Too much TV 'turns toddlers into bullies'

According to new research, three year-olds who watch more television than average are more likely to become bullies, reports News.scotsman.

A study of more than three thousand mothers found those whose children were most aggressive tended to be those that saw the most programmes – aimed both directly at them or adults.

A contradictory study:

-- TV not to blame for violence, study says

Studies related to toddlers watching TV:

-- Toddlers learn little from TV

-- U.S. babies watching TV, despite warnings

Above Image from the University of Michigan

French TV channel launches "I Kill A Friend" website

A totally immoral new show will launch on French TV Channel 13eme rue. Adverblog reports.

13ème rue is a French Tv channel specialized in thriller, action and supense. They just launched a provocative site titled Je tue un ami (I kill a friend ) rated 16+.

You start by hiring a professional killer to kill one of your friend ...

You give details and a picture of your target, and one of yourself. You will then be able to watch the violent execution, as the site allows a movie personalization, via a 3D integration of the picture.

Your victim receive a mail with a link to the site, and after he has watched the video, he is invited to investigate who is behind this crime, and can possibly release a new sequence.

Sick.

Television — not the Internet — is responsible for worldwide social change

It's not Twitter or Facebook that's reinventing the planet. Eighty years after the first commercial broadcast crackled to life, television still rules our world. All those soap operas might be the ticket to a better future after all. Foreign Policy reports via TV Tattle.

... And it's not earnest educational programming that's reshaping the world on all those TV sets. The programs that so many dismiss as junk -- from song-and-dance shows to Desperate Housewives -- are being eagerly consumed by poor people everywhere who are just now getting access to television for the first time. That's a powerful force for spreading glitz and drama -- but also social change.

How Jack Bauer's TV violence set tone for policymakers

It is easy to forget how the atmosphere in Washington after September 11, 2001, allowed policymakers to cite Jack Bauer, the fictional hero of Fox TV's 24, as some sort of moral compass.

Bauer, who used torture to extract information that prevented the slaughter of innocents, was cited by the likes of Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, to justify policies including “enhanced interrogation techniques”. The Times Online reports.

To give the theory an academic sheen Alan Dershowitz, a law professor at Harvard, President Obama's alma mater, set out “the ticking-bomb scenario” in 2002 in which a terrorist who has planted a nuclear device receives some robust questioning.

Seven years later the publication of more than 100 pages of clinical legal prose explaining how far interrogators could go in slamming a suspect's head against a wall (albeit one designed to reduce the possibility of lasting injury) make deeply disturbing reading.

Read full article.

[via TV Tattle]

TV themes more popular than hymns at funerals

TV theme tunes and pop songs are now more popular than traditional hymns at funerals, a new survey reveals, reports Ananova.

A survey of 30,000 funerals conducted last year found that hymns were now the most popular requests at only 35% of services.

My Way by Frank Sinatra was the most popular, followed by Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler and Time To Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

Priests reject one in 10 requests, including for AC/DC's Highway To Hell and Another One Bites The Dust by Queen.

Messages With a Mission, Embedded in TV Shows

Among the many wonderful ways the The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spends money for good causes, one of their projects is less well known: Influencing public attitude through popular TV shows.

It is less well known as a behind-the-scenes influencer of public attitudes by helping to shape story lines and insert messages into popular entertainment like the television shows “ER,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “Private Practice.” The foundation’s messages on H.I.V. prevention, surgical safety and the spread of infectious diseases have found their way into these shows.

Now the Gates Foundation is set to expand its involvement and spend more money on influencing popular culture through a deal with Viacom.

Read full article.

Pupil TV habits concern teachers

Ninety per cent of teachers say some pupils are imitating the language and behaviour of reality television stars, a survey for a teaching union suggests, reports the BBC.

Three quarters also think pupils are behaving more aggressively as a consequence, the survey found.

Reality TV show Big Brother was singled out as a bad example by two thirds of teachers questioned by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

More teachers thought that television had a greater influence on children's behaviour than computers and video games.

Comedy pilots reflect recession

A group of friends gets fired on the same day. Troubled cops check into a halfway home. A Wall Street executive loses his job and has to reconnect with his small-town family.

