Teens and “TEEN” TV

The Business of Media for Teens

I Don’t Watch TV• TV programming is not bound

by technology but form• Audio-visual entertainment

programming, created and viewed in installments as created by radio and broadcast norms in the 20th century

Creating culture: Adolescents• Any culture produces artifacts, today often generated by

and dispersed via media information technologies • Youth culture creates artifacts addressing and depicting

lives, issues, interests of teenagers and young adults, typically averaging at 14-29 (variable)

• Artifacts include: Novels, TV programs, music, fashion, films, games etc.

• The Teen market is a profitable one!!!

• Origins of youth culture in most industrialized nations lies in post WWII 1950s– Shifts in society AND regulations (school requirements

for example) prolonged adolescents More time to develop = rise in youth culture

– Changing industry interests (especially late 1980s)– Themes important to young adults take center stage

Teens and Screens• Individualized viewing• Increased viewing , habits (2012/2013)– 20 (just TV) - 50 hrs (all screens) a week

• Autonomy (mostly) of viewing selections• If subjects pertain to youth, how can adults

connect

• Television viewed as trivial and variety for first 5 decades

• 1980s gave rise to media specifically addressing teens and youth as a clear market– Often unobserved by parents

• Sociology departments investigating effects of TV watching on the young

However,• While still providing change at a slow pace, teen TV

can, because it is created for a young generation, address several issues adult television shies away from

• While created by generations older than the target audience (mostly) nostalgia aids in often generating a world slightly “better” than the existing one

Regardless of good intentions…

Tech-savvy and engaged

Increased purchasing power

Increasing productsales and communitybuilding

A cultural Community…• Is always based on access to the media artifacts, so

we need to be aware of the participants we envision• Is/was also bound/limited by:– Language– Policies and legislature

• A cultural community, larger or small, NEVER exists outside of its context:

Where

When

Homogenous & Diverse - Subculture

Communities are:• Imagined: unknown boundaries & participants• Limited: though intangible, limitations exist• Sovereign: community generated and maintained

rules• Language, signs, hierarchies

• Community sense of comradeship due to community participation

To the Beautiful YOU