Young Researchers Team

In March 2010, we secured a Youth Research Network (YRN) research grant award. This is a scheme which is funded by the National Youth Agency (NYA). Through this scheme young people aged 11-25 are trained up and supported to carry out research and evaluation around issues which are important to them.

At Hertsmere Borough Council, and particularly within the youth projects team, listening to what young people have to say is an integral part of our work. Involving young people in carrying out research is an extension of this.

Through this project we provided young people with training and support enabling them to commission, design and conduct research amongst their peers across Hertsmere.  The research they carry out will help to inform local and national government of issues in order to bring about positive changes that are relevant to young people.

The Project – Unbalanced negative Media Portrayal of Youth

The project ran from September 2010 to March 2011.

A team of seven young people in Hertsmere, aged 14 to 19, researched a topic of their own choice - the examination of 'Unbalanced negative media portrayals of youth.' Hertsmere Borough Council worked in partnership with Youth Connexions and the researchers to explore how young people are represented in the media and if stereotyping does exist.

The Proposition
The media portrays young people more negatively than positively which leads to the public forming an unbalanced perception of the behaviour and attitudes of young people.  Negative reporting causes a greater fear of issues than the actual reality of the reported problem and enhances ‘stereotyping’

The research project aimed to explore how youth behaviour is perceived publically and how stereotyping is often damaging to communities. Evidence was gathered on a number of different topics including media representation of youth trends over the past 100 years, knife crime statistics and media reports of knife crime. As well as this, the researchers carried out an online survey and vox pop interviews around Borehamwood with a range of different people.

Steve Evans, one of the young researchers involved in the project, said: “When we researched knife crime involving teenagers, the crimes were often reported with far less background knowledge and were often linked to other knife offences that had nothing to do with the original incident.

“Through the research we found that only seven per cent of all murders committed using a sharp instrument - like a knife - were carried out by teenagers, on teenagers. However, this is not the way the media portray teenage knife crime, which makes it seem as if there is an epidemic."

The project concluded that unbalanced negative media portrayal does exist - and that in some cases so-called youth ‘problems’ are dramatised and do not show that most teenagers are well-behaved and law-abiding. The sensationalisation of stories of youth-related crimes in the press give a small percentage of the population, who do commit unlawful offences, notoriety for what they have done and because of this, well-behaved young people are not viewed by society as they should be.

The young researchers team and Hertsmere Borough Council are now exploring ways to use the research to make a difference to the way young people are portrayed in the media as a whole. Ideas include a social media campaign to make a stand against stereotypes and launching a news source to include positive information about local young people.

The research has already received great accolades from various research specialists. See a review by Liz Fekete, deputy director of the Institute of Race Relations.

If you would like to find out more about the research project please contact Corina Best Hertsmere’s Youth Projects Officer by email corina.best@hertsmere.gov.uk

To view the full report visit our blog 

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