Who Is The Target Audience Of 13 Reasons Why

Ever since its debut last month, 13 Reasons Why has been binge watched and talked about by many. However, the talk surrounding the show varies among individuals. Netflix adapted Jay Asher’s 2007 novel to tell the story of a teenage girl, why she committed suicide, and the aftermath of it. The show has themes of death, depression, sexual assault, and violence; the show creators chose to create these themes in scenes so graphic that trigger warnings were displayed before the episodes. On one hand, you have people who praise the Netflix original for being bold, original, and having raw realness to spread awareness. On the other hand, you have people, with good reason, saying it goes against everything psychologists recommend to show in media talking

For example, the target audience of 13 Reasons Why would be adolescents too because of its high school characters and themes. Some of these young people online have already noticed the problems with portraying these issues in such a graphic and attention-getting way (Blay). However, many are unaware of the problematic exploitation by film makers and are at risk. Phyllis Alongi, the clinical director of the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide, says, “Imagine an adolescent feeling emotionally lost, almost invisible, and witnessing the notoriety or memorialization of a teen who completed suicide, gaining attention in their immediate community as well as the vast amount of attention obtained from social media. This is the essence of contagion” (Grady). Adolescents are more easily influenced to feel this way because of their susceptibility. Many young people feel as if they have no meaning or purpose, so this makes them more vulnerable to listen to what they should be interested in and how they should act and feel by the media (Gregor). If what they are watching is gloomy, pessimistic, and negative, then the young people will be more likely to be too. These targeted teenagers are watching people slitting their wrists, overdosing on pills, and girls getting raped on their screens as something normal. Based on their usual audience, the media and film industry need be extra careful about how they create these triggering scenes by more specifically recognizing what is wrong with graphic scenes; they need to know how to portray them in the right