Youth Portrayal in the Media

Though only tasked with finding one article about teens I have come prepared with two. However they are directly related to each other.

The first (found here http://bit.ly/1QhLUkt). discusses a program known as the Community Journalism Program, in which Journalism students from Hofstra University meet with students from the Hempstead High School Newspaper Club. The Hofstra students teach the Newspaper Club how to write feature articles and discuss the journalism profession. Both the university students and high school students benefit from this program. The university students are getting hands on mentoring and teaching experience, while the high school students are preparing for potential future careers.

One idea that this program is stressing is diversity, which is where article number two comes in (http://bit.ly/1NU7jhU). This article was written by one of the Hempstead High School students that is part of the Community Newspaper Program. She briefly describes her history, coming to this country as a child that spoke very little English, and how she now being bilingual and older, can understand how both new and returning students of Hempstead High School feel. She describes that new students, particularly those that have come here to make a better life for themselves, but speak limited English can feel stressed and neglected in a school that does not always have the ability to help them. Additionally, they also can be made to feel unwelcome by some of the returning students that see new, non-English speaking students as a hindrance to their own education because of the limited supplies that the district possess. Because she has been on both sides of this issue, the author works within her school to unite all students and makes a plea to those in power to help to unite her school community.  

These articles portray youth in both a positive and negative light. The Community Newspaper Program is greatly influencing students at both Hofstra University and Hempstead High School, to the point where a participant has had her own article published in a local paper. However it is this student’s article that begins to portray some youth in a negative light. There are students that make other feel uncomfortable because of their status as English language speakers, and the feeling that such students are taking supplies out of the hands of those that speak English as a native language that were born in the United States. Yet despite this there are students that work towards the greater good to unite the school community as one, which will greatly benefit the community as a whole.