Laughing yet? Those are a few log lines for next fall's TV pilots -- the comedy pilots.

Networks are looking at recession-friendly ideas for their new half-hours, with many projects embracing characters in crisis and avoiding office settings.

[via The Hollywood Reporter and The Live Feed]

Happy endings on TV are no guarantee that networks will live happily ever after By James Hibberd

From the The Hollywood Reporter.

Producers on current shows are being told to keep their subject matter light, as if writers should use the Dow to calculate each episode's pathos-to-comedy ratio. One need only glance at next season's TV drama pilots to see that networks are banking on traditional closed-ended procedural dramas that have the potential to provide satisfying happy endings on a weekly basis.

Programmers forget that the content trend toward darker and serialized shows -- the one now ebbing out of style -- wasn't born out of the stock market peak of 2007. It came after 9/11 and the bursting of the Internet bubble, during the previous period of stock-market lows.

Fox's "24," FX's "The Shield," ABC's "Lost" and Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica" helped usher in an era of dark, complex, groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and conspiratorial action dramas that were major hits for their networks.

The point isn't that dark times produce more gritty, realistic hits. The point is that recession-era successes are just as likely to reflect the mood of the country as to act as a lighthearted tonic. Truly escapist TV is any show that's so compelling viewers forget they're on the couch.

The "Americans want escapism and happy endings" mantra is wishful thinking. With the broadcast ratings woes, it's TV executives who want to escape.

Watching TV gives first aid clues

Watching TV shows like Casualty and ER makes people confident enough to try and resuscitate people in real life, a survey has suggested, reports the BBC. The poll of just under 2,000 people found one in five would try.

Not everyone agrees it's a good idea.

An article in TV Squad last August, reported that a doctor's group in Italy was so upset by the inaccuracies in American medical shows such as Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, ER and House, that want Italian broadcasters to refrain from airing these shows at all, lest they prompt people to take medicine into their own hands.

Related:

-- Medical Dramas a source of health information for audiences

-- Medical TV 'feeds health fears'

-- Study: ‘ER’ Episodes Influence Viewers Health Knowledge

-- Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy may be banned in Italy

PTC outraged by 'Nip/Tuck' self-mutilation. Rightly so

The Parents Television Council has (rightly so) objected to an episode of "Nip/Tuck" " (surely they've not objected to just one episode). The scene in question, video here, "depicts a woman using an electric carving knife to cut off her own breast."

Not content with depictions or descriptions of bestiality, incestuous necrophilia, or blood-soaked stabbings, the narcissistic sociopaths behind the production and distribution of Nip/Tuck have chosen to establish yet another low-point in the history of television. Tuesday’s episode portrayed sickening and bloody images of a woman who takes a mastectomy into her own hands in the crowded lobby of a doctor’s office.

... Most Fortune-500 advertisers who have purchased advertising on Nip/Tuck in prior years are no longer doing so, and we believe their rationale is that the program’s content does not reflect well on their corporate brands,” Winter concluded. PTC President Tim Winter said.

[The Live Feed via The Hollywood Reporter]

Grey's Anatomy prompts penile Google Search

In case you missed Grey's Anatomy last Thursday, Dr. Mark Sloan suffered a rather compromising and cringe-inducing injury to his pelvic region, reports The Telegraph.

To put it bluntly, he endured a penile fracture – and the resultant spotlight thrown onto that particular affliction has prompted a flurry of internet searches on the subject.

The Daily Telegraph reports that as of Friday, "broken penis" and "penile fracture" were two of the three most Googled items. A search on Google Trends revealed that "penile fracture" was the seventh most popular search in the US as of Friday afternoon.

[via The National Post]

The CSI Effect

An interesting read from Neatorama on the "CSI effect" in courtrooms. Excerpts:

The "CSI effect" occurs primarily inside the courtroom. Its first incarnation was referred to as the Perry Mason effect, based on the popular fictional defense attorney's trademark ability to clear his client by coercing the guilty party into confessing on the witness stand. During Mason's TV heyday, from the 1950s to the '80s, many prosecutors complained that juries were hesitant to convict defendants without that "Perry Mason moment" of a confession on the stand - which in real life is very, very rare.

