Delinquency is primary media image of teens.

Troublesome youths have been staple in Hollywood since the 1955 release of "Rebel Without a Cause." Its star, James Dean, became a national symbol for his portrayal of tortured adolescent Jim Stark. Against a backdrop of increasing juvenile delinquency, "Rebel" reflected growing concerns among many adults that teenagers were dangerous and out of control.

Forty years later, the image of adolescents as delinquents continues to dominate mass media. The most recent example of teen-trouble film is "Kids," which chronicles a day in the life of a group of New York youths, reckless teens who indulge in substance abuse, casual violence, unprotected sex and rape. Their behavior is unsettling; they are amoral, apathetic and dangerous, but it is not surprising, given standard Hollywood fare.

What is surprising, though, is that kids are getting the same rough treatment in newspapers, where coverage of "the juvenile problem" has become just as heavy-handed. That is ironic, considering that as newspaper circulation declines, teenagers could very well represent the last great hope for newspapers.

"I started reading the newspaper when I was a teenager, and found I couldn't live without reading the paper on a daily basis. But increasingly, we find more and more people can," said Richard Weiss, features editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in charge of "Turn It Up," a weekly feature of the "Everyday" section, designed to present teen-centered news. "We need to make newspapers essential to teenagers. If they get into their 20s without seeing what a paper can do for them, we will have lost them."

The Post is one of a number of newspapers across the country that now include information designed to appeal specifically to teens. While the effort is well-intended, it may be in vain, unless editors and reporters recognize a certain irony. Special sections and surveys designed to flatter and attract teen readers may be ineffective when routine coverage is less than flattering, suggesting their lives and voices really don't count at all.

In a 1994 study of 850 children ages 11 to 16, 61 percent said images of their age group on television and in print news were negative and tended to concentrate on teenagers involved in crimes, drugs or violence. The same children reported feeling angry, sad or depressed after watching the news. The study Commissioned by Children Now, a California-based child advocacy organization, showed that children generally feel the media do not understand their age group.

"Media have done a terrible job reporting what it's like to be gawky, horny and brimming with hope and cynicism at the end of the twentieth century," said Elizabeth Larsen, a writer at Utne Reader magazine. "It doesn't seem like a stretch to say that if they can't market products to kids, their only use is to blame them for crime and violence they seem all too happy to cover."

Most daily newspapers portray teenagers negatively, or worse, neglect them as news subjects altogether. As a local example, the Post devoted twice as much space this summer to coverage of teenage crime or reckless behavior, as it did to stories about teenagers' positive achievements. Most stories dealt with breaking news, and failed for the most part to provide any substantive analysis of the events.

When teenagers, good deeds were covered, they were exclusively related to academics; for instance, a profile of a local Science Fair winner, or a story about school-based relief efforts for disaster victims. The subtle suggestion, then, is that teenagers are not capable of individual achievement, but are instead reliant on adults, specifically teachers, to provide opportunities and encouragement to do good deeds.

Rarely do reporters attempt to provide any insight into teen behavior, beyond shedding light on their tastes in clothing and music. When they do aim higher, the information is often negative and the reporting hopeless in tone. Earlier this year, for example, an article in the Post (April 28) reported the results of a child welfare study and another article in the Post (May 4) profiled a father whose teenage son had committed suicide.

Adult attitudes toward teenagers are readily apparent in letters to editors, where spanking and military-style reform schools are frequently endorsed as solutions to juvenile crime. One recent poll, published in many daily newspapers, suggested that most American adults approve of the death penalty for juveniles convicted of capital crimes. U.S. Senator John Ashcroft (R. Mo.) recently proposed legislation that would make some kinds of federal funding available only to those states willing to prosecute violent juveniles as adults, calling them "killers in the classroom and predators on the playground."

Newspaper reports of juvenile crimes are not necessarily inaccurate; in fact, a recent U.S. Justice Department report showed a 100 percent increase in juvenile arrests for violent crimes between 1983 and 1992. But coverage of juvenile crime is out of balance -- it is as if kids must misbehave to get any attention.

"Newsrooms are run by Baby Boomers who tend to define adolescence as a period in which one rebels, that's their idea of an exciting and participatory youth," said Nancy Woodhull, a founding editor of USA Today. If teens are not rebelling -- and doing so loudly -- Woodhull says reporters and editors assume they must not be doing anything newsworthy.

Reporters may also feel resentful because teenagers show less interest in print media than previous generations, Woodhull said. As a result, they are frequently disregarded as news subjects, or approached by reporters whose contempt for adolescence predetermines the negative tone of the coverage.

Teenagers, as a demographic group, are difficult to cover at a daily newspaper, which is more efficient at covering geographic beats. Education reporters, for instance, are assigned to cover school districts, rather than age groups.

To cultivate sources within a demographic group, a reporter has to spend time at their hangouts, gain the confidence of its members and identify their problems and concerns -- a difficult, if not impossible, task for many adult reporters who just don't connect with teen culture.

"You have to know your constituents," said Post Entertainment Editor Ellen Futterman, whose challenge to the newspaper's coverage of teens led to the establishment two years ago of "Turn it Up," now a weekly feature. "Before I did anything for 'Turn it Up,' I asked my boss for an afternoon a week to go out and visit schools. I'd talk to students and journalism teachers, I'd go to sports events and talk to kids, go to the malls and talk to kids, talk to my colleagues who had kids. If you're going to cover teenagers, it takes a real commitment."

A publication concerned with teen issues may benefit from an age-appropriate staff, said Stewart Day, publisher of Blast, a Nashville-based publication written by and for high school and college students. While some newspapers use teenage stringers to cover teen issues, many do not. In fact, articles about teens in daily papers frequently lack direct quotes from their subjects.

"The only way you're going to get kids interested in media is when you let them participate," Day said. "And when kids are involved in the creation of media, you get a totally different perspective on adolescence."

The failure of mainstream media to adequately and respectfully address teenagers and their issues has sent many youths to alternative information sources, which provide the best clues to what's really on their minds. Dozens of teen-generated publications exist on the Internet, for example, and cover issues ranging from politics to the prom.

When teens talk, they talk about what is wrong with kids today -- crime and violence, poverty and pregnancy are all openly discussed -- but unlike most adult-produced news, they also talk about what's right.