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Monday Jun 02, 2008
Are the Emo kids on to something?
If I’d had nothing better to do on Saturday then I might have wandered down to Marble Arch to see a peculiar sight. Over 100 teenagers, fans of the band My Chemical Romance, turned up to hold a demonstration against the Daily Mail newspaper for what they feel is the unfaith portrayal of them and their “emo” subculture: particularly in relation to a recent suicide by a 13-year-old girl that the paper linked to the band.
Despite some, well, frankly schoolboy errors with the protest (the one day a week daily newspapers don’t work on is a Saturday and Northcliffe House, where the Mail is based, it down a side-street so they had to move the protest over a mile away) I genuinely was excited to see the protest taking place. Because it’s a sign that teenagers are getting restless, and the oft-reported apathy that young people are purported to have, is wearing thin.
I hope the protest galvanises the young people involved, and others, to up the ante when it comes to the fair representation of young people in the media. That 100 young people can generate a good deal of publicity probably comes down to the novelty of it and Saturday being a slow news day; but even if the Mail says it won’t change its stance protesting has made their readers more aware of the issue.
YouthNet and the BYC run the Respect campaign to try and ensure young people can respond to the negative portrayal of themselves in the media. Let’s hope this is a summer of fun…
Posted by Olly Benson ( 9:00 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]