After Perry Mason went off the air, a new kind of law enforcement program appeared: the scientific police procedural. Along with shows such as NCIS, Diagnosis: Murder, and Bones, CSI focuses on forensic evidence and lab work as the primary means of catching killers.

... The main problem caused by the CSI effect: Juries now expect conclusive forensic evidence. According to Staff Sergeant Peter Abi-Rashed, a homicide detective from Hamilton, Ontario, "Juries are asking, 'Can we convict without DNA evidence?' Of course they can. It's called good, old-fashioned police work and overwhelming circumstantial evidence." In the worst-case scenarios, guilty people may be set free because a jury wasn't impressed with evidence that - as recently as the 1990s - would have led to a conviction.

In fact, many forensic experts find themselves on the stand explaining to a jury why they don't have scientific evidence. Some lawyers have even started asking potential jurors if they watch CSI. If so, they may have to be reeducated.

Read full article.

Truman Syndrome: 21st century plague?

More and more people in the world believe their life is nothing more than a reality show –surroundings are just decorations, events are script-written and staged, and people around are actors. Psychologists say this delusion named ‘Truman Syndrome’ has become the ‘syndrome of the 21st century.’ Russia Today reports.

Joel and Ian Gold have dubbed the phenomenon two years ago, referring to a 1998 film, ‘
The Truman Show’, in which the main character realises his whole life is a TV show broadcasted 24/7.

Britain’s The Daily Telegraph daily cites them as saying “The self-exposure, instant fame, culture peddled by reality shows, social networking internet sites such as Facebook and – above all – the home video-sharing website YouTube, has provided a "perfect storm" for vulnerable people, encouraging them to put their fantasies on a global stage.”

At the same time, the researchers do not claim that it is “a new form of mental illness” or “these people would be well if there was no YouTube.”

The Gold brothers say the delusion is difficult to treat, as those who suffer it are sure they can trust no one, and that their doctors are actors too.

Read full article.

'Dexter' Allegedly Inspired Murder in Edmonton

Dexter’s name came into the spotlight after an Edmonton filmmaker was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 38-year-old Johnny Brian Altinger. buddy.tv reports.

Back in August, the accused Mark Twitchell wrote on his Facebook site’s status notation, “Mark has way too much in common with Dexter Morgan,” referring to the titular character of the Showtime series. On October 31, Twitchell was arrested after police retrieved a script for House of Cards, a short horror film he wrote about a serial killer who murders a cheating husband after pretending to be a woman through online communication and later luring him in.

Meanwhile, the case has been put over until November 26, as the Canadian Press reports that the 29-year-old Twitchell did not appear in court on Wednesday.

... University of Victoria pop culture expert Kim Blank explains that pop culture is pervasive, and that through media, it can greatly influence the minds of some individuals.

Sex on TV Increases Teen Pregnancy, Says Report

Researchers at the Rand Corporation say they have documented for the first time how exposure to racy content can influence teen pregnancy rates. They found that teens exposed to the most sexual content on TV were twice as likely as teens watching less of this material to become pregnant before they reach age 20.

[via TIME]

Medical Dramas a source of health information for audiences

New research suggests that prime-time medical dramas such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "House" may also be an important source of health information for their audiences.

The Kaiser Foundationn analyzed an entire "Grey's" episode, and found that viewers retained the show's medical information weeks after watching.

Link to study: Hollywood & Health: Health Content in Entertainment Television

[ABCNews via TV Tattle]

Fun - Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy may be banned in Italy - lest they prompt people to take medicine into their own hands.

Too much information - Medical TV 'feeds health fears' - A taste for television hospital drama might make you more fearful about your own health, say Belgian psychologists.

Meanness appears to rub off on viewers

Researchers have long known that watching violence on TV or in movies ratchets up aggression, but what about watching people being mean to one another? Could watching Mean Girls make you as aggressive as watching Kill Bill?

A new study by professor Sarah Coyne and colleagues at Brigham Young University suggests the answer is yes. USA Today reports.

