Friday, April 1, 2011
"Teens Becoming Pregnant to Get on 'Teen Mom'?"
So I came across this ridiculous article, "Teens Becoming Pregnant to Get on 'Teen Mom'?" by Rob Shuter and thought it would not only be a great conversation topic, but it also fit perfectly with what we have been discussing in class. From their appearance on MTV's 'Teen Mom,' each of those teens has managed to make their way to celebrity status, while they enjoy their "15 minutes of fame." The popularity of this show has grown tremendously. The girls are being talked about online and in magazines, only encouraging their behavioral, and as we've been describing, distracting us from what the show is really about. Supposed to be educating young adults about teen pregnancy and the consequences, it has become an outlet for entertainment, encouraging young girls that being a teen mom will make you a celebrity. This article shows how issues are being distorted into positive messages for young girls, and now that Teen Mom 2's season is coming to end, there's opportunity for new girls. Just another example of what this so called "celebrity culture" has come to.
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Dani, I think your assessment of the Teen Mom "franchise" reveals that a tremendous amount of "pop culture" program is based on the economic models of profitability, rather than the responsible role of educating the public. As you said, Teen Mom may have originally been intended to reveal the struggles of teen motherhood to the nation, and teach young girls the tremendous consequences of irresponsible behavior. Since the original release, however, the show has exploded in popularity and has now diverged from this original message. Instead, it seems as though Teen Mom, and similar shows within the successful MTV franchise, are communicating the message that if an individual can do something to get on television, he or she will become a wealthy celebrity regardless of his or her choices in life.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to sound like a media pessimist, but I think Teen Mom provides a perfect example of a show that lost it's original message, but has continued on because it's popularity, and the popularity of subsequent spin-off series have resulted in massive profits for MTV. Thus, regardless of the negative, irresponsible message or narrative of the show, as long as Teen Mom sells, it will have a future on MTV.