Fed: Competition will give balance to youth portrayal, says Kemp

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2001
Fed: Competition will give balance to youth portrayal, says Kemp

CANBERRA, April 16 AAP - A national youth media competition was designed to counteract
negative images of young people, federal Youth Affairs Minister David Kemp said today.

Young people have been making short videos, taking photos and writing articles in the
competition called Be Seen, Be Heard.

Dr Kemp said the competition arose from research done in conjunction with the Youth
Media Awards, that found images of young people in the media were overwhelmingly negative.

"We also found that when young people appeared in the media it was usually through
somebody else's eyes," he told the Nine Network.

"Very rarely were young people quoted themselves or did they have a chance to put their
own message."

Dr Kemp said it was important young people got a chance to be heard and that young
people were portrayed in a balanced way.

Asked who was actually going to listen, he said the government also had in place the
National Youth Roundtable, made up of 50 young people.

"That's already having quite a big impact on government policy," Dr Kemp said.

For example, the recently announced code of conduct for employers and apprentices emerged
from the Roundtable.

He said the competition was not just a public relations exercise, as one of the prizes
was a week's work experience with either Nine or News Limited.

The competition runs until April 30.

AAP fh/ns/bwl

KEYWORD: YOUTH

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