Media and Issue of Early Pregnancy among Teens - Essay Example

The paper "Media and Issue of Early Pregnancy among Teens" is a great example of an essay on social science. There are a number of opposing views to my thesis that the media has contributed to the rising cases of early pregnancy among teens. Although nearly everyone agrees that teenage pregnancy is currently a serious major social problem in the contemporary society, there seems to be a divided opinion regarding whether the media is beneficial or detrimental to the fight against early pregnancy among teens (Thompson, 2007). One of the main opposing arguments is that the view that the Media particularly through reality shows such as MTV's “16 and pregnant” and “Teen Mom” is actually contributing to the fight against early pregnancy among teenagers by demonstrating the hardships and difficulties of teenage pregnancy to the viewers thereby acting as a cautionary tale to the vast majority of teens (NCPTUP, 2010).

According to NCPTUP (2010), the media is one of the greatest tools available for fighting early pregnancy among teens and programs such as “16 and pregnant” have resulted in a noticeable reduction of the teenage pregnancy rates across the United States by up to 5.7 percent as at the year 2010. The authors attribute this to the perceived role of the media in demonstrating the hardships of being a young parent and fostering the conversation of how teenagers might end up in such circumstances as well as the available mitigation measures. However, contrary to the views contained in these opposing arguments, it is worth noting that the media has in most cases tended to glamorize teenage parenthood by depicting many of the teenage mothers as celebrities. In my view, this is a potential factor for the rising cases of early pregnancy among teens Read More