Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of Teen Pregnancy reality shows on Teen Childbearing,”
‘I didnt think that it could happen to me!’, the teen girl cries out to the doctor.This is voiced by thousands of pregnant teens around America and many are wondering if there is a cause to the decline in teen pregnancies.Some studies show that what teens hear and see in the media is the cause. Reality tv is a genre of television programming in which "real life" people are followed in a situation,. In 2010, the National Bureau of Economic Research,says that the show 16 and Pregnant cut the teen birth rate by six percent.Based on teen pregnancy statistics, studies showing links between teen pregnancy and sexual content on television, and shows such as 16 and pregnant show that media is effecting teen birth rates in a positive way.
Adolescents TV USE
Some may ask, well how much media are teens watching?According to Washington.edu, the average American teen watches about 20 hours of television a week. By age 18, a teenager will have seen 350,000 commercials; 100,000 may be advertisements for beer.
”New polling data from a nationally representative survey commisioned by The National Campaign,asked teens their opinions on media and teenage pregnancy and their views about 16 and Pregnant.Six in ten teens have watched some of 16 and pregnant.Among those teens who have watched the show,82% think that the show helps teen better understand the challanges of teen pregnancy and parenthood,compared to 15% who thinks that it glamorizes teen pregnancy.In addition,the clear majority of teen boys (67%) and girls(79%)agree with the statement”when a TV show or character I like deals with teen pre...
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...About one-fourth of teen moms have a second child within 24 months of the first birth—which can further delay their ability to finish school.Whether you choose to have sex or not, it is important to be able to talk about it with your partner. Having direct conversations about sex can be difficult but if you are confident about your facts and able to express openly how you feel it should be easier. So take some time to get informed and to think through what feels right for you. It may be helpful to talk these decisions over with a close friend, parent, doctor, or other trusted adult before you talk to your partner. When you are clear about your own feelings, it will be easier to communicate them to someone else. And don’t wait until you’re in the heat of the moment to make these decisions—having a plan means being prepared before you’re in the moment.(Stayteen.org)
Sipple, L. (2011). The appeal of reality television for teen and pre-teen audiences. Journal of
The MTV series 16 And Pregnant and its follow up series titled Teen Mom is a documentary like series that first aired in 2009 on June 11 and since then has had many seasons and sequels to follow it. Each episode in the series focuses on several young girls for 5-7 moths while they have to deal with the struggle of teenage pregnancy and “life after labor”. The initial idea or the show was to promote teen pregnancy prevention but, with many of the girls behaving scandalously and recklessly during the series, the show has become one of the most controversial on MTV.
For example, Aubrey, Behm-Morawitz and Kim state, “Girls who watched "16 and Pregnant,"… reported a lower perception of their own risk for pregnancy and a greater perception that the benefits of teen pregnancy outweigh the risks” (qtd. in Lori Harwood). In other words, due to the fanciful perception this program transmits,
America has one of the largest pregnancy rates in teens in the whole world (“Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media”). Pregnant teens have to make many hard choices. They must decided to keep the baby or not., and to continue on with school. or not. Teens moms can lose everything they’ve worked for after one bad decision. Sex is in teens lives because of media influence.
16 & Pregnant is a TV show aired on MTV that as the name suggests, focuses on the lives of various teens who are pregnant whilst still in high school; each tells a different story. In these episodes, viewers are able to observe the struggles these teens face as a result of pregnancy during pubescent development. Controversy has been made as a result of the release of this show; this left viewers torn between whether 16 & Pregnant discourages teen pregnancy or shrouds it within curiosity. There is more than sufficient evidence to say that 16 & Pregnant, does in fact discourage teen pregnancy for various reasons. According to the New York Times report, the National Bureau of Economic Research compared Nielsen television ratings to birth records, and concluded that in areas where teens viewed MTV more after the debut of 16 & Pregnant, there was a rapid decline of teen pregnancy rates when compared to other areas that viewed it less frequently although some believe the show glamorizes the subject matter. Some also believe that it encourages the teens to disrespect their parents in every way possible; quite to the contrary, watching 16 & Pregnant is very beneficial to discouraging teen pregnancy and family problems by displaying the hardships these teens face, teaching the importance of completing high school and encouraging viewers to use various contraceptives methods or practice abstinence.