"... Coyne says the findings suggest parents should pay more attention to relational aggression and perhaps even push to make it part of movie and TV ratings. "Everyone's concerned about violence in the media, as they should be, but we're missing out on lots of violence out there," she says. "We need to look at these other types of aggression out there because we know that they're having an effect on aggression."

The study is in November's Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

In political chill, U.S. entertainment is hot

The image of the United States abroad may have taken a beating in the past few years, but the longstanding appeal of American popular culture has not dimmed. Indeed it appears to have grown stronger lately, even in places like the Middle East, where opposition to American foreign policy is particularly rampant. An insightful article by Tim Arango for the IHT.

"Shows like ''CSI'' and ''House'' now dominate prime-time viewing in parts of Europe, and Hollywood movies routinely sell more tickets overseas than in the United States.

''What's interesting about the last eight years is that polls show a decline in American attractiveness,'' says Joseph Nye Jr., the Harvard professor who coined the phrase ''soft power'' in 1989 to refer to the ways beyond military muscle that America influences the world. ''But then you ask the follow-up questions and you see that American culture remains attractive, that American values remain attractive.

''Which is the opposite of what the president has said - that they hate us for who we are and what we believe in.''

... From an Egyptian man in a focus group conducted by Steven Kull, on International Policy Attitudes: ''I do respect and appreciate American culture and its technology, I welcome that, but not the bad side of its culture, not what contradicts my religious beliefs and with Islam.''

Medical TV 'feeds health fears'

A taste for television hospital drama might make you more fearful about your own health, say psychologists, writes the BBC.

"Belgian researchers said the tragedies and medical horrors played out on ER, Casualty and Holby City may have a subliminal influence.

They quizzed 1,300 teenagers about their viewing habits, and found worries increased among those watching more medical drama.

A UK expert said fretting about illness was particularly common in teenagers.

The three year research project was presented to a British Psychological Societymeeting in Bath on Wednesday.

The level of health fear measured in the teenagers grew by as much as 10% after a diet of hospital programs, and girls appeared to be more affected than boys. "

Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy may be banned in Italy

According to TV Squad, a leading doctor's group in Italy is so upset by the inaccuracies in American medical shows such as Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, ER and House, that they believe Italian broadcasters should refrain from airing these shows at all, lest they prompt people to take medicine into their own hands.

"Annalisa Silvestro, president of the NFMC says that "These programs are teaching viewers inaccurate views on medicine," and that "They are spreading misinformation."

However there's no word so far as to whether or not Italian broadcasters are actually taking this seriously."

Reality TV may be turning teens into their parents

The countless hours teens spend watching oversexed television shows like The Bachelor and The O.C. may actually make them more like their parents -- at least when it comes to dating, according to New Scientist.

Forget Gossip, Girl; the Buzz Is About the Clothes

The New York Times has written an interesting piece on the influence of "Gossip Girl" and teen fashion and how the show’s sense of style is having a broader impact, even according to Stephanie Solomon, fashion director for Bloomingdale’s, who claims “The show has had a profound influence on retail."

"Fans stride into boutiques bearing magazine tear sheets that feature members of the cast and ask for their exact outfits. Or they order scoop-neck tops and hobo bags by following e-commerce links from the show’s Web site.

Although the series has had only middling success in the ratings, in stylistic terms it “may well be the biggest influence in the youth culture market,” said Stephanie Meyerson, a trend spotter for Stylesight, a trend forecasting company

... Thanks to the point-and-click shopping on its Web site and the fees it charges some brands to be featured in the series, “Gossip Girl” has been able to profit from its power to generate trends. It is not the first show to collect revenues from product tie-ins, but it probably is the first to have been conceived, in part, as a fashion marketing vehicle."

Has the TV drama really supplanted the novel as the 'narrative of our times'?

The BBC's controller of fiction Jane Tranter says it is TV drama that now "gives our lives meaning and shape" rather than literature. [The Guardian via TV Tattle]

"The golden age of television of television drama isn't today, but neither is it yesterday. The golden age is tomorrow," Tranter added, encouraging critics and commentators to take television as seriously as films, literature and high art.

Television drama had supplanted the novel, she said, as the "narrative of our times that gives our lives meaning and shape".

