After reading chapter 1, I was interested in the media controversies toward the end of the chapter, specifically the “Ethical Issues Deal with the Morality of Media” section. I feel that over the last ten years or so television, radio and movies have been bending the widely accepted morality rules between what has been traditionally right and wrong. I remember when I was younger the worst language I would hear on T.V. and radio would be “hell.” Now, “damn,” “ass,” “shit,” and even racial slurs are profoundly common on T.V. and radio. The norm back then was to keep kids safe from adult content including language, sex, and violence. As a result I felt kids were growing up relative to their age. These days I feel kids are growing up way too fast because they are constantly being exposed to bad language, sex, nudity and strong violence in video and computer games. Some would say that it should be up to parents to monitor their child’s exposure to contemporary media, but we all know parents can’t be everywhere kids view media. There have been technological advances in child media protection, but it takes very disciplined parents to enforce it all the time. I think U.S. media is getting very greedy when it comes to producing mass media. I feel morality becomes second to making a buck. Putting restrictions on free speech is an issue within itself. Maybe though, a 238-year-old constitution needs to change with the times instead of being constantly pushed to the limits. When does a child’s very impressionable upbringing take precedence over a greedy capitalistic driven country? I feel the people that are producing questionable media know what they are doing is wrong, or at least know they wouldn’t want their children watching some of the media content out there, but the fact that they are getting paid the big bucks drowns out the important issues at hand.
