General Thoughts

Who is the intended audience?

· Overall, we discovered that both females and males are targeted. Various shows definitely attract more of a particular gender, but due to sexual content, there are many instances where both groups would easily be interested.

· Ages: 11-25 (Young teens and adults)

· Naive youth that don’t understand the difference between reality TV and lived reality.

· A lower socio-economic class, since these are the teens that are unable to live the lifestyles portrayed in these TV shows, but really want to since it's something they don't currently have.

What are the shows saying to teens?

· MTV as a whole is essentially making an assumption that young adults are immature and don't require much depth in the shows they watch.

· Foul language is an appropriate way to communicate, or to express your emotions (anger, hurt, anxiety...etc)

· Violence and cruelty is acceptable as long as it is perceived as funny.

· There are no responsibilities within life, and that you should just live day to day rather than working towards goals and a future. This can be seen in many of the shows through the cast member's work ethic; they come across as very "lazy people".

· Teens should have a sense of entitlement, meaning that they deserve everything they want when they want it.

· Image is everything! So, in order to 'liked' and excel in life you need to have a great physique, perfect hair, and stylish clothing. It's no longer about what's on the inside...

· Popularity is crucial, which means you need to have a lot of friends to be accepted and to be considered "cool". It's now the quantity of relationships that matter, not the quality of relationships.

· Promiscuity is now acceptable. Being faithful to one person has now become overrated, and having unsafe sex with numerous partners is now a more enjoyable way to live.
Drinking substantial amounts of alcohol is good for you, especially when it comes time to improve your social status.

Are teens able to access and understand these life styles?

· It is extremely easy for teens to access the shows (TV and Internet), but not an easy obtainable lifestyle due to the fact that most families don't have the financial resources to maintain these particular lifestyles. So for teens, it provides them with a constant feeling of worthlessness since they want to live the way the people in these reality shows live, but it just isn't realistic for their family. The sad thing is that, these shows make it look like these lifestyles are easy to attain since they get whatever they want, whenever they want; 'normal' teens begin to question why they aren't able to live in the same fashion.

· Teens don't have the experience necessary to know that these lifestyles are not only unrealistic but they are unhealthy, and aren't able to see the consequences involved. It is extremely rare to find one of the cast members ever admit to their mistakes, and what consequences they faced. So, teens may act the same was as the characters in the show because they simply don't realize the impact of their decisions.

What types of behaviour do the shows advocate?

· Arrogance

· Entitlement

· Irresponsibility

· Spoiled/Over Indulgence

· Lack of self control

· Disrespect towards others

· Judgmental of others

· Gossip (usually hurtful)

· Malicious behaviour/Mean towards others

· Motivation to be the best you can be (sometimes through the wrong messages)

· Promiscuity: Unsafe behaviors (drinking, unprotected sex, ..etc)