Step 1: Find something that is currently “in” with the 14-40 demographic. It could be a movie, TV show, video game, doll, book or all of the above. The medium doesn’t really matter. Actually, neither does the message but we’ll get to that shortly.
Step 2: Be sure to illustrate how widely popular the target pop culture item is — you can do this with numbers, by pointing to bestseller lists and box-office grosses, or (for maximum points!) use no facts at all and simply state baldly that _______ is “wildly popular among teens” or “a hit with university students across the country.”
Step 3: Use a general assertion somewhere near the lead of your piece. It should be a simple declarative statement that manages to include everyone who could potentially be “influenced” by what you are about to illustrate. A popular recent example would be along the lines of: “It’s easy to understand how children can be swayed by the magic of Harry Potter.” No evidence, no specific examples and no cause or effect — just a simple declarative statement that one can apply to anything.
Step 4: Find JUST ONE example in real life. That’s all you need for the anecdotal part of the story, and anecdotal evidence is all you’ll need to make your point. If you can find a kid who has been hurt imitating his favourite wrestler, a 10-year-old who has picked up daddy’s gun and shot something after watching violent television or even a teenager who took the neighbour’s car for a ride after playing some Grand Theft Auto … you’re in business.
Step 5: Find JUST ONE person who hasn’t been affected by this phenomenon, but agrees that it could influence the weak-minded. This is your backup, the person who will make it seem reasonable that the first example could be commonplace. By illustrating your anecdotal point with evidence from someone who seems “normal” but also acknowledges such a danger, you will seem balanced. After all, you have the weak person and the strong person, right?
Step 6: A quick disclaimer. It can be a sentence long. All you need is to clarify that just because the article makes it seem as though every teenager who picks up a copy of Hustler turns into a maniacal rapist hell-bent on pillaging vagina after vagina, that you’re not SAYING that EVERY kid will do this. Just that we are all “concerned”.
Step 7: An expert. Your expert doesn’t have to necessarily have hands-on experience with what you are writing about, they just have to be familiar enough with the article’s topic, and willing to state that your anecdotal example is likely not alone. You only need one expert. Finding an expert who disagrees with your stated purpose is a waste of time and effort. Nobody wants to read two eggheads arguing differing points of view. Psychologists, by the way, make excellent experts, because nearly everything relates to the way our mind works. It is also nearly impossible to call bullshit on a psychologist, because nobody — including the psychologist — knows how the mind works.
Step 8: Recovery. In order for your story to be a cautionary tale, it needs an ending that — if not happy — at least offers some hope. Perhaps the boy who lost a leg in the car wreck now teaches road safety; perhaps the Harry Potter fan who got lost in Satanism is now a faithful, god-fearing churchgoer; and maybe the family of the boy who died pretending to be Triple H now teach children safe ways to wrestle in a controlled atmosphere. The recovery is important. Without it, your readership will not freak out properly because they will not understand the narrative arc.
An annotated (and absolutely perfectly relevant) example from ABCNews is after the jump….
You can only watch Samantha Jones bed so many gorgeous guys before wondering if 4-inch heels and sky-high confidence would allow you to do the same. STEP 3
At least that’s what happened to “Lisa” (not her real name). She got hooked on “Sex and the City” when she was a 14-year-old growing up on Long Island, N.Y. STEP 1 It was the same year she lost her virginity. She soon graduated to ordering cosmopolitans at bars she snuck into and cheating on her boyfriend with up to seven other guys — in one week. STEP 4
“When you’re that age you try to emulate people on TV. Carrie smoked, so I smoked, Samantha looked at hooking up with random people as not a big deal, so that’s what I did too,” said Lisa, now 22. “It wasn’t ‘Sex and the City’s’ fault. I love the show, but I think it made it a little easier to justify my behavior.” STEP 4
It’s a twisted version of monkey see, monkey do. For some 20-something women, “Sex and the City,” which hits theaters in feature film form May 30, served as Dating 101 — lessons in how to hook up, go out and live the fabulous lives of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), no strings attached. STEPS 1, 2 AND 3 IN THE SAME PARAGRAPH HERE
Lisa remembers re-enacting one particular Samantha scene in her own life: Season 3, episode 39, in which the bachelorette-for-life scrunches her face up at her latest suitor and tells him she doesn’t like the way he & tastes. STEP 4
“That was something that happened to me. I used her exact words: ‘You have funky spunk,’” she said. “I knew from watching the show that it had to do with something he was eating,” so she took a cue from the script and took an ax to a certain item in his diet. STEP 4
Lisa left her “Samantha” ways behind at 19, when she moved to Utah, became a Mormon, married a man within the church and gave birth to two children. For the first year of her marriage, her husband forbade her to watch “Sex and the City” for fear that it would lure her back to her habits of sex, drugs and one-too-many cosmos. STEP 8 — A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE
“I had to sell my DVDs on eBay,” she said. “But now it’s OK. It took a while to get here.”
