Youth media

For the magazine industry, young people represent big business. Editors and advertisers invest in research to know their readership intimately and they design their products to reflect the interests, lifestyles and fashions of their target audience. This paper shows how the ‘youth media’ – youth, music and lifestyle magazines – can help detect, monitor and respond to emerging drug trends among young people. The paper looks at the youth media as a possible information source on new drug ‘fashions’ and explores their potential as a channel to prevent drug-related harm among young people.