How young people are represented in the media in Argentina. Stereotypes and representations. Roxana Morduchowicz, Ph.D., Director of Medias in Schools Program, Ministry of Education, Argentina. Youth and Media -seminar, 16.9.2010, Helsinki.

1. Youth representation in
the Media
Roxana Morduchowicz
School and Media Program
Ministry of Education
Argentina

2. Media as “agenda setting”
• Select information (on what to include / exclude)
• Evaluate what is most / less important
• Install / prioritize subjects
• Influence on what people talk
• Define frequency and continuity (of the subject)
• Offer images of the world, social groups, places
• Represent, construct / are not transparent

3. Media reinforce stereotypes
• Conventional images on a social group
• Simplified way to talk about someone
• By using few images, categorize a whole group
• Reinforce a particular judgement of a group
• Classify by selecting only some characteristics
• Naturalize this image in the society
• Legitimate what is “normal” (life style, values)

4. Young people in the news
• Related to negative situations
• Violence, school failure, drugs, alcohol,
anorexia, bulimia, pregnancy, drop out.
• Anti – social behaviors

5. Young people in the news: the
way they are filmed
• Mainly adults interviewed -in youth`s news
• Adults, alone: the camera only for himself
• Youth, in groups: danger / scary image
• Adults in their work places
• Young people in streets
• Adults talk, literally reproduced
• Youth: references in journalist`s discourse

6. Young people in teenage fiction
• The other side: rich and good students
• Live in close neighborhoods
• Exclusive schools
• Successful lives
• Their problems: lack of love
• Poverty –even middle class- does not exist
• (Beverly Hills, Greek, Gossip Girl)

7. Young people in docu realities
• Victims: abused, raped, beaten,
abandoned, exploited, exposed to
prostitution…
• Victimizers: beat, kill, threaten, abuse,
are drug dealers…

8. Risks of this representation…
• Legitimates: “young people are violent”
• Ignores millions of young people
• Reinforces idea: youth related to conflict
• Leaves two main questions opened:
Do young people feel represented in the
media? What can be done?

9. The main answer
• Media Education:
• Access
• Analysis
• Production

10. Media education
is Access
• Equal access to culture, media and
technology for everyone
• Compensate culture gaps. Strength the
students´ culture capital
• Avoid social exclusion among the young
generation

11. Media education
is Analysis
• To critically read the media and analyze
the way the world is represented.
• To understand how messages are put
together, by whom, and in whose interests
• To challenge media stereotypes

12. Media education
is Production
• Students become cultural producers.
• They learn how to use the media to
express themselves
• They get a new visibility in the media

13. School makes TV
• Primary school students
write a story. Six stories
are selected and produced
as short films –by well
known film makers- and
shown on all Argentine TV
channels.

14. School, camera… action
• Secondary school students write a story.
Three stories are selected, produced as
short films –by well known film makers-
and shown on all Argentine cinemas for a
month, before the film programmed.

15. Journalists for a day
• Secondary school students investigate
and write an in depth report. Each
newspaper in Argentina selects one story
and publishes it, whole page, signed by
the students, the same Sunday all over the
country.

21. “Radio dreams”
• TV program : adolescents in three high
schools, in 3 small towns (1000 people
each), had to create a radio for their
village. None of these towns had a radio.

22. Media education in Argentina is
• The right to culture
• A space for critical analysis
• A site to become culture producers
• To reinforce the civic culture and the
engagement with democracy

23. Thank you!
¡Muchas gracias!
For more information:
• Web site:
http://www.me.gov.ar/escuelaymedios
• E-mail:
escuelaymedios@me.gov.ar