The Diverging Presence of Youth in Public Discourse

A Comparative Analysis of Youth-Related Debates Across Countries and Issue Fields

Bibliographic Data

ID3756079
AuthorsChristian Lahusen (0000-0002-8286-0885, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany, corresponding author), Johannes M Kie (0000-0002-3350-7399, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany)
Year2020
Volume64
Issue5
Pages574-590
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764219885426
OpenAlexW2996564081
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited38

Youth is a recurrent topic of public debates, particularly because youth features in almost all issue fields discussed in mass media, ranging from educational and cultural to criminal matters. However, previous research has highlighted that youth is not necessarily actively involved in raising its own voice within the public sphere, which gives cause for concerns about the representation of youth in public discourses and thus in democratic opinion formation. This article wishes to critically assess the proposition that young people are objects of public discourses rather than active participants. For this purpose, it will analyze public statements reported in newspapers of nine countries (Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). The analysis makes conceptual use of claims-making analysis and tries to identify contextual factors that determine the extent to which youth actors actively participate in public discourses. In particular, we wish to assess whether discursive inclusion or exclusion of youth is patterned along countries and/or policy fields. Our findings show that policy fields are the most important contextual factors. Moreover, considering claims and actors, public debates about youth are rather similar between the nine countries. This indicates that public debates about youth are patterned by a similar, cross-national differentiation along policy domains

Criminology · Critical discourse analysis · Democracy · Discourse analysis · Ideology · Inclusion (mineral) · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Positive Youth Development · Proposition · Public discourse · Public opinion · Public policy · Public relations · Public sphere · Representation (politics) · Sociology · Youth studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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