PROCESUL CONSTRUCŢIEI IDENTITARE ÎN REVISTELE ROMÂNEŞTI PENTRU ADOLESCENŢI: GENERAŢIA PRO ŞI GENERAŢIA CONTRA

The present article is concerned with the ways in which two Romanian youth magazines (SALUT and LICEENII) influence and shape teenagers' perceptions and formulations of their self-identities by adopting or refusing a „Western lifestyle". Taking as starting point the assumption of the existence of two different generations of teenagers, SALUT and LICEENII construct a mediatic generational conflict which, because of its market-oriented image and conceptualization, succeeds to involve both professors and high school students. The article analyses the discourses of these two magazines from the perspective of the reasons for they use dichotomies like high culture-low culture or commodity value and of their language. Also, it tries to suggest that their marketing strategies are both shaped and influenced by the image of a Romanian society shattered by the encounter with „Western'' values and lifestyles. The generational conflict imagined and constructed by LICEENII and SALUT has deeper implications than a simple journalistic gadget by virtue of its impact on the ways in which Romanian teenagers imagine their future, choose a career or develop their attitudes toward the different projects of modernization among which Romania has to choose.