There are various reasons as to why this is such a large social problem. There is not a clear answer as to why teens are going out and having sex at such young ages except for the fact that they are just curious or are trying to rebel. Becoming pregnant is an unanticipated consequence for most teens because they did not think it would happen to them. In reality, there are countless teen pregnancies each year. “In 2002, 757,000 pregnancies occurred among females aged 15-19” (Hedman, Larsen, Bohnenblust, 2008). The media also contributes to the blow up of teen pregnancy. There are news stories, 20/20 studies, and even shows that follow the lives of pregnant teens. T.V. shows such as 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom try teaching viewers what troubles a teen mother faces. The realism of these shows can be misleading and can give other teens false truths about what a teen motherhood is really like.
A statistic from the same research shows that in the typical television show there are more than three sexual related scenes per hour. As it is said in the introduction of the report the average teenager is spending more than twenty hours per week in watching television (Nielsen, 1998), so this is why television programs are influencing mostly on younger viewers.
Today I will be talking about the way the authors and creators of a television commercial and newspaper article influence us to their opinion by writing the way they do. The topic that I am studying is Teenage Pregnancy. This topic is always going to be in the media for different reasons, and occasionally you hear about a story of a young girl getting pregnant due to un-safe sex. There will always be issues with this subject within society because so many people have different opinions and views of this topic and weather or not it right or wrong.
Reality television has been around since 1948. Over the past decade, reality TV has seen a dramatic rise in popularity. Today, you can turn on the television and there is a chance that a reality TV show will be on. Reality television is a big part of American’s lives today. There are reality shows starting from relationships, drama, entertainment, to cooking, fitness, sports, and many more. According to a recent study by the Girl Scouts Institute, “Forty-seven percent of girls and young women say they are regular viewers, with thirty percent saying they sometimes watch it." It also reports, “eighty-six percent believe these shows often put girls against each other to make the shows more exciting, and seventy percent say they make people think it is ok to treat each other badly.” Reality television has affected society greatly by encouraging violent behavior, it elevates imprudent personalities, and depicting women of their values.
In society today, teens are taught by the television and the media that pre-marital sex is not a bad thing. This problem is leading to many teenage pregnancies, that then lead to abortion. All over the world teens are faced with many challenges in their everyday lives. Sex is being portrayed as extremely appealing in the media, but what they don't show is the pregnancies and the unborn child that never asked to be created in the first place that is being discarded. Abortion is in no way acceptable, it is murder of an unborn child.
It is interesting to notice that two popular medias come together to make an impact in a cause. Although, initially when these shows were aired, many believed they are only going to contribute to the problem. However, as the shows progressed, the curiosity among the teens increased to learn the outcome of the teen’s life in the stories. The teens started communicating with their friends through the social media on what they have seen in these shows. As the show progressed, it did not only show the reality of the social and economic hardships faced by teen moms after giving birth to a child at a very young age but also educated teens by making them realize the hardship that lie ahead of a pregnancy. The critical part of realization comes from the discussions with their social media friends and the discouragement they receive which helps in educating the teens of pregnancy. This is evident from a spike in the Twitter and Facebook activities among teen population following the day of the shows.
Attention Getter: Nowadays, no one is astonished by the presence of pregnant or parenting teenagers. In fact we have a fascination with pregnant adolescents which is evident in the creation of “16 and Pregnant,” a MTV series that follows the real-life stories of American youth who have engaged in sexual activity and who have realized that reproduction system works because they are or will be parents to a cute baby boy or girl. We watch this series in anticipation of the child’s birth and to witness how the teen parents cope.
Sexually active youths tend to be more exposure to media than any other members of society. The reason behind that is because they are in charge of their own time without much interference from their parents and burdensome responsibilities. This, combined with the fact that both implicit and explicit sexual content and crime in the mass media has grown over time predisposes youths to premarital sex (Rosengren, 2000).
There are many interesting statistics regarding teen pregnancy in the United States. In 2012 alone, there were 305, 388 babies born to teenage mothers (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy 2013). Even though 305, 388 is a considerably high number of teen births, the number of teen births in 2012 actually decreased six percent from 2011 and fifty-two percent from 1991(The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pre...
Sexual activity in the mass media is another negative influence on teenagers. The first example is early sexual intercourse. According to Stockwell, a research shows that teenagers who are exposed to a lot of sexual content on television are more to likely to have sex by 16 years of age than those with limited exposure.