Young people more often reluctant to participate in the media: “I prefer to keep personal things private”
Young people are increasingly opting out of participating in the media because they do not want their name or face to appear in the newspaper. Where does this reluctance come from? We asked students on campus and asked journalism professor Mark Deuze to shed some light on the matter.
A female student wearing a striking purple hat holds her hand in front of her face. “I don’t want to be on camera,” she says when a Folia editor approaches her with a camera. More and more often, when Folia goes on campus to record a video, she gets these reactions from students. Writing editors also regularly encounter students who do not want to cooperate with a journalistic article under their name. And when students apply for jobs, they sometimes send a request to remove an article or video – for example, one in which they express their views on condom use.
National media also encounter young people who do not want their names or faces to appear in the newspaper. Is it true that young people have become more reluctant to participate in the media? Folia asked professor of journalism and media studies Mark Deuze and VU researcher Tim Groot Kormelink. And went to the Roeterseiland campus to ask the students themselves.
Newsrooms are increasingly receiving requests from people to remove publications they have contributed to. Folia also receives such requests, often from students who are about to apply for jobs after graduation. They often invoke the right to be forgotten, a right that all EU citizens possess to have irrelevant, incorrect or outdated data removed by organisations. This right is enshrined in the General Data Protection Regulation privacy law.
There are exceptions to this right in journalism, in order to protect freedom of expression and archiving rights. The press itself determines what is published, and newspapers serve as archives to record events in society as completely as possible for the sake of history. A newspaper cannot simply remove an article. However, there are exceptions, namely when the safety of a person who collaborated on a journalistic production is at stake or when the person in question was a minor (younger than 16 years old).
Digital shadow
The experts Folia spoke to recognise the picture that students in 2025 have become more cautious about participating in the media. “Ten to fifteen years ago, it was perfectly normal to post an entire photo album of a night out on the internet,” says Tim Groot Kormelink, a university lecturer in journalism who researches how young adults relate to the media. Nowadays, students are said to be more “media savvy” and have more skills to consciously manage their online profile on social media. UvA professor Mark Deuze also recognises students’ “growing aversion” to the media and explains the phenomenon on the basis of increasing “digital literacy” and awareness of one’s digital shadow.
This awareness among young people is reflected in how they themselves deal with news media and social media. Kormelink: “Young people pay particular attention to how permanent or fleeting a message is. On Snapchat, for example, where messages disappear automatically, they show a different side of themselves than on Instagram, where messages are more curated. But even on more permanent platforms such as Instagram, they largely retain control over what remains on their profile.”
According to Deuze, a second reason for this reluctance has to do with concerns about surveillance, the means that governments use to monitor their citizens. Deuze: “People are concerned about this, even though they can’t say exactly what surveillance entails. Is it the cameras on the street, the cookies on the internet, or is it Big Brother in general?”
Zoo stories
Another explanation is the way young people are portrayed in the media. Deuze: “Just look up news about young people. There’s always a problem, there’s always something wrong. Either they study too long or they study too little. They have mental health issues, are addicted to social media and are burdened by concerns about the climate or housing.”
According to Deuze, young people often appear in the news like animals in a zoo. Deuze: “Young people going wild at a festival. Or wandering around scantily clad at night. That kind of weird-kids-who-are-like-Romans reporting. You see that with other minority groups too, who are often not represented in newsrooms. So why would you, as a young person, want to contribute to journalistic production? Either you’re crazy or you have a problem. In that case, journalists have enormous blinders on.”
In short, contributing to a journalistic production means relinquishing control, and young people have little interest in that, Kormelink summarises. “Uncertainty about the end result plays a role in this: how will my words be presented or distorted? How will my contribution be framed? Which photo will be chosen?”
Nevertheless, students at the Roeterseiland campus are surprisingly willing to respond to video questions on the subject. However, they prefer to keep personal matters private and would first like to know what the questions are about. Many students do not seem to be concerned about their CVs yet. “What’s the worst that could happen?” says one boy. Another student has come up with a precautionary measure: “As long as I don’t talk about subjects I know nothing about, nothing can go wrong.”
