Scholarly versus popular media focus on sexuality paper

Scholarly versus popular media focus on sexuality paper

Introduction

In the 21st century, there has been a growing concern over the exposure to sexual content through television, music, movies and other mass media. The mass media has been influencing the sexual beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of adolescents (Strasburger, 2012). For the researchers, we can identify that the growing talk on sexual topics and behavior has influenced the adolescent perception of sexual activities.

The paper discusses the impact of mass media on adolescent's sexual behavior in context to the topic on sexuality. Firstly, the scholarly research article is being discussed and than a popular media article is being examined. Further, both scholarly and media articles are critically analyzed from the perspectives presented in the matter. Lastly, the conclusion from the reviews has been made and how this topic is of great interest for readers has been discussed.

Analysis

Scholarly article

The scholarly article, the mass media are an important context for adolescent's sexual behavior, studies the impact of mass media on adolescents' sexual behaviors and intention to various socialization aspects, including family, religion, school and peers. The mass media studied in this context is television, music, movies and magazines (L'Engle et.al, 2006, p.186). Mass media has become a significant part of adolescent lives and it takes special dimensions to sexually impact them during adolescence. According to the survey, the maximum time that an adolescence spend on media is approximately average six to seven hours using, three hours watching television, two hours listening music, one hour watching videotapes and movies and three fourth hour on reading. The mass media towards which adolescents are exposed to include sexual imagery and hidden messages. A study by Nielsen confirmed that that is an abundance of sexuality content across different media.

The hypothesis for this study was to examine whether there is any possible relationship between mass media and changes in adolescent sexual behaviors (L'Engle et.al, 2006, p.186). The hypothesis consequence to be true, hence there is a strong relationship and impact on adolescents by mass media.

The study was conducted by taking a sample size of 1011 black and white adolescents from 14 different schools in United States. The study was conducted through a complete linked mail survey about mass media usage and audio interviews about adolescent's sexual intentions and behaviors (L'Engle et.al, 2006, p.186). The mass media influence measure was made by estimating the sexual content across media and support for adolescents from media on sexuality.

The results of the study showed that variance 13% in intentions to initiate sexual behavior in the near future and 8-10% of variance in light and heavy sexual intentions (L'Engle et.al, 2006, p.186). The factors such as media content and imagery demonstrated significant link between the adolescent intentions behaviors.

The findings from the research shows that adolescences that are exposed to mass media and receive support are more influenced to engage in sexual behaviors. Media has been regarded as an important source for sexuality socialization. If the influence of mass media is ...