Linda & Richard Eyre: Media could do more for families, here are five ways how
Published: Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 5:44 p.m. MST
A couple of weeks ago in this column, we tried to suggest that
since the family is the basic unit of society, all larger
institutions, from corporations to governments, actually depend
on families for their own survival.
One institution that fits into this dependent-on-family
category is the media. Yet to watch that institution in action,
you would think they were out to destroy the family rather than
support it.
The mainstream consciousness, the collective of our individual
paradigms and perceptions, is enormously influenced by our
all-pervasive electronic media in which amoral minorities often
masquerade as majorities and suck away traditional values and
family priorities and balance, creating a moral vacuum where
faith, commitments and a clear-headed sense of what is
important are hard to cling to. The face of the
media/technology vacuum is a shiny but distorted mirror that
changes the shape of how we see ourselves and causes us to
worship false gods and graven images.
We live in a world where kids have to be asked to leave the
room to avoid seeing some of the ads that come on during the
Super Bowl.
In a pathetic attempt to excuse themselves, media spokesmen
like the late Jack Valenti of the Motion Picture Association of
America say things like, "We don't influence people's values,
we only reflect them." But anyone who is observant, and
particularly anyone with children, knows that the values (or
lack thereof) portrayed across our small and large screens have
enormous impact on viewers, especially on children.
In my (Richard's) management consulting days, I had enough
clients in media-related fields to notice the disturbing fact
that a relatively few, very atypical people, mostly "jet
setters" in the extreme, control or at least influence 90
percent of our media. These are not typical, mainstream
Americans and they do not have typical, mainstream values. Yet
the reach and influence of their media allow them to pose what
they produce as "the norm" and cause members of the real and
silent majority (those who don't jump into bed on the first
date and don't treat violence with indifference) to wonder if
they are out of step and rather old-fashioned.
Just imagine what it could do if mainstream media reversed
itself and stopped being a "values vacuum" and became instead,
at least in part, a "values blower" that bolstered and beefed
up the beliefs and balance of strong traditional families, thus
popularizing parenting and creating a new mainstream
consciousness where it is cool to be committed and popular to
be prioritized.
We hope to see a day when various elements of media become part
of the solution rather than a main cause of the problem. It is
only a dream for society, but here are five elements of it:
Read the rest here:
Linda & Richard Eyre: Media could do more for families, here are five ways how