Tranter encouraged writers to respond to the challenge of budget cuts and fewer slots by "thinking small" – taking advantage of the intimacy of the medium - and "thinking big" – considering the possibilities for ambitious stories on a global scale that could attract co-production funding. "

Madison Avenue Likes What It Sees in the Mirror

According to The New York Times, “Mad Men,” is inspiring commercials; designer fashions; window displays in department stores; merchandise like cigarette lighters, CDs and calendars; and a mock issue of the trade publication Advertising Age.

Industry awards shows, exhibitions and parties are also adopting “Mad Men” themes.

... The series was even the subject of an $8,000 question on a recent episode of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” asking which business “Mad Men” is about. When a contestant asked the audience for help, 86 percent answered correctly.

Read full article.

Is "Mad Men" realistic at all?

The New York Times Magazine gives the AMC drama an in-depth profile, in which the ad men who were actually there in the '60s disagree on its accuracy. [via TV t a t t l e . c o m]

"When I hear 'Mad Men,' it's the most irritating thing in the world to me," says legendary art director George Lois. "When you think of the ’60s, you think about people like me who changed the advertising and design worlds. The creative revolution was the name of the game. This show gives you the impression it was all three-martini lunches."

But Jerry Della Femina, another influential ad man, sees it differently: "'Mad Men' accurately reflects what went on. The smoking, the prejudice and the bigotry." For his part, "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner points out the show isn't a history lesson, but "I love the passion of these people."

Posing Like TV Series Characters

Saturday night, my son and his friends thought the lighting in the kitchen was interesting. So they took some pictures, posing like TV series' characters on the covers of DVDs. I think they're just great! A new fad?

HBO picks up "Hung" - about a well-endowed man

A new season, a new shocker. Hung, a dark comedy, will definitely focus on a sizable endowment.

[Variety via TV Tattle]

Afghanistan parliament bans Indian soap operas

Afghanistan's parliament has issued a declaration banning the broadcast of five Indian TV serials from Tuesday onwards. IBN live reports.

"... Many families in Afghanistan rely on Indian television serials like "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu ThI" and "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki" for their daily dose of entertainment. But the country's conservative Muslim clerics have demanded a ban on Indian soap operas terming them "immoral" and against "Islamic culture."

A Kabul resident Gullab Khan says, "These programmes have changed the behaviour of our children and women, we don't want them. All Muslims know that they are not allowed in Islam."

Popularizing Islam through TV

Egyptian Ahmed abu Haiba symbolizes a struggle in the Middle East with the influx of Western culture. He aims to give a voice to moderate Islam. An insightful article from the LA Times.

"The iconic images that defined Islam were being challenged in the 1990s from the Internet and Hollywood fantasy absorbed by tens of millions of satellite dishes humming on rooftops across the Middle East. It was an alluring cacophony that Abu Haiba, a playwright and TV producer, warned would tug the Arab world further from its culture.

"The Islamic media was so poor, so traditional," he said. "It wasn't television. It was televised radio, a man in front of a camera speaking for hours and hours about obscure religious texts with no appeal. . . . Words with nothing connected to life."

Abu Haiba rejected the West's secular message, but he sought the power of its style and marketing. His creation, the latest in the struggle of faith, globalization and identity between East and West, is a music video channel that features Muslim piety through a slickly produced prism of Arabic rhythms to counter the thug pathos on MTV.

... Abu Haiba is hoping for success with his music video channel, and sees an opportunity to loosen the grip of the West. In the promo for the channel, the narrator proclaims, "We must exert all effort to defend what's precious to us. . . . We can't turn a blind eye to this ghost who sneaks into our houses."

Office madness

When the Golden Eagles take the floor this afternoon, legions of avid Marquette University fans will be following the action - at work. JS Online reports.

"As maddening as March may be for employers vying with office pools and business-hour game times for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, there's the added distraction this year of free live-streaming video of each of the 63 games on the Internet.

NCAA March Madness on Demand even sports a "boss button" so that employees can instantly replace game video on their computer screen with a spreadsheet aimed at fooling any passing manager that they're getting work done.

