CDN Report: young people feel portrayed negatively on TV

Many young people feel that they are portrayed in a negative way on TV and some older people, especially women, feel that they are invisible on the small screen. This is according to the Cultural Diversity Network’s Serving All Ages research into the portrayal of age in the media, which is published today.
 
Mark Thompson, BBC Director General and Chair of the CDN, said: “There are lessons here for the BBC and the rest of Britain’s broadcasters. It is young people who are most concerned with the way they are portrayed and we need to look at this. But we should also note the concern, expressed by older people generally, about the need for greater visibility for older women. While of course there are many older women presenters and actors across our airwaves, this is something that needs to be addressed.”
 
The research was commissioned by the BBC as current chair of the Creative Diversity Network. The CDN has made public commitments to do more to serve all audiences, and understand better attitudes towards portrayal of age in the media.
 
Amongst the key findings it was established that younger people are most concerned with how they are portrayed on TV, and many feel they are portrayed negatively. This view was also shared by some older people.
 
Older people are less concerned with portrayal on TV, but some expressed a feeling of invisibility. This was particularly the case for middle aged and older women and more so in some genres (news and factual) than others
  
Audiences wanted television in particular to reflect reality and wanted to avoid stereotyping and see a focus on accurate portrayal of all ages
 
The CDN is a partnership of media companies made up of ITV, Channel 4, Sky, S4/C, Pact, MTV, Media Trust, Turner and BAFTA, which exists to improve diversity across the media industry.
 
Serving All Ages was carried out at the end of 2011 by NatCen Social Research. The research canvassed the opinions of the general public, the broadcast industry and people with a specific interest in the issue of age, looking at output on TV, radio and online in all UK media organisations.
 
Industry experts focused on the need to find imaginative and creative ways to challenge existing stereotypes without being formulaic and stressed the importance of tracking and reviewing progress