“They’re feral, cruel and ruthless - it’s in their nature”. “It makes me sick”. “They wonder in packs”. “These animals, destroying peoples’ lives”. “Perhaps sterilisation?”. “Something needs to be done”.

Some needs to be done, indeed. These quotes are just a few lines used in an advert by Bernardo’s, the children’s charity, which was screened during the Youth-Led Media Summit 2009 this week (December 15). The advert features a group of men talking about the unknown “vermin”, before they load up several shotguns, drive to a  dark, secluded street, and fire on a random group of hooded teenagers. The end ‘reveal’ is the scariest part: every line of dialogue - including “shoot a few, and then shoot a few more” - was a comment left on a newspaper story regarding children or young people.

The Youth-Led Media Summit was a chance for young media enthusiasts - “the next media generation” as Dazed and Confused editor Rod Stanley called them - to come together to discuss how young people could engage with youth stereotypes in the media. The summit was a day of talks, workshops and panel discussions, all set up by The Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust and a team of media freelancers (alongside members from Youthcomm Radio, Catch 22 youth initiative, Ceasefire magazine, Headliners news agency, the Leap Anywhere project, Muslim Youth Helpline and Ctrl.Alt.Shift), with singer/songwriter Natty providing music in the evening.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift deputy editor Dwain Lucktung was invited to sit on the panel group that discussed the demonization of Britain’s young people. Could Dwain’s suggestion that mainstream newspapers should have a section written solely by young people work? Or was the answer in Dazed and Confused’s approach of letting young people guest edit an issue in 2008? The audience was passionate, crying out to know how the next generation should get their foot in the door, and even questioning whether a bruised foot was worth the effort, considering the decline of traditional media. Even the experts were divided - was the answer in high profile stunts as advocated by Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children’s Commissioner for England, or was it better to think “tactics”, as suggested by Matt Locke, Commissioning Editor for Education for Channel 4?

During the day the old guard and the emerging talent of the media mingled and discussed the pressing issue of how a new generation, a new way, could flourish in the current environment. The stakes were, and remain, high; in 2004, 71% of sampled newspaper stories portrayed young people in a negative light, a report by Young NCB (a charity composed of young people with the aim of empowering young people) found. And in 2006, the British Youth Council found that 98% of 12-25 year olds surveyed thought the media portrayed young people as “anti-social”.

Yet the new media that was present at the summit proved how socially minded young people could be. Therryi Brown, the editor of Brixton based Live! Magazine, which is created by 12-21 year olds, challenged the panel and refused to accept easy answers. YEAH magazine's editors Ben Erry and Laura Stevenson showed the summit how they took their five page fanzine from a college in Portsmouth to shop shelves in Sweden just one year after the first issue.

Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns and Communications for Save the Children, said, “The Youth-Led Media Summit has been a fantastic opportunity to celebrate youth-led media, and to empower youths to be a leading voice in challenging public perceptions of young people.” Adrian also gave a talk on how media could give a voice to the voiceless, that it was the media’s job to tell the stories that seem impossible to tell. If we can’t accurately portray young people in England, how can we expect to engage with other young people across the world? How can we expect young people to feel empowered if they feel blocked from the increasingly brain-dead megaphone that is the media?

Thankfully, the Youth-Led Media Summit showed that slowly, but surely, future news presenters, radio DJs and investigative reporters - the next era of Jon Snow’s and John Pilger's - are beginning to knock on Media Inc.’s shiny golden door and ask, “Hey, why don’t we try it our way?”

Words: Richard Lemmer. Ctrl.Alt.Shift representatives at the summit were Richard, Dwain Lucktung, Kevin E G Perry, Akilah Russell, Ben Anderson, Holly Davis and James Prosho.
Photos: James Prosho