Is MTV a Form of Birth Control?

I’ve got a new
article up at
The Daily Beast, about a recent study that purports to show
that MTV’s 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom shows caused a significant
drop in the teen birth rate. Here are some snippets:

After decades of being slammed by bluenoses, bureaucrats,
and Bruce
Springsteen for sexing up and dumbing down the masses, it
turns out that the small screen has accomplished what no amount of
promise rings, Twilight movies, or mandatory banana-on-a-condom classes
have managed to do: reduce the number of teenage births.

At least that’s what the authors of a widely discussed new study
say. In “Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of MTV’s
16 and Pregnant on Teen Childbearing,” (available online for the
low, low price of $5.00 from the National Bureau of Economic
Research, economists Melissa S. Kearney (University of
Maryland) and Phillip B. Levine (Wellesley College) write “The
introduction of 16 and Pregnant along with its
partner shows, Teen Mom and Teen Mom
2, led teens to noticeably reduce the rate at which they give
birth.” According to their calculations, the shows are responsible
for “a 5.7 percent reduction in teen births in the 18 months
following [their] introduction.”…

The study is far less interesting for the specific claims it
makes about teen birth rates than it is as a variation on
persistent attitudes toward cultural production and consumption
redolent of Frankfurt
School anxieties over media’s impact on the proletariat.
In many ways, “Media Influences on Social Outcomes” is simply the
latest echo of the idea that TV, music, movies, novels, and the
like don’t simply move audiences to laughter, tears, or
contemplation but compel them to act in particular ways.

Read the whole thing.