[Dan31645]

The bad stuff makes better copy. What I mean is, ‘Heroin Use Skyrockets Among Suburban Teens’ is quite a more riveting headline than ‘Teens at Such-and-Such High School Spend Day at Homeless Shelter.’ Scientists have discovered that humans remember and focus more on negative descriptors more than positive ones, which is precisely why you see so many negative campaign ads slinging mud at their opponents. Essentially, it’s all about sensationalism. The media feeds it, and everyone talks about it non-stop.

User Detail :  

Name : Dan31645, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal, Age : 22, City : L.A., State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, 

[Steph]

There are more teens in this world who do good things than there are who do bad. So why is it that the media only talks about the bad? This makes people think all teens are evil.

User Detail :  

Name : Steph, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, City : Syracuse, State : NA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, 

[Dave Erickson]

I understand how you feel, but if you really think about it, what should the media report? First, the media goes after things that will get peoples’ attention and normal behavior isn’t going to do that. Second, it would take forever to report on every teen that is goes to school, works, and behaves responsibly. It wouldn’t be very interesting or an intelligent use of time to just read of a list of all the people doing what they should. So they report news — things that are out of the ordinary. Also, if you really think about it, MTV and other type shows don’t help much when they do shows about Spring Break partying, nudity, drunken stupid behavior, etc.

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Name : Dave Erickson, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, City : NA, State : NA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

[Zen]

I don’t know what the US media implies but in the UK I don’t believe that teenagers are viewed as ‘evil.’ But the cause of teens being blamed in America may be because the US media is full of adults who need a scapegoat to distract people from the HUGE mistakes the adults make, and our generation is an easy target!

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Name : Zen, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Indian origin but born in Britain, Religion : Hindu, Age : 16, City : Leicester, State : NA, Country : United Kingdom, Occupation : Student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Avalikia-K]

The media almost always talks about the bad. When you watch the news, people expect them to talk about car accidents, not near-misses. This philosphy extends to almost everything the media talks about. People who think this means that teens are evil don’t seem to realize that if you take this stance on everything the media reports, you would think everyone was evil.

User Detail :  

Name : Avalikia-K, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Mormon, Age : 18, City : Provo, State : UT, Country : United States, Occupation : Volunteer, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[D.D.]

I can say I know a lot about why the media reports some stories and not others because almost every adult relative I have works or worked as a journalist. It makes better news to tell ‘bad’ stories because it gets people more interested. The mail goal of a newspaper is to sell as many papers as possible, and the main goal of a TV news show is to get you to watch their channel instead of another. If they have ‘better’ or ‘more interesting’ stories they will make more money than their competitors.

User Detail :  

Name : D.D., Gender : F, Age : 16, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, 

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