Interview Results

I decided to take a non-expert approach to my interviews. Throughout my paper I have discussed and stated what the “experts” have to say about media stereotypes regarding teenage girls. But even will all this justifiable information from authors, I thought it might be helpful to find out how the teens feel about the stereotypes of themselves. To solve this question I conducted multiple interviews from adolescents to get an idea of their opinions on the subject. Three girls and three boys, ranging from ages 15 to 19 were asked the same set of standard questions pertaining to stereotypes of female teenagers in the current media. Before starting the interviews I had the feeling that the answers from the girls were going to be quite different from the answers of the boys. To my surprise the results discovered had nothing really to do with gender difference at all. Five out of six claimed that they had on at least one occasion been affected or influenced by stereotypes of their gender or age from the media, and four out of six stated that television was the most predominant source of teenage girl stereotypes. The results of the interviews continued to support my topic, however also gave me another insight. One source, when asked if they thought stereotypes of teen girls had become worse over the years, stated that the amount or exaggeration of stereotypes hasn’t necessarily changed, but that the characteristics or types of them have. I have already finished my third draft and have included much of the information from the interviews in it because I found that it has further contributed to my thesis.