I decided to buy 2 newspapers to read through to choose an article from, because I just wanted to make sure that I did find a good one to work with and didn't limit myself with what I could use. The papers that I bought were The Guardian and Daily Mail (the main reason why I bought the Daily Mail was because there was also the 'free money giveaway' thing they were doing, but I didn't win).
To save myself reading every single thing that is put in both of the papers (because I figured it would get pretty boring quickly), I first scanned through them both to find the most interesting headlines in them. I did this because after all, if the headline is good/interesting you are a lot more likely to read/like the article it comes with.
Once I chose a fair few, I then read through them all, and basically put them into a like/don't like list. I tried to be optimistic about each, but really thought into the kind of stuff I could go into with them at the starting point while making my decisions.
I ended up with a total of 4 articles, luckily it turned out to be 2 from each of the papers (totally not a coincidence), but when I think into them they each have a good variety of things to work with, so I made a mind map for each showing these.
From scanning over these mind maps (quite a few times), I have decided that the article I am going to use for my research is the 'Big rise in number of drunken children in A&E'. I have chose this one because it is the one that I think I can get more from it without straying too far from the original article, where as with the 'Drivers beware, wardens have gone undercover' one, the ideas and things that I have got in the mind map don't really relate so much to the original article. I do think that one would be good because it opened up a lot of doors to go down with it, but because I don't think that this is really as much what the brief is asking, I am going with the underage drinking one.
Big rise in number of drunken children in A&E.
Here is the research I have made for this article.
First, here is a link to the article so that it can be read.
Article.
Words
I went on thesaurus.com and typed in words to then find some related words to the main ones used within the headline and what the article is about.
Facts
I will look on the internet and keep my eye out for relevant flyers and things to find facts on underage drinking.
Whilst looking, I came across a good website (here) that has 'Myths and Facts' about underage drinking. Here is a couple of examples of what is on it:
"Myth: Drinking alcohol will make me cool.
Fact: There's nothing cool about stumbling around, passing out, or puking on yourself. Drinking alcohol can also cause bad breath and weight gain.
Myth: Drinking is a good way to loosen up at parties.
Fact: Drinking is a dumb way to loosen up. It can make you act silly, say things you shouldn't say, and do things you wouldn't normally do (like get into fights)."
I like how these read as though they are talking to the teen wanting o drink, rather than being completely serious and boring. I think this way the teen is a bit more likely to take notice because it's just like they are saying it how things are. There is also a page with some more serious informative facts on it, such as:
"Persons reporting first use of alcohol before age 15 are more than five times as likely to report past-year alcohol dependence or abuse than persons who first used alcohol at age 21 or older."
"Scientists warn that teenagers who drink heavily are risking permanent brain damage, in particular to their brain funtion." (link)
"NHS statistics show that one-fith of secondary school pupils admit to regular drinking." (link)
"Alcohol use contributes to youth suicides, homicides and fatal injuries - the leading cause of death among youth after auto crashes." (link)
"Most teens get their alcohol from their parents or other adults over the age of 21." (link)
"Britain's booze culture is putting more children into hospital with drink-related problems than ever before." (link)
"Your liver isn't fully formed until your 19 so it leaves you prone to developing liver disease." (link)
"The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that over 50% of 15 to 16 year olds have participated in binge drinking." (link)
"More than a third of British adults drink over the safe daily alcohol limit." (link)
"Few young people nowadays wait until they're 18 to drink. By the time they reach 15, more than eight out of 10 have already tried alcohol." (link)
"Drinking alcohol can make teenagers forget about safe sex. Statistics show that after drinking, 11% of young people engaged in unprotected sex in 2007." (link)
"With more alcohol, the body struggles to cope. The person may slur their speech, feel confused, and have trouble standing and walking, which can lead to accidents. As their judgement is affected more, they may say or do something they later will regret." (link)
"Alcohol is a factor in:
- One in three (30%) sexual offences
- One in three (33%) burglaries
- One in two (50%) street crimes." (link)
"Across England, half a million children between the ages of 11 and 15 years will have been drunk in the past 4 weeks." (link)
Images
With the help from Google, I searched for different images relating around the subject of my article.
Statistics
For now, the only kind of statistics I can think to look into are the literal ones about how many underage drinkers there is and what now, so I will type something into google and see what comes up and go from there.
First, here is the statistics that I have gotten from the article itself.
"Tens of thousands of under age teens every year are attended to by ambulance crews, treated in A&E or admitted overnight, according to a report from the charity Alcohol Concern."
"The number of underage drinkers admitted to hospital in England rose by 32% between 2003 and 2007."
"A total number of 92220 children and young people under 18 were admitted to hospital between 2002 to 2009 - or 36 under 18's a day."
"Girls are 1.3 times more likely than boys to need to be admitted to A&E due to alcohol."
"Underage drinkers across the UK consume the equivalent of 6.9 pints of beer or 1.7 bottles of wine every week."
"630000 underage drinkers aged 11-17-years-old drink atleast twice a week."
"Ambulance services in England and Wales have been called out an estimated 16387 times in the past year to deal with drunken under 18's."
Here is an interesting section I found from a short page of statistics from a website I previously used for some of the facts I found.
"As they grow older, the chance that young people will use alcohol grows. Approximately 10 percent of 12 year olds say they have used alcohol at least once. By age 13 that number doubles. And by age 15, approximately 50 percent have had at least one drink." (link)
Another good website I have found, gives some statistics on the amount of deaths caused by alcohol, and as well it contains possible reasons for underage people to be drinking.
