Essay, Research Paper: Media's Influence On Teenagers

Josh Goldstein
4/25/01
DOES MEDIA (TV, radio, magazines) INFLUENCE US TEENAGERS?
"I wake up to the radio, eat breakfast to the TV, drive to school to the radio, use computers for schoolwork, and read magazines and watch TV before bed [the media] is always there. I definitely think that the media affects high school culture. For example, what people wear and how people want to look. "And it especially influences girls our age people definitely want to look like the models that they see, whether it s wanting to wear the same clothes or wanting to be 5 10" and 100 lbs." South senior Debbie Bernstein
In my life, I wake up to TV, drive with the radio, surf the net, watch primetime TV, and fall asleep with the TV. How can media not influence my life?
It influences the way I speak (the words I use), the clothes I wear, and the food I eat. I see people in the movies and want the life they lead. I see clothing advertisements and want the clothes I see. I want to eat the food on TV because it looks so good and comes as the complete breakfast.
The media affects how we all act, especially in how it portrays high school on television. It defines what s cool and what s not.
In my search for information I stumbled upon an article from The USA Today, which presented a study that suggests that television shows and ads can influence teenagers to drink alcohol. Dr. Erica Weintraub Austin, a media researcher for the Edward R. Murrow School of Communications at Washington State University, studied nearly 600 students in the 9th and 12th grades to determine drinking habits and potential causes. What the Doctor found revealed that about two-thirds of the teens had had at least one drink of alcohol sixth months before the study, one third had had four alcoholic beverages in a row at least once in sixth months, and as disturbing as one could imagine, and one third of the lab rats said they had ridden in a car with a drunken driver. She said kids are vulnerable to wishful thinking, and the ads play right in to that by showing them all the great things that are supposed to happen when you drink alcohol.
Back to the question of media influencing my life of course it does. I see something on TV, it s cool, I follow. As a teenager I am very self-conscious and have a sticky self-esteem. I want to fit in and not to be the odd man out.
Media is just the flavor of the weak!