Youth & Media
Approximately one-third of the world’s population is made up of 2 billion young people under 18. They make up half the population in the least developed nations; less than a quarter in the most industrialized ones. Their challenges range from basic survival to discrimination and exploitation.
Moreover, there are myriad differences in cultures, traditions and values.
Nevertheless, children and youth everywhere share some universal traits. They are fundamentally more optimistic, more open and curious than their adult counterparts. Increasingly, children are enjoying unprecedented freedoms in many countries. Unfortunately, others confront growing health and social problems, ranging from deepening poverty and ethnic strife to substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases, political turmoil and warfare.
In many countries, youth have access to a greater number of multi-media choices than ever before—conventional, satellite and cable TV channels; radio stations; newspapers and magazines; the internet and computer and video games. In addition, many are exposed to the same programs, the same characters and the same marketed spin-off products. Today there is greater availability of foreign programming and media, and less official censorship and control in many parts of the world. Information, email and images flow around the world faster and more freely than ever. Indeed, mass media are making the world smaller, and culture and media are increasingly inextricable, especially for young people.
Television is the dominant medium for young people—and adults—around the world. In recent years,the number of television channels, household television sets and hours spent watching television more than doubled. Satellite television reaches all continents, offering increasing numbers of channels targeting specific market segments, including young viewers.The prevalence of television viewing among young people raises serious concerns about recent national and global trends in the television industry. The rampant consolidation of commercial media has meant the dominance of only a handful of large and powerful companies. In industrialized countries, there have been recent outcries over rising levels of aggression, obesity, substance abuse, eating disorders and unsafe sexual behavior among youth, increasingly attributed to commercial media aimed at children and youth. In developing countries, where resources limit domestic productions, a majority of programs for children and youth are imported. Unfortunately, much of the content contains characters and messages that, at best, are simply not relevant to local cultures, and at worst convey violent images and mass marketing messages.
After television viewing, listening to the radio is the next most popular activity among children and young people worldwide. Actual listening rates among the young vary greatly, however, depending on the quality of national broadcasting and the availability of private alternatives. In many countries, there has been a boom among young people in radio listening over the past decade, the result of the emergence of dozens of private radio stations. Most young people tune in to the radio primarily for music and entertainment. However, some local radio stations have been very successful in attracting and informing more socially active segments of the population, young and old alike. It has become a major source of diverse information and entertainment for youth interested in social life.
The internet has been gaining popularity among young people, though at a much slower pace than television and radio. In spite of significant differences among the developed and developing world, the use of computers and the internet is rising steadily, fastest among young men. Around the world, young users are increasingly turning to the internet as a source of information, communication, socializing and entertainment. At the same time, web access is the source of the greatest divide, both between countries (internet use in industrialized countries far outpaces use in the developing world), and within countries (internet use concentrated among wealthier and better-educated urban youth).
Nevertheless, even in countries where internet and computer use is low, young people actively seek access whenever possible, most often in internet cafes. Young people are enthusiastic about the internet because, more than any other medium, it helps them establish contact with the outside world and freely seek information. Perhaps it is ‘free’ access to information that also accounts for the higher levels of trust young people (and adults as well) often place in information on the web than in information from traditional media.Young people use the internet primarily for communicating (email and chat rooms); downloading (computer games, software and music); and obtaining information (about education, entertainment, sports, “taboo” topics not addressed by adults, and news that may be censored for political motives).
As media options for most children have grown in recent decades, so too have concerns about the quality of media aimed at children. Growing numbers
of parents, educators, researchers and policy-makers around the world are alarmed about the lack of quality media for children and young people and the
growing availability of low-quality entertainment featuring violence, sexual content, undesirable role models and lack of diversity. There are also serious
questions about the short- and long-term effects of this material.