Representations of youth in the media : the Maltese context

Abstract

This chapter explores how media representations of young people are overwhelmingly preoccupied with youth risk and how consequently this facilitates the development of moral panics surrounding young people and their activities. Utilising social representations theory as the conceptual framework, the chapter argues how ideological developments about the 'state of youth' in our society can be effectively analysed by reflecting on public discourse and that these dominant ideologies have important repercussions on both lay and academic theorising about young people and on policy development. The chapter discusses the results of a content analysis of two months of coverage in a local Maltese newspaper and supports the idea that youth are frequently envisaged as troublesome and dangerous. Reports about problems of the young serve to reinforce preconceived ideas about this age group and add weight to calls for state intervention and control.