Mass Media and the U.S. Youth
In the technological era we now live in it is very easy for a teen to become influenced by all the mediums that they come into contact with.   In a normal day the average teen can have a constant contact with a source of media at all times of the day.   Anything from phones, magazines, and television are used to view the many aspects of the media.   The influence that all the exposure a teen can have to this media can become either healthy or unhealthy to the teen.   Teens in the U.S. are subjected to the acts of violence, sex, and tobacco/alcohol use in many different ways.   This chapter of the book talks of how the teens are exposed and the effects that it has on the U.S. teen.  
The media in the U.S. depicts that the world on television and movies as being risk free of aggression, smoking, unprotected sex, and drinking, and depict these acts as being glamorous and ok to take part in.   On an average a teen still watches more than twenty hours of television per week, or two to three hours a day.   And now they have access to music, television, and other mediums at all times of the day.   Marketers are inventing new and improved ways of getting advertising to the teens via school buses and cafeteria trays are being used to display ads.   Now teens can choose at their disposal how they want to receive their media and what exactly they want to be subjected to.   In figure with 6.1 the media diet pyramid is shown and depicts exactly how a teen and what a teen is being influenced by.   The first level is the “common culture”, this is what the teen will see and try to emulate and mimic.   The most popular things in each medium are usually in this section since this is what is being broadcasted to the most people.   Nearing the top of the pyramid gives the freedom to the viewer to create their own media.   This may be in the forms of songs, diaries, and websites.   The main focus of the teen is to differenciate themselves from anyone else.   The... [continues]

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