OPINION:
I often speak around the world in places such as Poland, India, Japan, or on the border of Laos. When I go into the jungle, I find satellite dishes run by generators connected by exposed wires that bring Hollywood entertainment into the grass huts. The children in these villages try to dress like the Hollywood stars and try to mimic their lives—right down to the drugs, drinking, and sexual promiscuity.
Clearly, what happens in Hollywood does not stay in Hollywood.
When I am in Hollywood to preview a movie at a screening, I often visit studio executives to help them understand the influence that they are having on the children of the world. The good news is that many of them are listening. The type of entertainment being produced is gradually moving away from salacious, ultraviolent, R-rated movies to family films with faith—movies such as “Journey To Bethlehem,” “The Chosen,” and “The Jesus Revolution.” Almost every studio is pursuing the Christian, faith-based audience.
As for other entertainment that is not faith based, there is an effective way for families to learn how to be culture-wise and media-wise.
Five keys of media wisdom
As director of the TV Center at City University of New York in the late 1970s, I helped develop some of the first media literacy courses. Since then, many universities and states have developed media literacy courses based on my book, “The Media-Wise Family Part I.”
Specifically, there are five keys of media wisdom that will help build the media-wise family.
Key 1: Understand the influence of the media on your children.
After the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, former CBS President Leslie Moonves put it quite bluntly: “Anyone who thinks the media has nothing to do with this is an idiot.”
More than 30 years ago, major medical associations concluded that there’s absolutely no doubt that those who are heavy viewers of violence demonstrate increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and aggressive behavior. As the results of thousands of studies on youth violence prove, watching media violence causes violence among children. Bad company corrupts good character—whether that bad company is gangs, peer pressure, or violent movies, video games and television programs.
Key 2: Protect the eyes of innocence—at different ages.
Ascertain your children’s susceptibility at each stage of cognitive development. Not only do children see the media differently at each stage of development, but also different children are susceptible to different stimuli. As the research of the National Institute of Mental Health revealed many years ago, some children want to copy media violence, some are susceptible to other media influences, some become afraid, and many become desensitized.
Key 3: Teach your children how the media communicates its messages.
Just as children spend the first 14 years of their lives learning grammar with respect to the written word, they also need to be taught the grammar of 21st century mass media. They need to be able to think critically about the messages being programmed for them.
Key 4: Discuss worldviews and why it’s good to turn the culture right side up.
Help your children know the fundamentals of Christian faith. Children need to be able to apply their beliefs and moral values to the culture and to the mass media of entertainment. Parents typically have an easier time than teachers with this pillar because they are free to discuss their personal beliefs.
Key 5: Educate the heart to understand cultural and media wisdom.
Help your children learn how to ask the right questions. When children know the right questions to ask, they can arrive at the right answers to the problems presented by the mass media of entertainment. For instance, if the hero in the movie your child is watching wins by murdering and mutilating his victims, will your children be able to question this hero’s behavior, no matter how likable that character may be?
As President Theodore Roosevelt said, “To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”
Cultural and media wisdom involves educating heart, minds, and spirits. Teach your family to be media-wise, become informed (see www.movieguide.org), and spend your entertainment dollars wisely.
• Dr. Ted Baehr is an award-winning producer, Founder and Publisher of Movieguide: The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment, and Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission ministry. In June 2023, his book, “The Media-Wise Family Part I: Your Blueprint to Raising Godly Children During a Cultural War,” was released in paperback.
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