KATHMANDU: The Youth issues covered by the media are being quite encouraging. The prioritisation given to youth issues by media is not balanced as some media have begun publishing more reports about the generation whereas some newspapers do not give much attention, a recent study has suggested.

Likewise, the prioritisation is imbalanced geographically as youth activities being held in the capital and major cities are getting more priority than those happening in other areas, says Yuwalaya, which recently published the report of Media Monitoring on Contemporary Youth Issues.

Among 378 total news reports considered for the study, the highest number of news stories was about gender empowerment and social inclusion. There were 105 stories on this theme, which is 28 per cent of the total.

"The analysis shows that issues of gender empowerment and social inclusion are gradually getting prioritised by the press. On the other hand, child marriage has also become an issue in public sphere; therefore it has also received significant attention from newspapers," stated a report revealed by Yuwalaya, a youth organisation.

Following gender empowerment and social inclusion were child marriage (73), youth and livelihood (65), sexual and reproductive health rights (45), youth people's participation (45) and disaster risk reduction and climate change (45).

"Comparatively, other four themes have received less coverage from the media," said Sanjog Thakuri, president of the Yuvalaya.

Similarly, among 378 news stories published, the highest number of reports was from Province 3. A total of 82 news reports were published from this province. Following it was Province 5, from where total 54 news stories had been published. Besides those covering national issues and few cross-thematic stories, less than 35 stories were published from other five provinces.

"The findings are evident of the fact that mainstream media are biased toward the capital and major city. But, they also suggest that youth residing and working in the capital as well as other major cities have a greater responsibility to make youth of other regions aware about their rights and responsibilities and take all of them together in the development process," said Thakuri.

Among 10 newspapers, The Himalayan Times has published 52 total stories related to selected youth issues during the observation period.