... The Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. , estimates that employers will lose $1.7 billion in productivity through the championship game April 7. That's based on 27% of the nation's labor force wasting 10 minutes per workday "trash talking at the water cooler or watching live videos of the games."

Related: Making millions when the boss isn't looking

'CSI murderers' fail to trick police

Two CSI: fans who killed and dismembered their half-brother, and then tried to use knowledge gleaned from the American television drama to outwit detectives, were facing lengthy prison terms today. Times Online reports [via TV Tattle].

"... Detectives said they found a host of CSI: DVDs at the Baigents' house and there was evidence that the brothers had tried to use “forensic” knowledge to cover their trail.

The court heard that Charlotte Baigent also told friends how they took ideas from CSI:, which stars actor William Petersen. They dismembered Mr Scanlan’s body and hid the parts in separate woodland graves, wrapping their hands in sticky tape to clean a car the victim had travelled in. They also used an ultra-violet light to search for tell-tale fibres in the car and sent a fake text from Mr Scanlan’s phone to give the impression that he was still alive.

But real scenes of crime officers and forensic scientists had been too clever and were led to the killers by following a trail of mobile phone calls.

Related:

-- CSI: Underpants sees scientist dismissed over test that trapped cheating husband - A forensic scientist who performed a CSI-style examination of her husband’s underpants to see if he was cheating has been fired from her job for misusing the police crime lab.

-- 'CSI effect' is teaching criminals to cover tracks - Forensic science professionals, police departments and criminal prosecution lawyers are now complaining that these shows have educated criminals about the best way to cover their tracks.

Ahead of Dexter’s Broadcast Debut, Critics Slam CBS for ‘Celebrating Murder’

Dexter went under the knife ahead of its broadcast debut Sunday night on CBS. The curse words were replaced and the most visible moments of gore were truncated. TV Decoder reports.

"But some critics believe the drama does not belong on broadcast television, with or without the edits, for a fundamental reason: the storyline encourages viewers to root for a mass murderer.

They intend to air material that effectively celebrates murder,” stated the Parents Television Council in a message to members two weeks ago. “The biggest problem with the series is something that no amount of editing can get around: the series compels viewers to empathize with a serial killer, to root for him to prevail, to hope he doesn’t get discovered.”

The council, a conservative-leaning group that regularly mounts campaigns against programming it perceives to be offensive, has rallied supporters to call their local CBS affiliate and file complaints. It says it has collected 17,000 complaints in the past two weeks. "

Beijing struggles to control Internet content

Censors work to excise politics, pornography, while protecting China's official public image. The Baltimore Sun reports.

"All sorts of irreverent footage ends up on Tudou and other Chinese video sites - spoofs of public figures, off-beat animated films, Taiwanese music videos and real-life street scenes that display the spontaneity and edge missing from state-run television.

That's probably why the Chinese government is striking back.

A harsh new law that took effect this month forbids any content "which damages China's unity and sovereignty; harms ethnic solidarity; promotes superstition; portrays violence, pornography, gambling or terrorism; violates privacy; damages China's culture or traditions."

More damaging still is a requirement that firms distributing online video or audio be state-owned. If enforced, the law could kill the most vibrant media in China today."

Read full article.

Reinventing "24"

Against the real-life backdrop of global terror, "24" at its peak found millions of fans. But as opinion about the Iraq war soured, the show suffered serious blowback over its depiction of torture. Now, the show's producers are trying to reconcile Jack Bauer with the new public mood.

[via the WSJ]

TV, Film, Game Violence threatens Public Health: Study

Violence depicted on television, in films and video games raises the risk of aggressive behavior in adults and young viewers and poses a serious threat to public health, according to a new study, reports Reuters.

"After reviewing more than 50 years of research on the impact of violence in the media, L. Rowell Huesmann, of the University of Michigan, and his colleague Brad Bushman concluded that only smoking posed a greater danger.

... The findings, which are reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health, support earlier research which showed that children who watch violent television shows and who identify with the characters and believe they are real are more likely to be aggressive as adults.

The results were true for both men and women."

