By Mark A. Taylor
Does what we watch on TV affect how we act in everyday life? Those broadcasting sex, violence, and other vices into our living rooms would likely say no. “Our programming is a reflection of the culture around us, not a cause of everyday behavior. Our job is to entertain, not to educate.“
I didn”t believe it when I first heard the words from network executives” mouths almost 30 years ago, and I don”t believe it now. But I must admit I was surprised to hear a college professor interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR) support my answer to the question.
In 1986 I traveled with a committee of national Christian leaders to visit the headquarters of each of the Big Three TV networks: NBC, CBS, and ABC. We met with the folks responsible for the networks” standards and practices to beg them to cut back on the sex and violence that, even then, was a concern to parents and many others across the land.
They offered several responses. (A) They were polite and welcoming. (B) They showed us their standards and said they abide by them. (C) They asserted that what people watch on TV doesn”t influence their behavior, that sitcoms and love stories and action series are merely a diversion. They said teaching doesn”t happen on television.
Unsatisfied, we left those meetings to form a coalition called CLeaR-TV, Christian Leaders for Responsible Television. Led by Donald Wildmon, then the feisty president of the American Family Association, the group worked with Christians across the country to bully the networks into submission to our point-of-view by boycotting sponsors of the shows with the most sex and profanity.
Wildmon might disagree, but it seems obvious to me this approach didn”t work, at least not for long. One or two sponsors may have caved, but only for awhile. And now we have multiplied offerings via cable and satellite and a host of new streaming services that make the objectionable programs of the 1980s look tame.
As TV has become more permissive, so has the culture at large. And some, at least, are intent on spreading their values via our at-home screens. Witness the agitation of lesbian and gay coalitions to make sure gay TV characters are always presented positively. Witness the decision of TV programmers to lessen or eliminate smoking, because children shouldn”t see that it”s “cool” to smoke.
And now a series on MTV, 16 and Pregnant, is being credited with helping to cut the teen birthrate in America.
As reported by NPR last week, Melissa Kearney from the University of Maryland was one of two to write a new study that found a relationship between teen pregnancy and the TV program. The research studied Nielsen ratings data, Google searches, and Twitter data to monitor teen viewing habits and Internet searches and comments. They compared this with teen birthrates and concluded that births to teen mothers fell by 5.7 percentage points as a result of this show”s unvarnished portrayals of real teen mothers and the difficulties they face. (See the NPR report for a fuller explanation of how the researchers came to this conclusion.)
“The biggest take-away from this study,” Kearney said, “is that what teenagers are watching can make a really big difference in what they think, and ultimately how they behave and really important life decisions.”
That”s something to talk about with the teenagers in your life. And their parents. And their youth ministers. We may not be able to force TV producers to show only what edifies. But we can help young people think about what they become because of what they watch.
(And, by the way, thinking a bit more about our own viewing habits would probably be a good first step.)
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