A teenager dies in a car accident because he was drinking all night. "Don't drink and drive," he joked. "Pull over and chug!" That may have been funny an hour ago, but now he's dead, and no one is laughing. This story is not true, but alcohol related deaths among teens are increasing more and more every day. Some people believe the parents are to blame for letting their kids go out late at night without supervision, but shouldn't the media be blamed? Teenaged drinking is increasing due to commercialization and glorification of alcoholic beverages in the media (Grube, J.W., & Wallack, L.)

According to a survey taken in Michigan, eighty-two percent of the students have tried alcohol. The survey was for students between ninth and twelfth grade. Fifty-one percent of the students are current drinkers, and thirty-two percent are binge drinkers (www.mdch.state.mi.us/dch/chi02.htm).

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row on at least one occasion" (www.health.org/govpubs/phd627/binge.htm).

One drink is measured by the alcohol percentage in the beverage. There is the same amount of alcohol in five ounces of wine, twelve ounces of beer, an

Most people seem to know that there is a problem with glorification of alcoholic beverages in the media. An even greater amount of people realizes that teen drinking has become a problem in the United States. To prove that people felt this way, a small survey was made and given to people of ages ranging from thirteen to forty-eight. A surprising one hundred percent of the people asked to fill out the survey said they know teens that drink frequently. Twenty-five people of different ages, races, and religion claimed that teen drinking is definitely a problem, but only thirty percent said they know teens that are binge drinkers.

Young people who watch a lot of television - especially music videos - are more likely to become teen-age drinkers, according to a Stanford University study. Dr. Thomas Robinson, who led the study, says that the results are not all that astonishing since alcohol is the most common beverage shown on television. Researchers also discovered that an increase of an hour each day in watching music videos leads to a thirty-one percent increase in the risk of drinking over the next eighteen months. An hour increase in other types of television corresponded with a nine- percent increase in drinking risk (www.apa.org/releases/fratdrinking.html). "What we're pointing at is the media representations of alcohol use and advertising," said Dr. Robinson.

Another suggestion given was by a 16-year-old African-American male. He said, "Cut drinking commercials and send more undercover cops to buy liquor without prove of ages. By doing so, authorities will know what alcohol shops sell to underage drinkers." This plan will serve as a way to cut down the amount of teens that get alcoholic beverages illegally from liquor stores, but they can still ask older irresponsible adults to buy the drinks for them.

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