Sympathy for the Devil: The Nice-Guy Serial Killer Next Door

During the past two years Showtime has made its mark with series that ostentatiously demand our sympathy for narcissists, wrongdoers, the egregiously misbehaved. The New York Times reports.

"At the center of “Californication ” is a wounded philanderer. “Brotherhood” delivers a thug with brain trauma. On “Weeds” a widowed mother, her options foreclosed, turns to drug dealing and parental neglect. What does it say that Dexter Morgan, a forensics expert and serial killer, is the most likable character in this assembly?

There's something seriously wrong with all of us. That said. I can't wait until the next Dexter episode.

Related:

-- ‘Dexter’ Draws Blood, Bigger Audiences - Viewers are catching on; last Sunday’s episode attracted a network-high 1.23 million viewers, Showtime said on Wednesday. That marked “the biggest audience ever for a series on Showtime since the network started breaking out numbers for individual series in 2004, and nearly 10 percent of Showtime’s overall subscriber base of about 13 million,” Broadcatsting & Cable reports.

Screen violence tied to boys' aggression: study

Boys aged 2 to 5 who viewed an hour of on-screen violence a day increased their chances of being overly aggressive later in childhood, but the association was not seen in girls, researchers said on Monday.

"... Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and fellow researchers, writing in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed the television and video viewing habits of 330 children aged 2 to 5, then assessed their behavior five years later.

The conclusion of the study was that "the viewing of violent programming by preschool boys is associated with subsequent aggressive behavior".

[via Reuters]

TV 'raises kids' blood pressure'

US researchers studying over 500 children found that the amount of time spent watching television was linked to the severity of obesity as well as the presence of high blood pressure, a new study suggests, reports inthenews.co.uk

"... "Children who watched between two and four hours of television a day had a 2.5 times increased risk of high blood pressure compared to those watching less than two hours a day."

TV not to blame for violence, study says

What makes kids smack other and maybe grow into homicidal adults? Not the tube, says new research, but a lack of social skills. Variety reports.

"All babies are born with violent tendencies, which most kids learn to control as they grow older", a University of Montreal professor who has spent more than 20 years studying 35,000 Canadian children told Scientific AmericanScientificAmerican. Those who don't or can't learn are the ones who become violent.

"It's a natural behavior and it's surprising that the idea that children and adolescents learn aggression from the media is still relevant," Richard Tremblay told the website. "Clearly youth were violent before television appeared."

Tremblay, who is about to present his preliminary findings to The Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, rejects the recently renewed criticisms of media violence as behavioral influences, instead maintaining that "unexpressed" or damaged genes affecting behavioral skills are the likely culprits."

Image from the University of Michigan

Dumbed-down TV 'could inspire suicide'

According to a study by SANE StigmaWatch program, irresponsible portrayal of mental illness and suicide in many television programs and films could encourage vulnerable people to suicide, reports News.com.

"A scheme launched today to coincide with World Mental Health Day tries to encourage script-writers to avoid stereotypes of the mentally ill, or showing details of suicides.

Deputy director Paul Morgan said the print media appeared to have improved in recent years, but television and films were in some ways getting worse.

... "Television soaps used to focus on people's ordinary struggles, but were increasingly relying on lazy, sensationalist plot devices incorporating stereotypes of mentally ill people, he said. "I don't like the phrase dumbing-down, but certainly (they are) going for more dramatic plots."

Morgan said scriptwriters risked discouraging people struggling with mental illness to seek help because they did not relate to the stereotypes.

Similarly, coverage of suicide that made it seem exciting, or detailed the methods used, could encourage copycat behaviour.

"There is actually evidence about irresponsible coverage of suicide... for people that are vulnerable, that can actually trigger them to do it," he said

How far is too far?

Thursday night I went to a lecture by Yasmina Khadra, a world famous Muslim and Algerian best selling author, on a book tour here in Geneva. He lives in France with his wife and children (his nom de plume are his wife's first two names. His real name is Mohamed Moulessehoul. He was a commander in the Algerian army for 25 years).

There was a moment in his lecture where he mentioned that watching television with his family was rarely enjoyable as constantly interrupted by shouts from his wife, his children being asked to leave the room and and the switching off of the set, because of profanity or offensive content. These are not our values. I know about this culture, but I don't want it", he said.

