stress they must go through!

In addition, if that is not enough to think about the media is trying to make youth feel as if they are always doing something wrong. It's not as if teens are the only people doing something wrong. Youth see on the news all the time a murder here, rape there; burglars have targeted the local Kmart store. The "responsible" adults of society commit all these crimes. These are the people that the youth of today must learn from.

But we must remember that that is only a few of the adults in society for not all do these things. "WE DO NOT GENERALIZE THAT ALL ADULTS ARE KILLERS AND RAPIST JUST BECAUSE A FEW OF THEM HAVE CHOSEN THE "WAYWARD PATH". So why does society generalize teens the way that teens do not them? Why does the society of today get a thrill out of defacing the name of the youth of today? Why can't you see that teenagers are just normal people trying to deal with being a teenager? A recent case study of the Cairns Post shows that the only news that they had on youth (not including the sports section) over a two week period between August the 1st-15th, .

In this time there were a number of articles on the front page of the paper defacing the name of teenagers. A article that really stood out, a 16 year old male who had bashed his 13 year old girlfriend, and then kept her captive, written by Simon Cameron. This type of violence, yet true, still has no place on the front page of a newspaper. Filled with such violence and defacing remarks toward teenagers. In addition, the article written by Simon Cameron of the "Cairns Post" was unjust and unfair as it only gave the point of view from a reporter's position. The article did not state any type of quote from either the victim or the culprit.

Therefore again, ... giving the media a louder voice. This is why all of society has got a grudge against teens. The media has used its power as a tool of death of creativity and independence to think what youth want to think. The people in today's society is so use to listening to the media patronize the youth of today they start to not care that the media is abusing there right to have a louder voice.

The only way that the media is going to realize what it has done to the name of the youth in society today is to become a teen for a day or maybe even a week. Infact, I put it to any person working in the direct news media that they cant go a week as a teenager in today's civilization. Because that is the only way that they will be able to see the type of discrimination that is pressed into these venerable young minds. As Kirk has said you can't even go into a store to buy a can of spray paint. Teens in today's life need to be more recognized as a person with rights and not something to take all of the blame from the adults that are doing stupid things. The media must review the way that they generalize any one of a certain race, culture, nationality, age, or intelligence.

And must also stop abusing the right that they have to configure the way that they want people to think. Instead of worrying about what the teens of today have done wrong how about focusing on the achievements made by youths, ... How about focusing on the real news for once. Destruction, adults have left after a riot in England.