2. 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
3. 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!!!
4. • 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
5. 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
6. • 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
7. 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
8. Regardless of good intentions…
Tech-savvy and
engaged
Increasing product
sales and community
building
Increased purchasing power
9. 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:
13. 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
