Teenage pregnancy, crimes, and inappropriate child behavior. These are all things that are looked down upon, but within the last two decades have been exploited on television more than ever. From shows like "Sixteen and Pregnant" to "Jersey Shore", television is showing us the harsh, taboo side of entertainment. But now it's not just on the tv. Since these controversial shows have been aired, the problems they're presenting are even more prevalent.
The MTV show "Sixteen and Pregnant" aired for the first time June 11th, 2009. That year approximately 410,000 teens gave birth in the United States alone (Hardwood). The next year approximately 614,000 teenage pregnancies were documented. In 2011 there was a group of three girls who had a friend who starred on "Teen Mom 2" got pregnant within a year of her start on the show. The program has been shown to have a copycat effect, in which teens realize if they get pregnant they'll have a chance to get on this show, therefore starting their career in the entertainment industry (Dockterman).
Reality tv shows have also been known to encourage actions like bullying and aggressive behaviors. A UK study showed that though around 46% of reality programs contained violence, and about 82% of dramas contained violence, the aggression shown in the reality programs is more likely to be imitated (Smith). A study was done at Michigan University, led by psychologist Bryan Gibson, in which each participant watched one of three shows. An aggressive surveillance show like "Jersey Shore", an uplifting surveillance show like "Little People, Big World", or a fictional drama show like "CSI". The participants then performed a task to gauge their level of aggression. Each person had to hit a keyboard button as fast as possible and were told that they were racing against someone else. If they "won" then they would get to blast the other person with a loud, shrill noise.
They took notes on how loud and long participants wanted the sound to be, finding that those who watched Jersey Shore put out louder longer noises than those who watched the other shows. Gibson points out that the experiment is no reason to censor the television content, but says it's probably worth taking note of, especially as a parent. "This is one form of media that may appear harmless, but I think our research provides a little bit of evidence that there can be some negative outcomes as well," he says.
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