Teenagers in the Media the Modern Media Essay

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Teenagers in the Media

The modern media portrays the average teenager as a stereotype. Instead of portraying teenagers as individual people, the media tends to depict a stereotypical entity without unique idiosyncrasies or differing preferences. Teens in the media, such as in advertising, in movies, or in television programs are usually written by adults and therefore the representations depicted are caricatures rather than honest reflections of real people. There are typically three different stereotypes of teenagers which the media exploits and reinforces: teens who are obsessed or at the very least highly concerned with brands and physical image, teens who use drugs or alcohol prevalently and whose concern is more to do with parties and other debauchery rather than schooling and planning for their future, and that all teens engage in behaviors such as premarital sex as minors.

Some of the images that are seen in advertising which features products aimed at teens, the focus is on the brand of the product. In one example of an advertisement for Levi's brand jeans, a young man appears to be in flight (Let the average). The understanding from this picture is that anyone who purchases this pair of jeans will be elevated to a god-like position.

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The words themselves promise that the pants will make the wearer "divine." Such hyperbole is the norm for advertising which is targeted at teens. Within the school system, fads are an important thing and the need to have the right shoe or the right jacket is put upon the teenagers by their peers. Advertisers know this and exploit the need for brand acquisition by creating images such as these which further the difference between the brand name and the item itself.

Another stereotype of teenagers according to modern media is their likelihood to engage in drinking and drug use. They are also shown to be interested in partying on the weekends and engaging in other "fun" activities outside of the school. A recent film entitled Project X, portrays just this tendency. Three teenage boys throw a raucous party when the teens' parents are out of town. Even the tag line of the film's poster pledges that this is to be "the party you've only dreamed about" (Phillips 2012).….....

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