1. Stereotypes and the Media

2. Lesson objectives
To gain an understanding of stereotyping and how it impacts upon teenagers.
To consider how the media can misrepresent teenagers and how this can influence society’s perceptions.

3. Match the key words to the meanings:
Media
Myth
Stereotype
Lie
Misrepresentation
Extreme
Dominates
Truth
Fact
Excessive
Take over/ dominate
A false representation
Reality
Fib/ untruth
Legend/ fairytale
Label
Newspapers/ magazines/ TV/ radio

4. Eg. The media often stereotype people.
Starter
Media Myth Stereotype Lie
Misrepresentation Misrepresent
Extreme Dominates Truth Fact
Task:
Write 5 possible sentences using at least two of the key words in that sentence.
Eg. The media often stereotype people.

5. Misrepresentation
Can you think of any groups of people who have been misrepresented in the media?
Is this a fair representation of teenagers? What is this idea of teenagers based on?

6. Teenagers in the Media
What impressions of young people do the headlines give?
How does the media’s portrayal affect people’s attitudes towards teenagers?
Can you think of a time when you have been judged or treated unfairly because of stereotypes created by the media?

7. “Only 2 school children
allowed in at a time”

8. Task
Produce a piece of work expressing your responses to the headlines. You can do this by:
Writing a letter of complaint to the editor of the newspaper
Or:
Creating a campaign poster highlighting unfairness of stereotyping in newspapers.

9. To finish…
In a report carried out by the Media Intelligence Survey, 9/10 stories in the British media do not report young people’s views. Only 23% of media coverage is positive and 75% media stories were negative towards young people.
List 3 rules you would like to introduce to change this negative portrayal within the media.

10. Homework
Use newspapers to create a collage of headlines that stereotype people.
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