Media-influenced perceptions : how educated PNG youth view the West

Abstract

This paper examines how educated Papua New Guinean youth perceive the West, and the influence that the media has on this perception.

There are hundreds of different cultural groups throughout Papua New Guinea. The educated youth studied in this paper come from across the country. They stem from a wide range of geographical and cultural settings. University students are the primary research subjects as these are the educated, privileged young people who will most likely move into positions of influence. Given this group's comparative educational advantage, this paper assesses their level of knowledge about international events and systems.

This paper examines the young people's perspectives on the West by focusing on two cases: the United States of America, and Australia. In particular, the war in Iraq is examined, as this is a high profile international news event from the perspective of Western media organisations, in order to provide specific insights into the dominant ideologies, philosophies and perceptions shared by the students.