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.

Iran's Unlikely TV Hit

A wildly popular TV series on Iran's state-owned TV tells a heart-wrenching tale of Jews during World War II, part of the government's bid to demonstrate its empathy for the Jewish people even while it denounces Israel. [via WSJ]

"Every Monday night at 10 o'clock, Iranians by the millions tune into Channel One to watch the most expensive show ever aired on the Islamic republic's state-owned television. Its elaborate 1940s costumes and European locations are a far cry from the typical Iranian TV fare of scarf-clad women and gray-suited men.

But the most surprising thing about the wildly popular show is that it is a heart-wrenching tale of European Jews during World War II.

The hour-long drama, "Zero Degree Turn," centers on a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman. Over the course of the 22 episodes, the hero saves his love from Nazi detention camps, and Iranian diplomats in France forge passports for the woman and her family to sneak on to airplanes carrying Iranian Jews to their homeland.

The government's spending on the show underscores the subtle and often sophisticated way in which the Iranian state uses its TV empire to send out political messages. The aim of the show, according to many inside and outside the country, is to draw a clear distinction between the government's views about Judaism -- which is accepted across Iranian society -- and its stance on Israel -- which the leadership denounces every chance it gets.

... Iran is home to some 25,000 Jews, the largest population in the Middle East outside of Israel."

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.

"... In a recent draft paper that Emily Oster wrote with Robert Jensen of Brown University after a three-years study, Oster argues that "the introduction of cable television is associated with improvements in women's status" and finds "significant increases in reported autonomy, decreases in the reported acceptability of beating and decreases in reported son preferences", this last point being about sex-selective abortions (rural families prefer boys). They also found "increases in female school enrollment and decreases in fertility (primarily via increased birth spacing)."

The effects are large, the two researchers argue, "equivalent in some cases to about five years of education" within the surveyed population.

These changes are "accomplished despite there being little or no direct targeted appeals" such as public-service announcements. Which brings Oster and Jensen to speculate that "it may be that cable television, with programming that features lifestyle in both urban areas and in other countries, is an effective form of persuasion because people emulate what they perceive to be desirable behavior and attitudes".

Photo courtesy of JICA.

TV a place of worship for US viewers

Coming up this Fall, a wave of spiritually-themed TV shows about to wash over prime time- the next semi-big attempt by Hollywood to speak to the post-Sept. 11 hole in America's soul. The Baltimore Sun reports.

"... Diane Winston, Knight chair in media and religion at the University of Southern California, says the popularity of series like Heroes reflects more than just post-Sept. 11 jitters.

"The events of 9/11 have had a great cultural impact, but it's not just 9/11," Winston said. "There are a number of other things during that last six years that have also made us see how precarious life can be: Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in southeast Asia and the mounting casualty and death toll of a catastrophic war in Iraq."

"People aren't necessarily getting comfort from going to a church service, but they are getting comfort from hearing that there's life after death, there's someone taking care of them, there are good people in the world and that their lives have meaning. And all of this contributes to the popularity of TV programs that tell us those sorts of reassuring stories."

The majority of Americans say they believe in angels, and they believe in very personal angels, the kind who help them find parking spaces, win games and pass tests," Parks says.

"In some ways, people are going to their places of worship when they turn on their TV sets to watch a show like this."

CSI effect on crime minimal

A Montreal criminologist says the popular American crime series CSI has done little to change the efficiency of the justice system. [via Canadian Press]

"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. But Dupont says citizens' perceptions of how police should be doing their jobs have changed.

The so-called CSI effect refers to the increased pressure prosecutors face to use forensic evidence and alter the way they present their case at trials."

Actors appear to have full-on sex in new HBO series

Will one more boundery be crossed next TV season? Will a new HBO series show real sex on screen? TV Squad thinks so.

"The new HBO series Tell Me You Love Me, trailer on YouTube, reportedly has male and female stars doing it for real, not just the usual "lovemaking" you see on television (even cable). Rob Owen over at post-gazette has seen the pilot and says it looks like it's real and not camera angles or special effects.

"The story of several pairs of lovers in couples counseling with a therapist (Jane Alexander), the "Tell Me..." pilot features what appears to be actors having actual, not simulated, sex."

HBO's press release for the series, premiering Sept. 9, is intentionally cagey, saying the show "looks at the connection, or disconnection, between sex and intimacy," and quotes HBO executive Carolyn Strauss who says,"The show reveals characters and relationships through everyday, telling moments in a way that broadcast TV can't do."

Researcher Looks at the Entertainment Value of Murder in the US

Bloody murder has been a quintessentially American preoccupation since John Newcomen sailed in on the Mayflower and was whacked by a fellow colonist. A news release from The University of Buffalo.

"... Despite our overdeveloped lusts for the 'dark side,'" says cultural analyst and author David F. Schmid, Ph.D, "Americans seem to have no sense at all of how weird our engrossing interest in the macabre appears to those outside this country."