To be clear: “Sex and the City” can’t be blamed for creating a generation of sluts. No one’s attempted to quantify how the landmark HBO series changed the way people date and hook up, and both the network and series executive producer/movie producer Michael Patrick King declined to comment for this story on how they believe the show affected women. A FLAWLESS USE OF STEP 6
But according to psychiatrists, relationship experts and fans, “Sex and the City” changed the way women view hooking up, if not their hooking up habits. OH MAN — TWO EXPERTS!! BREAKING THE STEP 7 CONVENTIONS
“It did have some impact given that it was a sea change in how women talked about sexuality and what was shown on a network — full frontal nudity, talking about affairs, vibrators, etc.,” said Pepper Schwartz, a University of Washington sociology professor and relationship expert for Perfectmatch.com. “If it’s not permission giving, it at least demystifies and normalizes what goes on in women’s lives in a more than snickering way.” STEP 7 (And sociology is psychology’s slutty, easy sister when it comes to behaviour experts. Sociologists, in the press, are used as experts in “Human Stuff”)
That’s what Angela Hwang, 24, found when she started watching the show in cable syndication, after it went off HBO. She and her girlfriends routinely compare their experiences to “Sex and the City” episodes.
“My girlfriends and I, every single guy we’ve been with we can relate to one of the guys on the show,” she said. “We’ve all had Samantha moments. We’ll say, ‘Remember the guy I saw last week? He was exactly like the guy in episode 15.’” AHA — I KNEW STEP 5 WOULD SHOW UP SOMEWHERE
Hwang took away more than just bedroom tips.
“It gives you a sense of independence,” she said about the show. “You learn that you don’t need to always have someone there. You can have a successful career and girlfriends without needing a guy by your side. There’s not one soul mate, there’s not one person out there for you.” MORE STEP 5
It seems like the perfect combination of entertainment and education — a shot of “Peep-toe Manolos will totally turn him on” chased with “You don’t need guys as long as you’ve got your girlfriends!”
But Dr. David Greenfield, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine, believes there’s danger in taking “Sex and the City’s” so-called lessons off the small screen and applying them in the real world.
“With teenagers and young adults, there’s a certain degree of role modeling that goes on. There’s a certain ‘if it’s done on the screen then it’s OK, it’s normal,’” he said. “You watch ‘Sex and the City,’ you see these women go out for dinner, come back, and wake up in satin sheets with a gorgeous guy. Who wouldn’t like that? But it doesn’t show what goes on under the surface in real sexual relations. Sex is an extraordinarily complex, emotional process. No one wants to talk about that. They’re not going to see the reality.” YEP — HERE’S OUR REAL STEP 7 EXPERT. THE SOCIOLOGIST WAS FAR TOO TAME.
Lisa realizes that now. She’s reclaimed her “Sex and the City” DVDs and watches them when she’s in need of some New York City nostalgia. And while she’s excited about seeing the movie on opening day — though she’ll probably be the only Mormon fan in the theater — she cringes at the thought of other young women modeling their sex lives after Carrie and Co.
“Now that I’m older, looking back, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, these women are in their 30s. What was I thinking?’” she said. “I’m not sure I’d want my little sister seeing the movie — she’s 14 — but I think it’s a fun show for people my age now, as long as you don’t take it too seriously.” BANG — STEP 8 — THE MORAL OF THE STORY: DON’T LET SEX AND THE CITY MAKE YOU A SLUT; JUST BECOME A MORMON NOW AND SAVE YOURSELF THE HASSLE
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Fear
