Don't Blame the Media

It is obvious that the media has changed over the years. From “I Love Lucy” to “South Park”, most would say that it has changed in a harmful way, and that the media negatively influences the young adults in today’s society and therefore is the cause for many teenage problems such as teen pregnancies, teen crimes, teen drug abuse, and depression in teens. However, I do not believe that the change the media has made is to blame for these teen problems.

In today’s society sex appears everywhere—on television, in magazines, and even on the radio (Stossel, 1). In previous years sex it was considered not moral to show the amount of sex shown today. However, even though young people in the present are constantly exposed to sex, according to an article sponsored by ABC News, rates for both rape and teen birthrates have recently fallen (Stossel, 2). Pregnancy rates among teenage girls have also greatly declined (Stern, 1). The Centers for Disease Control confirms that since 1990 teen pregnancies went down forty percent and rates of teens that actually gave birth to a child dropped thirty percent (Sternheimer, 1). Karen Sternheimer, Ph.D. and sociologist at USC says in her article “Don’t Blame Pop Culture for Teen Misbehavior” that pregnancies that occurred in teens that viewed sexual shows on television out of the fifteen hundred teens surveyed was only about thirty-six (3). Rates of rape among young people under eighteen were said by the FBI to have also decreased by fifty-two percent (Sternheimer, 1).

People cannot blame the media for youth crimes either because crimes that are being committed by adolescence in the U.S. has been dropping. According to the FBI “rates of serious violent and property crime among youths under age eighteen plunged forty-nine percent” since 1990 (Sternheimer, 1). Since that 1990 mark, rates for crimes such as murder, serious assault, rape, and robbery committed by adolescence of the same age group have all dropped (Sternheimer, 1). The FBI reported that murder rates when down sixty-six percent, serious assault rates declined twenty-eight percent, rape rates decreased by fifty-two percent, and robbery rates fell thirty-two percent (Sternheimer, 1). Of one-thousand six hundred teens surveyed only thirty them said they both visited violent websites and committed a seriously violent act (Sternheimer, 3).

Television has positive influences on today’s youth (Barbour, 3). Advertisers have attempted to use television to help change the behaviors of young people in a positive way (Barbour, 3). The media has made “efforts to modify behaviors such as smoking, drunken driving, and even poor nutritional habits” through the television, radio, and even in some magazines (Barbour, 3). Attempts to change these behaviors are shown in anti-drug commercials like “Above the Influence”. These commercials are shown on TV, broadcasted on the radio, and are even in magazines such as “Cosmopolitan”. All those who hear or see these ads are told that their voice is the only one that matters and to use that voice to be above the influence of drugs. In television shows such as “16 and Pregnant” and “Sex Rehab” on MTV viewers are shown that there are consequences to sex. “16 and Pregnant” allows viewers to see that having a child at a young age is a very difficult thing to do whether you keep the child or give it up for adoption. “Sex Rehab” shows those who watch the show that sex has not only child bearing consequences but also emotional consequences.

Some might argue that the media allows things such as sex, drug abuse, and crimes to be exposed and because of that youths are shown these things. Marty Klein, Ph.D. and author of “America’s War on Sex” was quoted saying, “The truth is children think about sex whether we want them to or not, children think about sex. [They] don’t need [the media’s] help to think about sex” (Stossel, 2). I feel that this is true. Young adults don’t need the media’s help to think about sex, drugs, or crimes. They will think of these things on their own, so the media cannot be blamed for the actions or misbehaviors of adolescents.