My point is that each season seems to bring on a new show which crosses yet another moral boundary, which we take in stride, but perceived by another culture may be extremely offensive.

In our world, we enjoy and even like the characters of Tony Soprano, Dexter, Nancy Botwin or Vic Mackey. They come from some of the top rated shows in America and obviously from the popularity of the rogue video sharing sites, these series have a huge following in both Europe and Asia.

But with satellite dishes now popping up in remote parts of the world, in Afghanistan or Irak, TV streaming on the Internet, and soon TV on cell phones, are we not fueling hatred for our culture in some parts of the world?

Maybe they should simply not watch. Hey, it's our culture. But maybe we have some soul searching to do as well. Why do we enjoy Dexter so much (and that goes for me too) and is it really okay to promote the launch of it's second season in 14 cities across America with red water fountains, a death threat e-mail campaign, or a contest in Italy for the launch of the first season where one of the prizes is a set of knives e? How far is too far?

Image from Sat-7 Egypt

Times — and talk — are changing for TV viewers

As channel choices and technological options have expanded, fewer of us are watching the same shows at the same time on the same day. And it's increasingly affecting the national conversation, reports USA Today.

"We're right at the beginning of the (viewing) change — the vast majority, about 70%, still watch at the same time even when they have TiVo, but it is clearly changing," says TV historian and author Tim Brooks, a research executive at the cable channel Lifetime.

... Brooks says there's still a strong urge to share some events, such as breaking news, the Super Bowl or live competitions such as American Idol and Dancing With the Stars. "There's something about our society and our desire to have something to share, so there's still room for some of that."

But Ed Robertson, TV historian and radio host, says the concept of "event TV" is mostly gone, especially among all-important viewers ages 18 to 34. "This is the way they watch TV — in fact, it's possible to watch TV without ever owning a set. If you miss something, you can get caught up immediately through the virtual water cooler."

Related article:

-- TV shows losing mass appeal - With so many TV series offered on so many different channels, people are now divided by too many choices and can't possibly see them all, creating a "swath of small viewing communities, clinging to the programs they enjoy".

TV shows losing mass appeal

An interesting article from Variety, on how with so many TV series offered on so many different channels, people are now divided by too many choices and can't possibly see them all, creating a "swath of small viewing communities, clinging to the programs they enjoy".

Gone are the days when everyone at the office could talk about the same show, like "Dallas", around the water cooler.

Another factor, writes Variety, "is the Internet is the very medium that has helped lead to this cacophony of voices: that maddening tool rending traditional media asunder, what with all those online videos and blogs joining in the collective din of little beaks clamoring for attention.

... At the Emmys, after all that pre-award hype, the ceremony itself landed with a thud, attracting 13 million viewers, one of the lowest on record.

And no wonder, as the TV Academy bestowed key honors on programs like HBO's "Extras" and NBC’s "30 Rock,"which, however deserving, have never been seen by most of the potential audience, eliminating much of a rooting interest."

Study: ‘ER’ Episodes Influence Viewers Health Knowledge

Recent episodes of the TV show “ER,” tackling the subjects of teen obesity, hypertension and healthy eating had a positive impact on the attitudes and behaviors of those watching it, especially male viewers, according to a new study, reports Fox News.

The findings, from University of Southern California researchers, will appear in the Sept. 14 Journal of Health Communication and now available online.

"This study demonstrates the importance of interventions and programs targeted at a population level,” said Dr. Thomas W. Valente, associate professor of preventive medicine and a member of the Institute for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Research (IPR) at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, in a news release.

... "People get their information from entertainment,” Valente added. “It’s not a magic bullet. It’s a small piece of the puzzle, but we’d be silly to ignore its potential.”

Related:

-- Cable television is good for women in India - An interesting post on LunchoverIP on how the introduction of cable television improved gender attitudes in rural India.

-- CSI effect on crime minimal - A Montreal criminologist Benoit Dupont says saying that CSI has an effect on the justice system is like saying Star Trek had an effect on the U.S. space program.