"Each year, approximately 5000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings." (link)
Here is some statistics from a survey this website did.
"The 2009 Youth Risk Behaviour Survey found that among high school students, during the past 30 days:
- 42% drank some amount of alcohol.
- 24% binge drank.
- 10% dove after drinking alcohol.
- 28% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol." (link)
"Learn the facts. 39% of eighth graders, 58% of tenth graders, 72% of twelth graders report they have tried alcohol at least once in their lifetime" (link)
"20% of 11 to 15 year olds said they had drunk alcohol in the previous week." (link)
"In 2004, 39% of pupils agreed with the statement that it is 'OK to drink alcohol once a week'." (link)
Opinions
I asked people I knew to give me their opinions about the article I have chose. I tried to ask as much of a variety of people as I could so that I got more variation of a response. Some people weren't really sure what I was asking so I would say thing like 'well what do you think just after you finish reading the article' and 'what do you think it is trying to say', and more things along those lines.
Simon Pritchard
..."I agree that everyone has a part to play in this. I don't think that it is only the parents responsibility to control it, more should be done to stop under 18's from buying it. I disagree that the prices should be put up and drinks offers be stopped because it's then punishing the ones that are responsible drinkers just because a bunch of kids can't handle their drink."...
Baljeet Kaur Samra
..."I think it's shocking that so many young people are drinking alcohol.. I don't think girls drink more I just think they can't control themselves as well as guys when they drink too much! It's something that needs to change but which young person listens when someone says don't drink?"...
Laura Guest
..."I don't get what the big thing is about it. They are only doing what every kid does at that age. I think it's a load of shit. They are blaming everyone else for it like the parents but if they are going to do it they will just do it. And I think it's wrong saying that parents should be role models because half of them probably don't even know their kids are doing it."...
Pat Pritchard
..."I think there's too much cheap alcohol in shops and too many alco-pops that are easier for young people to drink as they don't taste like alcohol."...
Bobby Hatton
..."The article isn't surprising but it shows how much of a waste of taxpayers money it can be. I think there is nothing wrong with a bit of drink but getting paraletic at 16 is too far."...
Curtis Layhe
..."I think it's horrible. Pisses me off that the pubs are heavily advertising alcohol and selling to underage. It requires atricter enforcements but I'm guessing the figures are lower than they are because some people won't go to hospital they will just go home."...
Joanne George
..."The article is very numerical and full of statistics. It's quite a long one and it looks at the problem of young drinkers quite well and why they drink."...
Sophy Gaunt
..."I like this article. It's simple and to the point with clear points to follow. I felt educated after. If I was to critisise I would just say that some of the more shocking facts should be portrayed more harrowingly."...
Matthew Parker
..."Well it sounds a bit like proparganda to me, sorta biased, trying to demonise alcohol and the alcohol industry, for example '' Underage drinkers across the UK consume the equivalent of 6.9m pints of beer or 1.7m bottle of wine every week'', is that 6.9 million kids drinking 1 pint each or 100,000 kids drinking 69 pints each? And ''630,000 11-to-17-year-olds drink at least twice a week." Whats wrong with that? I remember drinking lager shandys wen i was 5 or 6 and it never did me any harm! As long as alcohol remains as heavily promoted as it currently is, young drinkers will continue to consume far more than they might otherwise, leading to inevitable health harms and wasting ambulance and police time," Thats bull shit, alcohol's always been promoted and when I was a teenager you could go into certain corner shops in your school uniform and buy a bottle of white lightning for 99 pence and if you drank too much you made yourself sick, went home and hoped that your mam didn't find out and if she did you got a crack and then you got another one the morning after."...
Other
I think because underage drinking is a huge thing to research into because of all the different aspects to look at within it, so as well as what is required for this brief I will also do some additional research that I feel could possibly help the next stages of this module.
Underage Drinking Campaigns
I have looked into different designs that some designers have produced in relation to underage drinking. I didn't want to find the typical kind of campaigns against it that would would be likely to pick up anywhere, so I looked on the website Behance, because it is a network of new, fresh designers just getting their work out there so I think it would be interesting to look at this side to it.
Dept. of Transportation - Andrea Pantleo (link)
The target audience for these designs is aimed at parents, or more specifically new parents that want the best for their kids. The concept for it is to get them to start thinking about talking to their kids about the effects of alcohol when they are younger so that they are more aware of it once they get to the age when the temptation starts. I like the designs, but they do remind me a bit too much on the kind of charity adverts you see that are asking you to give them loads of money. The greyscale has a good reality effect to it, especially once you read the body copy.
Here is some more:
- Why Let Drink Decide? - Brian Walker (link)
- Underage Drinking Project - Kellie McGinness (link)
- MADD New Mexico "Broken Teens" - Jesse Arneson (link)
Alcohol and Sex
One thing that a lot of people associate with drinking is probably sex. Here is a good design I found relating them, but also at the same time displaying the warning from it.
Safe Sex Campaign - Derek Bowers (link)
Whilst I was thinking about young teens drinking, I had the thought of how far they would go when drinking, you know like to impress their mates or what ever. So I figured I would have a look to see if there is any designs based around this, and I found this quite amazing one. It is not specifically about drinking, but they are great at getting you thinking.
How far would you go? Campaign - Shane Miller/David Trujillo (link)
Presentation
For the presentation that is required to present the research we have made, I put together this board in order to use to explain what I have found. It only includes selected bits of the research that highlights the overview of it all. Here is how it looks..
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