Bad, Badder, Baddest! Teenagers in the News!

So last night, while I was searching the internets for some news articles about teenagers, I came to the realization that there are hardly any that depicted teenagers in a good light! Every headline was "teen killed in a freak accident" or "teenagers did something dumb." The stories were all about how teens are morally weak or lacking judgement and in dire need of some sort of guide.

The assignment we were given was to examine three news articles that were somehow related to teens, taking into account how society has constructed and connected the negative connotation of youth and inexperience to adolescence. I picked three random articles: the first was an ABC commentary called Why Teens Act Like Teens, Breaking it Down: Beware the Teenage Brain, the second was from a Minnesota television station KARE called Teen Pregnancy on the Rise in Minnesota, and finally I went international and looked at a melancholy Reuters UK article named Teenager Accused of Murder of 14-year-old.

First, and my favorite, was the ABC article Why Teens Act Like Teens because it buys into all the negative stereotypes about teenagers. According to the commentator, who isn't named anywhere on the article, there are scientific reasons why teens act the way they do. Of course, it's full of sarcasm. Like this tidbit, "Sometimes I want to throw up my hands, grab my hair and shout in exasperation: TEENAGERS!!" The article argues that judgement and self-control is impaired during the adolescent phase, but we should we compassionate because "their brains have not yet caught up with their bodies." I really don't know what to make of this, and I question any science without seeing the results myself.

The second news snippet was Teen Pregnancy on the Rise in Minnesota and is basically self-explanatory. While the author Jenna Healy writes this article in an objective manner, the state officials that she interviewed clearly do not. The official named blames the "fighting about what kind of information teenagers should get in this internet era means we are clearly behind the times." Is this person blaming the internet for the failings of the state government? Hmm. Another interesting point in this article was the raw statistics. Not surprisingly Hispanic/Latina groups had the highest rate of teen pregnancy, American Indian, African American, Asian, and White respectively. Of course, the article does not talk about the possible reasons that minority ethnic groups have higher rates - like... heath care access?!

Finally, was the terrible UK article called Teenager Accused of Murder of 14-year-old. Apparently, a 17 year old boy killed fellow teenager over a $10 debt. This article would be straightforward and to the point if they didn't put the part in about the nationality of the perpetrator's family. I fail to see why mentioning that the boy's family was from Egypt has anything to do with the crime. This article feeds into, perhaps indirectly, the stereotype that Muslims are dangerous.

It would be remiss if I didn't say that there were indeed some articles mentioning teens in a good light, but they were few and far between the death and destruction!