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Essay on The Phenonmeon of The Teen Mom

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Teen Mom II is the second incarnation of MTV's number one rated reality mini-series 16 and Pregnant. The show documents the lives of four teenage mothers as they struggle to cope with the every day challenges, financial and emotional, a woman faces while raising her first infant child. All while trying to navigate through the journey of adolescence. Once catering primarily to the music oriented teenage consumer of the 1980s and 1990s, MTV has since reinvented itself as a reality television repository for tweens, teens and young adults. Many of the reality shows on MTV, including Teen Mom II, consistently dominate cable ratings and have recently been breaking weeknight ratings records. Although advertisers eagerly race to gain the …show more content…

While on camera,he then continues to berate and degrade her by saying if she was more friendly, he “might not have” cheated on her and besides, “everybody cheats.” Sadly these type of verbal exchanges between the T.V. teen moms and dads is commonplace to the point its become expected. In episode seven of the series, “Switching Gears,” teen mom Kailyn Lowry, is desperate to attain some sort of independence from her child’s father family and decides to move out on her own. When she makes her announcement, Jo the father of her baby, responds with cruel text messages detailing how he regrets having the baby. The behaviors of young teen parents routinely portrayed in Teen Mom II, while horrendous, makes for great television. Martin Kaplan, a media professor at the University of Southern California school of Communication, wrote, “The appeal of these shows is that the producers and casting directors have figured out we have reptile brains, and that there is stuff that we can’t resist because of the species we are.” If the entertainment factor can’t be denied, then should the stereotypes reinforced by Teen Mom II and the potential negative effects it may have on viewers also not be denied then? A study done by Margaret J.Hefner and Jamie Comstak titled Compliance Gaining on Prime Time Family Programing states “Individual’s stereotypes, role learning, aggression and world views can be

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