"The thrill and horror evoked by murder narratives bring us close to these 'others,' who hold us in their thrall because on the one hand, they are so like us, and on the other, so different.

Most societies, perhaps all, find murder and murderers of compelling interest," he says, "but Americans have taken this fascination to another level entirely."

Schmid says American crime literature and Americans' thirst for murder narratives harkens back to the mid-17th century, when scaffold sermons by the intellectual stars of Puritan New England began to be preached.

Other scholars agree, suggesting that the appetite for increasingly ghastly information about murder followed the decline of the Puritan ministry and its Calvinist ideals and their replacement by a consumer culture suffused with romantic, literary and legalistic ideals.

Schmid says, "Today's consumer culture offers a murder fix through a variety of media including tabloid newspapers, violent video games that permit us (through virtual technology) to "become" killers and through fictional films about psychopathic cannibals and other vicious murderers.

On television, cable stations such as "Court TV," shows such as "CSI" and "The Sopranos," as well as a seemingly endless stream of news programs and documentaries, all feature coverage of homicide. Like celebrity gossip programming, these shows often include the ever-popular invasion of privacy by camera.

"Our appetite apparently cannot be sated," Schmid says, "which raised the question for me of 'What's really going on here?'

"There are many reasons for this collective obsession today," he says, "but one reason is that -- let's face it, most of us -- in our own culture and others -- lead relatively boring, uneventful lives."

"As bizarre as it sounds, and although we may not want to admit it to ourselves," Schmid says, "many Americans engage routinely with murderous pop culture because it provides them with excitement in the midst of an otherwise mundane existence. Whether it be Hannibal Lector or Tony Soprano, our homicidal heroes are here to stay."

The British-born Schmid is an associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo where he teaches classes in popular culture and cultural studies. He is the author of "Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture" (2005) and has two books in progress: "The Scarlet Thread: A History of Homicide in American Popular Culture" and "Mean Streets and More: Space in Crime Fiction."

Television tests its taboos

Networks and series creators regularly test boundaries of what is permissible, and the latest examples of this are found in the 25 primetime series scheduled to premiere this fall. Variety reports.

The new battlefronts in the culture wars:

-- Male characters on TV series cavorting with transvestites.

-- Teens musing about deflowering female classmates.

-- Amorous monkeys joining in on human sex play.

Viewing those pilots underscores how subtly the bar this year is being raised (or lowered) in the effort to surprise and titillate viewers in ways that can confound the schemes of federal regulators, pandering legislators, watchdogs and occasionally the networks themselves.

The content in some fall shows will undoubtedly fuel those who claim TV is creating a decline in moral values -- fretting that will surely grow louder the closer we get to the 2008 election.

... Where does this leave cultural warriors? Fed up and frustrated, if a new study from The Culture and Media Institute -- like the aforementioned PTC, a subdivision of the conservative Media Research Center with a neutral-sounding name -- is any indication.

In a survey titled "The Media Assault on American Values," the "institute" quotes findings that claim two-thirds of Americans believe the media not only play an important role in shaping moral values but actively harm them. In fact, the report contends that watching TV fosters more permissive attitudes about extramarital sex, abortion rights and homosexuality, highlighting the attitudinal distinction between "light" and "heavy" TV viewers.

Betraying their own bias, the researchers stress that infrequent TV viewers are far more likely than heavy ones to believe television undermines American morality, which they characterize as a sign of TV's "seductive effect." However, they are ignoring a more intriguing possibility: That people who actually watch TV have a clearer sense of whether its content is genuinely "harmful" than those basing their opinions on an uninformed hunch.

Related:

-- Does Watching TV Damage Character? - The Culture and Media Institute's new Special Report, The Media Assault on American Values, reveals that media messages appear to be undermining the pillars of America’s cultural edifice: strength of character, sexual morality and respect for God.

-- Why TV Addiction Links to Liberalism i - Those who describe themselves as “heavy” TV viewers embrace distinctly liberal attitudes on a range of crucial issues.

Dems Seek Study Of Broadcast Speech and Hate Crimes

There is a new twist on the issue of broadcasters' role in real-life violence: Hate crimes. Broadcasting & Cable reports.

"The heads of the House committee and subcommittee overseeing communications issues, respectively, have asked the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) to study the use of "telecommunications to commit hate crimes."

While NTIA, which is the Bush administration's telecommunications policy advisory arm, already produced a study on the topic under the first president Bush back in 1992, Reps. John Dingell and Ed Markey urged it to update the study given the rise in the Internet since them. But, according to a release from the commitee issued Monday, they also said they are also "particularly" interested in studying "uses by broadcast facilites licensed on behalf of the public by the FCC, and whether such uses convey messages of bigotry or hatred, creating a climate of fear and inciting individuals to commit hate crimes."