13 Reasons Why or Why Not: Depicting Teenage Suicide in Streaming Media

Presentation Type

Event

Full Name of Faculty Mentor

Deborah Breede

Major

Communication

Minor

New Media and Digital Culture

Presentation Abstract

Researchers have found that television affects teenagers and the ways they think and act. One thing that they have not studied is how television depicting suicide affects the behavior of teenagers. This article examines, through rhetorical analysis, the messages in the popular streaming show 13 Reasons Why, and how the issues faced by the main characters Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen influence the young adults who watch the show. The show was introduced to provide awareness to teenage suicide by depicting the reasoning behind suicide as well as the aftermath. It is expected that the messages and interactions among these characters, as well as other main characters, will provide viewers with insight into how high school bullying affects the behavior of young teenagers. Overall, the ways that the characters handle the topics of suicide, bullying, and rape, are not cautionary, but damaging.

Course

COMM 491

Location

Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium

Start Date

16-4-2019 12:30 PM

End Date

16-4-2019 2:30 PM

Disciplines

Communication

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Apr 16th, 12:30 PM Apr 16th, 2:30 PM

13 Reasons Why or Why Not: Depicting Teenage Suicide in Streaming Media

Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium

Researchers have found that television affects teenagers and the ways they think and act. One thing that they have not studied is how television depicting suicide affects the behavior of teenagers. This article examines, through rhetorical analysis, the messages in the popular streaming show 13 Reasons Why, and how the issues faced by the main characters Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen influence the young adults who watch the show. The show was introduced to provide awareness to teenage suicide by depicting the reasoning behind suicide as well as the aftermath. It is expected that the messages and interactions among these characters, as well as other main characters, will provide viewers with insight into how high school bullying affects the behavior of young teenagers. Overall, the ways that the characters handle the topics of suicide, bullying, and rape, are not cautionary, but damaging.