A study finds there has been a decrease over the past two years in the amount of sex and violence on entertainment television programs.
The study by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Media and Public Affairs found that sexual content dropped 27% on broadcast TV from 1998 to 2000. Also compared with 1998 levels, there was 17% less violence on prime-time television during the year 2000.
Ed Vitagliano, director of research for the American Family Association, says he is pleased at the trend shown — but cautious. He says it is far too early to say Hollywood is reversing its moral slide.
“Before we start to applaud Hollywood,” he says, “I think it's important that we remember that it's Hollywood who has been driving our culture into the depths of the sewer — at least as one big factor in the amount of immorality and violence in our society.”
“We would prefer to see this as a trend develop over the next four or five years before we started to applaud,” Vitagliano says. “Sometimes when it comes to television — as bad as it is — any good news is a welcome relief.”
On cable, sexual material dropped 32% over a two-year period, according to the survey.
The study examined 284 episodes of fictional television series, excluding soap operas and children's programming, broadcast during the 2000-2001 season, as well as 50 of the top-grossing domestic films released in 2000. The findings were then compared to a similar sample from 1998-1999.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
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