We know there is no shortage of young people doing good things, so we wanted to make sure their hard work, passion, and resilience are acknowledged.
We have traveled all across Australia interviewing 100 young advocates, entertainers, musicians, actors, artists, CEO’s, sports enthusiasts, lived-experienced folk, you name it. Showing that positive youth stories aren’t rare, they’re just rarely told.
We are posting one interview a day, over 100 days starting September 1st, 2025.
When stereotypes are purported by the news media, they influence how the public perceives young people.
They influence the policies that are made (or not made) for young people, and importantly, they influence young people’s perception of themselves. (FYA, 2020)
Leading the charge of the Fair Youth Coverage campaign is NAPCAN’s Youth Speak Out Council (NYSO). A collective of 18 young people from all across Australia.
NYSO knows first hand the impact negative news surrounding young people can have on their self-worth, their respective communities, and the public’s perception of them. At its most damaging level, negative rhetoric fuels stereotypes, discrimination and can translate into real-world violence.
That is why NYSO is calling on the media to report fairly and ethically on young people, and they’ve gone a step further and made it easy for journalists with guidelines and positive youth stories.
Launched in Parliament in 2024, the NAPCAN Media Guide was designed in the Northern Territory in collaboration with experts and young people, focusing on treating every child and young person fairly in relation to media.
These guidelines are an evidence-based, practical toolkit for journalists.
The guide will support the campaign’s call for journalists and media outlets to adopt ethical, strengths-based practices when engaging with children and young people.
Young people are either not represented in the media, or if they are, it’s often negatively. We want Journalists and media to utilise these guides to focus on a strength-based, solution-focused approach and include young people in the process.
Receiving an award for the efforts in your work, storytelling, and ability to capture context and truth with a strength-based, solution-focused vocabulary is something NYSO values, so we want to value journalists who do just that.
NYSO will aim to launch a National Journalism Award for reporting ethically and fairly on children and young people.
Whether that’s through positive stories, or capturing issues young people are facing in their full context and intersectionality.
We hope it acts as an incentive to those who might need a nudge or for those who already do it to keep up the good work.
A report from Foundation for Young Australians revealed that young people’s voices are largely absent and often stereotyped in news coverage, stories, or headlines (FYA, 2020).
