Rhetorical Analysis of a Reality TV Show - Paper Example

Sixteen and pregnant is a reality show aired in 2009 on MTV. It is a reality television series in America, and it has been produced by Freeman and Dia Savage. The series demonstrates the difficulties young teenage girls go through when they become pregnant in high school. The television series follows a different girl in each episode and her pregnancy period when she is four months pregnant to eight months. It features the life of ten girls, and it has a popular series on MTV television. Although the show glamorizes teen pregnancy, it manages to pass educational messages to teenagers about the difficulties teenagers face due to teen pregnancy. The essay will demonstrate how the episode uses the story of Maci to show the challenges faced by girls when they become pregnant at a tender age. The analyses will look at the character of the first episodes, the structure of the television show and the genre the producers used to pass their message to the viewers. The main aim of the producers is to educate the targeted group about the effects of teen pregnancy.

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The show manages to pass educational messages of teen pregnancy by airing the first episode of television series. The episode title is Maci, and the main character is Maci Bookout. She is sixteen years old, and she comes from Chattanooga. The show portrays that the girl had a boyfriend called Ryan Edwards who made her pregnant. The girl faces a lot of challenges during her pregnancy because the boyfriend does not want to take any responsibility for the forthcoming baby. Ryan does not participate or help Bookout in preparation for their baby. Her life changes and she is very stressed about the matter (NewsWire, 45). She is the only one who takes the burden of pregnancy, and her boyfriend pretends he has nothing to do with it. The producers show how Maci relationship with her boyfriend becomes worse due to her pregnancy. In this case, they try to convince teenage girls of the numerous challenges a girl faces as she becomes pregnant at a teenage age. They make the society becomes aware of those challenges.

As the episode continuous, Bookout gives birth to a baby boy, and she names her Bentley. The episode features on blackout struggle as she is the only one responsible for their baby. Their relationship goes from bad to worse because Bookout is trying to show Ryan that she should also take part of the parenting burden. In this scene, the television show is educating the girls that they should be very careful with their relationship. When having sex, it is advisable that they should take control measures to avoid conception since they will be left to carry the burden of pregnancy while the boy leaves her behind. The scene is also showing the society that they should take care of these girls and understand their situation.

The episode continues, and the audience realizes that Maci marries Taylor McKinney. They get a child called Jayde carter. Their daughter was born in the year 2015 in the month of May. On May 2016, the couple got another child called Maverick Reed. In these occurrences, the audience realizes that Maci marries a different man. By doing so, it means that her first child has a different father from the others. This could cause anxiety in the family as one child may be treated differently because he belongs to a different father. The audience learns another challenge of teenage pregnancy. At the end of the episode, Ryan is planning to marry Mackenzie, and they are engaged (NewsWire, 55).

The episodes manage to sends educational messages to the young girls by showing them the difficult life Maci goes through during her Parenthood as a teen. Teenagers at high schools learn that even at their age they can become pregnant and may face similar challenges. The producers wanted to cut down the level of teenage pregnancy in America. The show also taps the girls in to the delivery room, and the audiences learn the difficulties of labor. This could have valid impacts on the targeted group since it could help lower teenage pregnancy and would also lead to fear of giving birth.

The show contracts itself by glamorizing teen pregnancy. In each episode featuring a pregnant girl, the show may pass the wrong message to the society. It shows that being pregnant at the tender age is not wrong, but the consequences of this are. The episode concentrates on one side of education. It only shows the audience the impacts of early pregnancy without teaching them how to avoid it. This can be ineffective since the high school girls may continue having unsafe sex with their boyfriends without knowledge that this could lead to pregnancy. The episode follows the life of Maci from teenage to adulthood where she marries Taylor, and the audience realizes that she does not marry her boyfriend Ryan who got her pregnant at a tender age. The audiences learn that teenage pregnancy does not only a girls life for nine months but all her life. Maci has to bear bearing and bringing up kids from different fathers (NewsWire, 87). Many people tend to forget it, and therefore the episode reminds them.

About ten from seventy high schools were asked if the television show sixteen and pregnant discourage or promote teenage pregnancy. The students gave valid responses. Only three students think that the show discourages teenage pregnancy while the rest said that it promote it. According to the explanations, students view that the show promotes teenage pregnancy because it gives one chance to be shown on a popular television just like magic in the first episode. If Maci was not pregnant at that age, she would not have gotten a chance on MTV show. On the other hand, it discourages teenage pregnancy because it follows the hardships girls go through during pregnancy and also parenthood (NewsWire, 78). IT can be noted that the show could have promoted teenage pregnancy instead of preventing it. The show could have found other bases and make it a fiction show so that students will understand that they are just acting

In conclusion, the show sixteen and pregnant managed to convince the audience not engage in early relationships which lead to teenage pregnancy. The authors in the first episode of the show feature the life of Maci and the hardships she faces during her pregnancy. The hardship includes carrying the burden of parenthood alone, being left by her boyfriend Ryan and labor pain during delivery. The episode glamorizes teenage pregnancy by following the lives of pregnant girls which may promote teenage pregnancy so that the girls can appear on popular television.

Work Cited

NewsWire, P. R. "MTV Chronicles the Challenges of Teen Pregnancy in 16 & Pregnant." (2009).