Young people often have obsolete and unattractive job images in their minds and combine these with outdated clichés, whereas their ideas and wishes of professions are not far away from SET education and jobs. Socialisation agents peer group, teachers and media influence this image and the attitudes of young people differently (through information and presentation of role models).

Youth, gender and SET in media
 
The IFZ team especially focuses on the second work package “Youth, gender and SET in media” (WP-Leader: Anita Thaler). The background therefore is that science, engineering and technology (SET) are future job fields, but in many European countries the number of SET students declines. Job choices of young people are among other things influenced by media representations of jobs, therefore certain media can be seen as today’s informal vocational counsellors for young people. In this work package we analyse the two youth relevant media fields TV series (soap operas) and print media (magazines), which are mostly consumed by young people in their leisure time (informal education). First, we are exploring print media and analyse images of SET in general and images of SET with a gender focus in particular then we analyse TV. Pictures, stories, movies, television series, music clips and commercials mirror social reality and they construct culturally dominant images and influence implicitly young people’s study and job choices.

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