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The Effects of the Media on Underage Alcohol Abuse It is a major aspect of our culture and many others, being used in religious ceremonies, for celebration, and during common socialization, its presence is seen everywhere. It is alcohol. Alcohol is the broad term that society gives to such drinks as wine, beer, and hard liquor because it contains ethyl alcohol. Despite the fact that in the past century alone, alcohol has been denounced, accepted, and outlawed, we still see alcohol everywhere in magazines, television, billboards, and The effects of alcohol are numerous and reach a widespread of people in the following ways: drunk driving accidents, fetal alcohol syndrome, liver disease, and increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, also called the NIAAA, state in their article called Alcohol Alert that, Alcohol contributes to 100, 000 deaths annually, making it the third leading cause of preventable casualty (2). In addition, Gary Hopkins, MD, director of The Center for Adolescent Behavior Research at Andrews University, found that 41 % of all traffic fatalities, the leading cause of accidental death, are alcohol-related (n.
p. ). Alcohol is a significant problem in todays society, it isnt limited to any particular age group, but one age group of great concern is those that are under twenty-one years. The Century Council is a group started in 1991 to fight underage drinking and alcohol abuse. According to Fighting Alcohol Abuse, the Century Councils website, most young people do not drink illegally, the number who do is high enough to make underage drinking a serious safety and health concern (n.
p. ). The Century Council continues with sixth graders in saying, one in fourteen sixth graders drink monthly (n. p. ). They go on to talk about eighth graders and thier drinking habits.
One in four eighth graders have drank in the last month, one in six have reported binge drinking, and one in ten got drunk while drinking (n. p. ). Binge drinking is drinking heavily in a short amount of time and can result in alcohol poisoning sometimes resulting in death. If that is shocking, maybe the statistic that one in two high school seniors drink on a monthly basis (n. p. ).
These statistics again prove a serious problem, but what is the root? In a society where children are able to identify more brands of beer than American Presidents, there is a definite problem. The root to the dangerous mix of alcohol and todays youth is the media. The increase in underage alcohol consumption is a direct and indirect result of the medias influence in children and teenagers. The same study by the NIAAA showed that when a group of nine to eleven year olds were asked what Tony the Tiger said when he appears on television advertisements, then asked what those talking frogs, spokes critters for Budweiser, said, they were able to respond to the latter much faster (1). Clearly, these ads are leaving an impression on young minds.
These advertisements are targeting teenagers heavily during prime-time television and during A large portion of a television program is its commercials. Commercials praise this soft drink because it is richer, that brand of potato chips because they are crispier, and those khakis because people can line-dance in them. The commercials are colorful and loud, featuring the beautiful people: models, rock stars, athletes, actors, and actresses that society have come to make their role models. Every company is spending millions of dollars to get the most renowned characters, people, cartoons, or animals to appeal so that we will buy their products.
These are the same targeting tactics used in alcohol advertisements as well. Statistics from P. A. Madden and J. W. Grades research Frequency and Nature of Alcohol and Tobacco Advertisements on Television Sports from the American Journal of Public Health says that the beer brewing industry spends six million dollars each year on television and radio advertisements.
As well, they spend ninety million dollars a year on print advertisements (298). Aside from that, they get less obvious advertisements. When watching a movie, people drink a certain soda, eat at certain fast food restaurants, and wear a particular brand of clothing to try to sway the public to buy the same things. When looking at exactly whom the television and movie industry is targeting, consider the audience that is watching. Television shows such as Dawsons Creek and Beverly Hills 90210 are aimed primarily at teenagers. Many times they urge abstinence of habit-forming substances to teenagers.
However, once these shows stop for commercials, those same teenagers are drowned with advertisements for Budweiser and numerous other drinks. The National Post tells us in their article entitled Alcohol Companies Find Underage Market, that MTV has been causing quite a controversy because of its part in advertising to the underage. In one week, it was found that over 27 commercials for different beer companies were aired between 7: 30 p. m. and 10: 00 p.
m. More than 50 percent of the viewers that watch during this time are underage (n. p. ). The hours of seven and eleven are prime-time for teenagers to watch television, and it also seems prime-time for targeted advertisements. Hopkins goes on to tell us in his research that the average youth will have watched 22, 000 hours of television and include about 350, 000 commercials by the time they are eighteen years old. This goes back to the basic principle of advertising; it sells products (n.
p. ). Teenagers get used to seeing these suggestions in front of them day after day and eventually it will make them want to see what they are missing and attempt in becoming more adult-like. If teenagers get accustomed to alcohol now, they most certainly will continue to use it when they get older. Hopkins says that they are four times more likely to become alcoholics as well (n.
p. ). But if these companies can recruit the children now, they can secure that they will have them as future consumers. Not only are alcohol advertisements targeted to sell products to the underaged, they also show the use of these products in situations that are potentially dangerous. The NIAAA says of beer commercials surveyed, one-third of them involve drinking alongside driving or water activities such as boating, swimming, or playing on the beach (n. p. ).
These commercials link drinking with sociability by showing pretty and famous people having fun drinking. It portrays that when one is at the beach they must have alcohol to have fun during these activities, but does not show the dangers. They demonstrate how the rich, sophisticated people drinking expensive wine to celebrate just being alive. After a hard day at work, they exhibit how the average guy sits down to relax with a beer. These commercials link drinking with sociability, elegance, physical attractiveness, success, romance, and adventure.
One key factor to all of this is that, sadly enough, it does not stop at television. Madden and Grade, the authors most well-known for their comparisons with advertisements of tobacco and alcohol in sports, say that most popular place for alcohol advertisements is during and around sporting events. Throughout stadiums there are thousands of people cheering with a beer in one hand, and entire walls are covered with signs and banners that are devoted to specific brands of beer. The proud makers of one beer company are sponsoring the game while another company of alcohol is sponsoring the scoreboard.
In the Superbowl, we can watch two different kind of beer having their own war with their own variety...
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Research essay sample on The Medias Effect On Underage Alcohol Abuse
