Teenage Sexuality and Media Practice: Factoring in the Influences of Family, Friends, and School - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 1999 by Jeanne Rogge Steele

A similar naivete (or was it bravado?) was expressed by one of the Spencer boys ,during the group discussion about favorite TV shows.

   What they doin' on TV anti videos is really based on real life, ya know.
   What you see in movies like really happened, ya know? It depends on what
   kind of movie you watch ... right? If you watch the Real Stories of the
   Highway Patrol, they showin', they really showin' what happened in real
   life ... they try to base the show on their actions in real life ...

In the preceding examples, the teens' judgments about credibility hinge on abstract world views that have been acquired over their entire lifetimes. In order for media content to be believable, it must correspond with what they know of the world through lived experience.

Ethnicity also affects Selection. Black teens showed a marked preference for media featuring Black actors, performers, and content. For example, six Black teens but no White teens listed Jason's Lyric, a love story about a Black couple, as their first or second favorite movie. The preference for Black performers by Black teens was even more evident in their listings of favorite musicians. All of the performers they liked were Black even though their musical styles ranged from rhythm and blues (R&B) to rap to jazz. Similar demarcations were seen with magazines. For instance, the White middle school girls all listed YM or Seventeen as their favorite magazines. Both are edited for a mainstream, predominantly White audience. None of the Black girls read these magazines. Instead, they listed Black hair magazines (Black Hair, Braids) and Ebony (beauty and fashion), Jet (current events), and Word Up (music) as their favorites.

Gender differences were also apparent in media preferences. Black artists or musical groups such as Mary J. Blige, Brandi, and Salt `N' Pepa were listed by several of the Black females, but none of the Black males. Similarly, White musicians never were listed as boys' favorites, only girls'. Gender cross-overs were more frequent with television shows, particularly the popular docu-dramas that have come into vogue. For example, Seinfeld was fairly popular with White boys and girls, as were Ellen and Home Improvement. None of these shows appeared in the Black teens' rankings of favorite shows.

Differences in developmental level also affect media preferences. Several of the younger (middle school) White boys listed Forrest Gump as a favorite movie, and they also liked the slapstick humor of Jim Carey's Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber. Mask, another comedy featuring Carey and an improbable plot, appeared four times, a favorite of both Black and White teens. None of these movies showed up as best shows for high-school-aged teens, suggesting that the storylines were less appealing to more mature audiences. For early adolescents, however, actor Carey got it just right: the dumber, the better. In his journal, Karl, then in seventh grade, explained the appeal of "dumb" this way:

   Anyway, um, I really like this movie [Dumb and Dumber]. I thought it was
   very funny. There were several dumb humor parts, and that's the kind of
   humor I like. I find it very easy to watch this because there are very
   sarcastic parts and they did some stupid things. I thought the movie was
   hysterical. The plot was pretty good, too.