Music, Media and Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica

Abstract

Marcia A. Forbes, Music, Media and Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica. Kingston: Arawak Publications, 2010. xvi + 207 pp.REVIEWED BY DONNA P. HOPE MARQUISMusic, Media and Adokscent Sexuality in Jamaica draws on useful empirical work to wade into the critical debate on media and other popular influences on youth. In so doing, it attempts to pull together the contemporary strands of meaning within which Jamaican youth choose and consume their media output, and relate same to their burgeoning gender and sexual identity.In its current form, the book is a useful tool for graduate students, researchers and academics who desire recent material on the role of media and music videos (especially dancehall and hip-hop) in the lives of Jamaican adolescents, particularly those between the ages of ten and eighteen years. The work's greatest strength is its body of empirical data, based on research conducted among Jamaican students in that age range; Forbes provides rich data and several analytical pointers that can be mined for further use. It also provides the foundation for media policy development, and indicates necessary contemporary and future research on the role of media, popular culture and new forms of alternative media, in the lives of twenty-first-century Jamaican youths.As a part of this journey, Forbes identifies several critical findings, including the fact that Jamaican adolescent girls primarily want to look like the women in American hip- hop videos. This work is useful in light of historical and popular debates about 'true' Jamaican identity, and the impact of competing media messages from the USA. Additional analysis and discussion could be useful on how these findings speak to cultural imperialism, gender and sexual identity as well as the implications for a true Jamaican national identity. The factor that needs some attention here is the role of the Jamaican state and local media in providing competing and youth-attractive messages that are oriented around national identity, particularly with the continued liberalisation of traditional and alternative forms of media.Another useful finding is that cartoons and comedies are the top two favourite programme genres among urban inner-city residents. What this indicates generally is the need for analysis and debate in considering the extent to which such active choice of media content fits in with the often negative and violent stereotypical representations of inner-city residents, and the influence of media among less fortunate groups in society, i.e., those who are often seen to be most at risk.Additionally, in Table io titled Transmission Mode of Music Videos in Relation to Condom Use (p. 147), Forbes presents useful data that identifies the apparent efficacy of television in Jamaica (i.e., foreign cable, local cable, and local TV) in transmitting positive messages about condom use. This supports the notion that multiple and often competing meanings and messages are a part of the media framework which is under review, and that adolescents and other media consumers play an active role in choosing how to interpret and use these multiple and competing messages. The fact that this data suggests a possible correlation between a reported positive response to condom use and over 60 per cent viewership of content on foreign cable television, suggests the need for enhancement in and increase of similar or related public education messages on local cable and television stations in Jamaica.However, the work suffers from several critical flaws which, if addressed, would significantly enhance the usefulness of Forbes's empirical research and analyses. First, there is a need to ensure that the main platforms on which this work is raised (i. …

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