Shows your teens watch?

gigi

Moms and Dads out there, I am doing a presentation tomorrow on "critical media literacy" in front of a group of high school seniors and some parents and was hoping you could tell me what the kids are watching these days, what's popular with this age group - e.g., films, videos, TV shows, magazines/other reading material or anything that you can think of that could be included in an activity to analyze the messages conveyed.

I just found some military recruitment posters being used in high schools by recruiters that I'm going to bring, as well as a Cosmo Teen magazine but that's all I have so far.

I agreed to do this last minute and now I'm scrambling.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

carnivore

I hear the kids today are really into McNeil Lehrer and Charlie Rose.

bigguy

Don't forget the internet. A lot of the parents I know talk about their kids being addicted to http://www.nick.com and http://www.disney.com.

theoryofpractice

Teenage girls are addicted to "The N" (on digital cable and the-n.com), and in particular their ongoing serial drama "Degrassi: the Next Generation."

Also: "American Idol." "Laguna Beach." "The Hills."

Teenage boys? Sports. "Family Guy." "Simpsons." "American Idol."

livetotravel

OH god, I hope whatever your present passes the laugh test for HS seniors - you are a far better person than I for attempting to define and understand what teens are accessing in the media.

First - text messaging over e-mailing by far - and using a coded language that is absolute parent proof. You do know what POS means, right?

Second - social networking sites like MySpace, eSpin, facebook, LiveJournal, Friendster,twitter - More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Third - gaming - Internet and PlayStation variety

and of course music, movies and TV as noted above.

For young teen women - really dangerous body image messages being sent out by teen idols and teen mags.

gigi

My fear is just that, that they think my examples are lame. I very much appreciate the suggestions here and offered by others. I may rent Family Guy and show a portion, have some links to the online material mentioned, and something in print.

Again many thanks.

Livetotravel wrote: OH god, I hope whatever your present passes the laugh test for HS seniors - you are a far better person than I for attempting to define and understand what teens are accessing in the media.

First - text messaging over e-mailing by far - and using a coded language that is absolute parent proof. You do know what POS means, right?

Second - social networking sites like MySpace, eSpin, facebook, LiveJournal, Friendster,twitter - More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Third - gaming - Internet and PlayStation variety

and of course music, movies and TV as noted above.

For young teen women - really dangerous body image messages being sent out by teen idols and teen mags.

armchair_warrior

I'm no teenager . but i can tell you for sure nerds teens watch sg1, battle star galatica, alot of anime shows on cartoon network.