“We (the youth) are the priority. Although not everyone wants to see it that way, that is the reality.”

Antonella Figueroa

The Reframed Stories Project asks people to respond to dominant themes and issues that appear in news coverage about their communities. These stories are reflections by people who are frequently represented by others in the media. Word clouds are created using the Media Cloud platform, a data analysis tool which examines a collection of media outlets over a specific period of time, allowing participants to analyze and discuss the preliminary insights into how they might be represented in the media. The project refrains from making conclusive pronouncements about the data, and instead is a starting point that creates space for discussion about how they can help shape their own media representation through digital media.

Antonella Figueroa is a member of Centro de juventudes de Esmeraldas (Youth Center of Esmeraldas), a human rights organization in Esmeraldas, Ecuador that works with children, teenagers, and the LGBTI community. One of its primary activities is the weekly radio program La Calle Habla (The Street Talks), a place for discussion and debate about issues facing their community. The following is a transcript of the audio podcast about Antonella's analysis of the word cloud for the term, “joven” (youth).

Dominant words from 8,811 articles published between January 2017 and April 2018 found mentioning “joven” (youth) within four Media Cloud collections of Ecuador’s Spanish-language media outlets. (view larger image)

Of the word cloud chosen, what drew your attention the most?

Escogí la palabra ‘joven’ porque somos prioridad aunque no todos lo quieran ver así, pero es la realidad.

I chose the word ‘youth’ because we are the priority. Although not everyone wants to see it that way, that is the reality.

How are youth represented in the media according to the word cloud?

Doble vía, trabajo, muerte, ó sea, muchas cosas de accidentes que han pasado . Porque quizás haya una noticia de accidentes, de heridos, de muerte.

Two-lane road, work, death. Many things about accidents that have happened because maybe there was news of accidents, injuries, death.

How should youth be represented in the media?

Deberían haber muchas otras palabras, como futuro, carismáticos, alegres, honestos.

There should be many other words, like future, charismatic, cheerful, honest.

This is part of a Rising Frames series developed in close collaboration with the organization El Churo based in Quito, Ecuador. They organized a workshop held on May 4, 2018 in Esmeraldas, Ecuador that brought together representatives from various collectives and groups to examine how they or issues they care about are represented in a collection of Ecuadorian media and created stories in response to that representation.

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