Who could be a role model for the teenagers? Whose attitude, outer and inner values appear to the teenagers as an example to be followed? Has the media and media usage an impact on this? How can this be identified? We wanted to find out whether the pupils from our region have role models, if so, who their icons and role models are, who the ones are that have an exemplary behaviour in their eyes, to whom they would like to compare themselves when they grow up. Have the age, the gender, and residence of the pupils any influence on the choice of role model?Have a place among the teenagers’ role models the professional sportsmen? Who are those sportsmen (and which sports), for which the students are enthusiastic about? The football and footballers what role do they “play”? The paper aims to present the role model question among teenagers. The analysis is based on two important surveys conducted among Hungarian teenagers from Szeklerland, Romania (Covasna, Harghita and Mureş counties). The surveys took place in 2012 and 2014. More than two thousand of pupils in the 7th and 11th grades were involved. Can we conclude that the new media brought along the new idols?The media has definitely a strong impact on the young people’s, children’ lives, on their world-perception – can this be identified even here, regarding the role models? What kind of new possibility, new chance or new challenge have the parents, pedagogues, teachers, local communities?
Keywords: role model; media usage; media star; value; content analysis; football
