Page 96 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

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AIDS, male or female.’ There is a brief mention of sharing of needles.
Dr Silverman returns to point out that abstinence is a sure way to
protect yourself, but short of that, a condom and a spermicide should be
used during sex, ‘from beginning to end’. He points out that one should
not take drugs, but if one does, at least do not share a needle.
This part of the video constitutes the accurate information part. There
follows the advisory examples of how to talk to your teenage child about
the problem.
First we are shown the Stone family, a white professional middle-
class couple who have lost their only son, Michael, to AIDS. Stills of
Michael reveal a strikingly handsome young man. The parents say they
knew he was sexually active, but wish they had talked more. The Stones
are an attractive and brave couple, who are unusually articulate and
frank about their experience. We cannot help but admire and feel for
them.
From this we are exposed to three little dramas that illustrate
situations in which parents may inject their values about sexual activity
and the dangers of AIDS into conversations with their children.
The first situation takes place in a kitchen, an affluent middle-class
kitchen similar to those used for commercials featuring kitchen
products, in which a very young black girl (who talks like a ‘valley
girl’) has a friendly and very quick chat with her substantial, earth-mother
mom. With some embarrassment, the girl reels off rote instructions from
school on how to have safe sex. The mom does not reveal any technical
knowledge, but rather urges her daughter to be careful and wait for
someone who has respect for her (‘I am not telling you what to do, I am
telling you how I feel’).
The second situation takes place in a parked car where a divorced
Dad is meeting his son. He urges the son to be careful because of AIDS
and because he should have respect for the girls he goes with. This is
the context for the remark about being gay and its seeming irrelevance
to the AIDS question. The final scene is in the living-room, again white
and middle-class, where a young teenage girl is about to go off ‘with
friends’ until midnight. There is an embarrassed series of little jokes
that show the unease of all three with the topic, but it frankly deals with
the concern of the parents that their little girl not have sex with anyone
nor take drugs nor drink and drive. In the course of the conversation, the
threat of AIDS and the need for precautions are emphasized.
Although there is not one untruth in Talking with Teens the film
editing and comparative weight given to different facets of the topic by