Framing the young

Abstract

Easy to estimate, not so easy to define. If we define “youth” as those aged 15 to 24 years old, then there are about 1.2 billion of them or 16 percent of the global population in 2019 (United Nations, n.d.). According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2019), the largest number is in Central and Southern Asia (361 million) and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia (307 million). The youth population could be higher because of the flexibility in determining who is young. UNESCO (n.d.) acknowledges that “being young can vary substantially across the world, between countries and regions, [making ‘youth’] often a fluid and changing category” (Welcome to the UNESCO Youth Programme section, para. 3). This explains why there are countries that consider as part of the youth those up to the ages of 29 or 35 (Advocates for Youth, n.d.). In 1995, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) which “provides a policy framework and practical guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of young people.” (United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs, 2010, pp. i–ii). Its 15 youth priority areas are education; employment; hunger and poverty; health, environment; drug abuse; juvenile delinquency; leisure-time activities; girls and young women; full and effective participation of youth in the life of society and in decision-making; globalization; information and communications technology; HIV/AIDS; armed conflict; and intergenerational issues (United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs, 2010, pp. 13–59). To address these priority areas, the three proposals for action are strengthening families, empowering young women, and strengthening intergenerational solidarity (United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs, 2010, pp. 59–61). While there are conscious efforts to look after the youth, the initiatives should be sustained and expanded based on in-depth research. In this context, the state of the global youth has become the subject of numerous studies (Cuzzocrea et al., 2021; Kelly & Kamp, 2015; Swartz et al., 2021). The same is true for the Asian youth (Naafs & Skelton, 2020). Much as studies on the youth already exist, there is still a need to address emerging youth-related trends and patterns, including those that involve the media.