A Bit of the Other': Media Representations of Young People's Sexuality

Media representations of young people are an important patt of society's ongoing discussion with itself ahntit 'the state of its youth'. This article sets out to explore how the Irish media address the issue of young people and sexuality. Adopting a bwadly social constructionist perspective, it presents qualitative case stttdies of the verbal and visttal cotttent of selected featute items in the press and concludes that, at least where sexuality is at issue, young people ate envisaged and presented as 'Other', as sotnetlung puzzling and niy.stetious. The tabloid and hivadsheet press employ similar sets of rhetorical devices to construct this represetttation atid to 'make a spectacle'of the young, often with marked gender differences. There is a consistent 'tnetophor of discovety': the 'lifting oj a lid' on what young people are 'getting up to', unknown to their parent.s. There is a pervasive sense of alarm, di.^titay. of loss and even (atnbivalentty) of betrayal. It is suggested that in consistently treating yottng people as 'Other', as ptedominantly different and difficult, these media representations may themselves be helping to construct and sustain the 'problem' of intergenerational relations