Change In The Media

What is really going on?

“There’s no doubt that the public perception is that things are getting worse, and that kids are having sex younger and are much wilder than they ever were,” said Kathleen A. Bogle, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle University. “But when you look at the data, that’s not the case.” The media is over publicizing and they are using this media frenzy to make teenage pregnancy appear glamorized and as a scare tactic.

Glamorized. 

The media has glamorized pregnancies with the movies like Juno and Knocked Up and the extreme about of publicity that Jamie-Lynn Spears received was beyond ridiculous. MSNBC made the situation appear as if everything will be perfectly normal from here on out as “Jamie Lynn plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana — ‘so it can have a normal family life.’” The media is making the viewers ignorant to the truth and making it seem as if there are hardly any problems. Jamie Lynn even told OK! Magazine, "I can’t say it was something I was planning to do right now," the 16-year-old confesses to OK!. "But now that it’s in my lap and that it’s something I have to deal with, I’m looking forward to being the best mom I can be.”

Scare Tactic.

However, another highly publicized teenage pregnancy of Bristol Palin was used more as a scare tactic as the couple was described by NY Daily News as “Doe-eyed Bristol Palin, 17, and ruggedly handsome Levi Johnston, an 18-year-old self-described "f---in' redneck," and they referred to Johnston as, "Levi has got huge potential," Jennie Johnston said. "He's a smart kid." Implying that the pregnancy was the biggest mistake and could potentially ruin everything. And on his MySpace page he wrote, “On the part where it asks about children, he wrote, ‘I don't want kids.’” Which is creating a recipe for disaster as the two have had their child and plan to get married.

Think.

Allison Banegas, teenage mother at age 15 told the New York Times, “Some girls think it’s cool to have a baby. I want them thinking straight,” she said. “I want them to really know the consequences from somebody who’s living with it every day.” So, what are the repercussions of this media frenzy? The answer is at Gloucester High where “17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies — more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year” according to TIME.