Comparing Let's Drink By Van Den Bulck And Van Gorp

Hilde Van den Bulck and Van Baldwin Van Gorp’s article, “Let’s Drink and Be Merry: The Framing of Alcohol in the Prime-Time American Youth Series The OC.” (2008), observes the stigma of alcohol consumption on television and how viewers perceive this. Van den Bulck and Van Gorp back this claim up with a study that counted how many times characters from the OC drank, why they drank, and how the active or passive form of drinking was seen by the audience. Both authors’ purpose is to show that while alcohol consumption is present on television, its presence is not significant enough to convince viewers to consume it. According to the language used in the article, Van den Bulck and Van Gorp are writing to an audience, which includes data analysts

and psychologists, that understands the data collected in the study.
This source is too specific to make a generalization of alcohol in all teen dramas. However, the information presented in this article argues that alcohol consumption in many television shows may not be active enough to influence teens to drink. This article would also help me introduce the topic of teen drinking in teen dramas. Additionally, the study conducted in this article increases its credibility because readers can understand the argument presented by the authors. The point that I will use from this article discusses the difference between active and passive drinking and how it is viewed by an audience.