Bashing Youth: Media Myth About Teenagers

2293 Words10 Pages
Judging Books by Their Covers Take a look at the images above. They are illustrations of cartoons that I am sure you have seen many times. If you noticed the caption being “incorrect” then you too have been affected by the stereotypes made by media. Each of these simple images forms a stereotypical title in each one of our heads. According to Webster’s Dictionary a stereotype is a “fixed, commonly held notion or image of a person or group, based on an observation, behavior or appearance. They reflect the ideas that groups of people hold about others who are different from them.” According to a July 22nd, 2004 article in the Alameda Times-Star, “We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain the requisite information…show more content…
The media only portrays the teenagers as the bad guys regardless whether an adult was involved in that action or case; the headlines always include the word teenager. If an adult pays a teenage girl to have sex is called teenage prostitution. Or a teenage girl getting pregnant by a 20 year old male is called teenagers getting teenagers pregnant. The same concept comes in account when violence is talked about. Even though stats say something else, the media automatically portrays the teenagers as the bad guy. Eighty five percent of the murders are done by adults. With titles such as “children having sex” and “killer kids” it is clearly shows why such abuses are the key factors in violence, pregnancy, drug abuse and suicide among teenagers. ) This shows that what people assume to be reality, may in fact be incorrect. But these assumptions again are based off of what society
Open Document