ABSTRACT
Recent developments in Critical Discourse Studies have incorporated discussions around the geopolitics of knowledge production, the reconceptualisation of central notions in received research traditions, and critical inquiries into hegemonic discourses of power and privilege (Lazar, 2020; Resende, 2021). Engaging with these discussions, this chapter reviews studies investigating representations of youth in Western media. Analysis of these studies allowed for the identification of two main groups that have drawn the attention of the media and, consequently, scholars in the past decade or so, namely, (i) youth in urban spaces and (ii) unaccompanied minors and young asylum seekers and refugees. After identifying the main theoretical frameworks and methodologies employed in these studies, this chapter proposes ways in which media analysis of representations of youth can be informed by Southern epistemologies and theories of decoloniality. Particularly, an overarching claim put forth in this chapter is that notions such as abyssal line (de Sousa Santos, 2014, 2018), coloniality, and coloniality of being (Maldonado-Torres, 2007) can be helpful in attempts to unpack understandings of culture, language, and integration that are mobilised in media debates, oftentimes reproducing ethnocentric divides between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
