ABSTRACT
Offering one of the greatest potentials for exposure to sexualized content of all mass media are magazines targeted at young people. Teen magazines, in particular, abound with sexual images and themes. These occur in advertising and in feature content. We look at advertising separately elsewhere. Here, our attention will rest on the article content of magazines. These publications contain fictional stories with romantic and sexual themes, reports about celebrities that often focus on their romantic and sex lives, and a lot of ‘factual’ advice about relationships. These publications have long been thought to have influences on children and teenagers in terms of their values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. Most attention has been paid to the potentially harmful effects of exposure to this material, and this has given rise to the widespread impression that media effects are predominantly harmful in nature.
