ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of media usage by children and teens, followed by a summary of sexual content and themes portrayed in popular culture, with a focus on television. Popular culture plays an important role in the social construction of teen pregnancy and parenting. Explicit sexual behavior and innuendoes are prominent in television programming, with one analysis revealing that 70 percent of network and cable television shows that aired in 2005 in the United States contained either sexual talk or sexual behavior. Sexual socialization refers to the ongoing process by which knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors about sex and sexuality are developed. Topics focused on teen pregnancy and parenting are also pervasive on the Internet. The chapter focuses on investigation on the popular show 16 and Pregnant, and include results of our own quantitative and qualitative analyses. It concludes by describing the cultural myth that providing media visibility of pregnant or parenting teens will encourage others to become pregnant.
