Print Is Dead

Considering that most people get their news now from cable networks and web sites, the daily newspaper is struggling to remain financially viable. Consider these facts:

Gannett, which owns many large newspapers including the Indianapolis Star and USA Today, recently announced that they were cutting 1,000 jobs because of a decline in revenue. This loss of revenue comes from classified ads and other advertising, blamed on Craigslist and other online advertising.

An online paper covering news in a fictitious world populated by penguins has become more widely read than New York’s Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, or the Dallas Morning News. This particular web site is owned by Disney.

Would Indecency Save Network TV?

I refuse to pay for television. There are several reasons why: I don’t think I should have to pay for something that I can get free over the air, cable companies are terribly overfunded by their customers and enjoy a monopoly in most cases, there are so many channels that I would hate to get sucked into the mindless idiot box night after night just looking through all the channels and making sure I wasn’t missing something.

Foremost, however, is the issue of content on cable. While there are many good programs out there, there are just as many (if not more) programs with objectionable content that I would not want my family watching. While I acknowledge with the premise of this article that there are a lot of popular TV programs out there that could not be put on the major networks because of the content restrictions placed upon them by the FCC, I think it overstates the importance of cable television as a whole.

For one thing, when you look at overall ratings, cable shows can barely break the network Top 20. For example, in the Nielsen ratings from August 3 to 10, TNT’s The Closer got a 7.9, equal to CBS’s CSI: Miami. Granted, you have to factor in the Olympics right now and the monstrous ratings that NBC have been drawing away from other programs, but the next highest cable show, USA’s WWE Raw pro wrestling show, got a 5.2 rating, which wouldn’t even place it in the Top 20.

There is also the question of coverage. Cable TV is limited to broadcasting to the subscriber base, while network TV has no such limitation. This is an especially important consideration in today’s economy, where cable TV might be declared by some families as a luxury they can do without. Also, while the subscriber base as a whole might be large, the offering of channels is extremely fragmented. As an advertiser, on which of the 700 channels do you place your message? Your target audience might be watching one of 30 to 40 different channels at the same time. With network television, it’s a lot easier to define demographics.

While this might not be true for the vaunted 18-to-35 demographic, the local TV station is still the main source for local news information. I was personally riveted to the television in May and June when all the bad weather was coming through Indiana. I also catch at least one of the local news stations a day for a news report. While I also get a lot of my news from the internet, a lot of that content happens to come from network affiliates, and not from the larger news and sports cable channels.

So, back to the question of whether or not the networks need to become more indecent to survive–honestly, haven’t they already? Any time I see a commercial for Desperate Housewives or CSI:Miami, I generally have to change the channel because I know there will be a half-naked woman on there at some point. I haven’t watched an episode, but I’m pretty sure that Dirty Sexy Money is not about a Dave Ramsey seminar. I’ve even noticed that commercial favorites such as CSI and 24 and House are over-the-top with violence and gore and require a parental warning before the show is aired. I’ve even heard language aired during the 8:00 “family hour” that I would never want my kids to hear or repeat, but there it is.

To me, the networks are already at a point where they have embraced this attitude that they need to get into the gutter to compete with cable. At the same time, there are also compelling television shows on the networks (not naming names) that produce great stories and great entertainment that won’t embarrass you to watch them (most of the time). I think that when the networks realize that shocking their viewers won’t bring them to their offerings, you might see some improvement in this area.

In the meantime, I’ll just watch my free TV, and somebody else can watch The Hills without me.

Let’s Hear It for the Rules

There have been many debates in the legal system in recent years discussing whether or not it is appropriate to post the Ten Commandments in public buildings as an example of a historical code of law. I think for the most part that this has not been allowed when it is a government-sponsored display, but it made me think. Does our worldly society seek to make the Ten Commandments irrelevant?

I don’t know why, but deep down inside we have an aversion to people telling us what to do and what not to do. Wanting to dump the rules and “go it on our own” implies that we think we know what is best and that left to ourselves we can manage life in good and productive ways. But you and I both know by experience that this is not always the case.

To keep us from the self-destruction of bitterness, He has a rule about forgiving and loving our enemies. To keep us safe from the treachery of dishonesty and deceit, He has told us not to lie and to live instead for what is true. In fact, when you think of it, all of His rules are really for our good. Just take a look at the Ten Commandments. Life works better when we don’t lie to each other, steal from each other, or take each other’s life. We are all better off when we don’t covet each other’s property, sleep with each other’s wives, or gossip and bear false witness against our neighbor. How ridiculous is it that we are trying to put the Ten Commandments in the dumpster in our society? Who’d want to live in the chaos of a world where things like lying, stealing, cheating, sleeping around, greed, and bitterness are the norm? Did I hear you say that we are almost there?

How many songs do we have on our iPods or how many television shows and DVDs do we watch in our regular viewing diet where lying, murder, adultery, greed, and envy are celebrated? The more these are celebrated in our entertainment media, the more we become desensitized to the wrongdoing associated with them. I’m afraid that CSI is such a popular show that solving a murder has turned into a clinical procedure where the victim is mocked at some point and life and death are treated like plot points that need to be achieved in the story.

When I was a kid, one of the scariest and goriest movies you could watch was A Nightmare on Elm Street with the horror villain Freddy Krueger. Now, those movies are chump change compared to such films as the Saw series and Hostel. The amount of nudity and obscene language on television is way more prevalent than it was even a decade ago. As we continue to let these media into our heads, we become desensitized to their negative effects, and we allow the world to influence us more than God’s word. We must always be vigilant to keep this from occurring.

The Dangers of Driving After GTA

One of the mass media that I think your textbook ignores is video gaming. In terms of revenue generated, video game hardware and software is a multi-billion dollar industry that stands right up there with the motion picture and television entertainment industries. It fits as one of the mass media by definition, because the software is the same no matter where it is purchased geographically, and it is meant to be consumed by a large, diverse audience. In fact, on the subject, DVDs and video downloads would also fit into this category.

When the video game Grand Theft Auto IV was released earlier this month, there were concerns that it would actually cut into movie revenues of the key male 18-29 demographic, because players would stay at home to play the game. This mirrors the same concerns over lost work productivity when other video game releases such as the Halo and Madden NFL franchises coincided with “sick days”. The game ended up generating $310 million of revenue in first-day sales and $500 million in first-week sales. The link has some other interesting details about the game.

As a communication medium, gamers can go online via the internet and play a character in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) or create a virtual character to live in a virtual world such as Second Life. If you’re unfamiliar with either of those terms, Google them or ask your kids. Either they or their friends are probably playing them. People befriend other players through the game, communicate with each other, go out on missions together, or in the case of Second Life, open businesses and engage in transactions together.

There are also negative arguments against the violence and morals of some of these games and how they influence children. The industry uses a ratings system, but it is not always enforced and parents that buy the games don’t always pay attention. So, video games often come under the same scrutiny as television violence, and perhaps even more so, because in violent video games you feel like you are actually engaging in some of those activities. Here is an interesting excerpt from a blog on Wired.com: