Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10674013

Pressure is building on television networks to reduce the amount of sleaze in early prime time. The Broadcasting Standards Authority is expected to announce a decision next week that will set the new tone. There is particular concern about sexual content on early-evening TV.

BSA chief executive Dominic Sheehan said he was aware of concerns and had spoken to two community groups. He will be suggesting that the BSA board commission more research into the issue of how sexuality is presented, including the effect on early prime time – up to the 8.30pm cut-off for adult viewing. He had met the groups – one of which is Family First [a highly respected registered charity]- and they had raised convincing arguments that the BSA needed to develop its research.

There had been issues about the portrayal of sex in the news and in promotions. Sheehan stressed that the BSA acted only on complaints. It cannot act proactively or make subjective decisions. The authority has been created that way to ensure the industry is self-regulating. But self-regulation has gone out the door as the networks chase ratings.

Sheehan would not discuss an upcoming decision that will have an impact on how the BSA treats complaints about good taste and decency.

Television researcher Ruth Zanker has raised alarm bells about the growing levels of sexual content in early prime time, warning that children were being sacrificed on the altar of higher ratings for TV networks. But if the number of complaints are any judge, New Zealanders are happy with sleazy 7pm shows such as Family Guy.

The show regularly features a paedophile character and themes of incest and bestiality. AGB Nielsen surveys suggest an average 25,000 children aged 7 to 14 watch the show at 7pm each weeknight.

Sheehan said the context of shows – like the different approach of cartoons and of an edgy channel like C4 – was taken into account by the BSA.

TV2′s early prime time show Two and a Half Men regularly had a sexual theme. Another sign of the times in 2010 telly? A programme this week has included a promo for a show where a character is sexually attracted to pregnant women.

From the Archives: Concerns raised with BSA by SPCS re TV3 depiction of gratuitous violence. See: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0404/S00048.htm

Venue: Connolly Hall, Guilford Tce.
(off Hill St), Thorndon, Wellington

Date: Monday 8th June

Members’ Only AGM: 6.45pm – 7.20 p.m.
Followed by Free Public Address
(All welcome)
7.30 p.m. to 8.15 p.m.

GUEST SPEAKER

John Terris Q.S.O. ANZIM

Topic: “Media Matters in Society”

John James Terris is a New Zealand politician who initially represented the Labour Party in the NZ parliament. In that capacity he held the positions of Acting Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees of the House of Representatives from 1984 to 1990

He represented the electorate of Western Hutt in Parliament from 1978 to 1990 when he was defeated by National’s Joy McLauchlan, one of a number of losses contributing to the fall of the Fourth Labour Government.

He was later the politically independent Mayor of Lower Hutt, from 1995 to 2004. He is the only person ever to have been both MP and Mayor in the Hutt Valley where he has lived since 1965.

His early working life was in radio and television and he is an ordained Anglican priest.

He is currently the President of Media Matters in NZ, (www.viewers.org.nz)an advocacy group which campaigns against gratuitous sex and violence in the electronic media. He is a member of the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust and patron of a number of community groups in the Hutt area

He is a writer, publisher and broadcaster. His autobiography “Being Who You Are” (Steele Roberts) was published in 2004. He is a member of the Queen’s Service Order and a holder of the 1990 Medal.

Source: Wikipedia

The mother of a 14-year old who viewed footage of rape and domestic violence for research has defended the study and says children see worse on news broadcasts.

Dawn Bunker, of Wanganui, said she gave consent for her son to take part in the research and believed he didn’t see anything that wasn’t age-appropriate”.

“I feel it was well worthwhile and done professionally, and at no time felt he could not cope with what he was shown. As he himself put it – ‘You see worse on the TV news, Mum.’”

Mrs Bunker was offended by comments from Bob McCoskrie, of lobby group Family First, who said this week that the fact that parents had consented to their children taking part “says something about the parents”.

Mrs Bunker, a mother of three, said parents had to be censors in their own homes. “Some of the things you see on the news, I’ve kicked my kids out of the room – I’m censoring my children myself, I know what they can handle.”

She said chief censor Bill Hastings was doing a good job.

However, a community lobby group has called for he resignations of Mr Hastings and Dominic Sheehan, chief executive of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, for whose agencies the research was conducted.

John Mills, president of the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards, said Mr Hastings showed appalling judgment. “the society is outraged Mr Hastings has defended his breaking of the law by claiming that, because the younger participants gained parental permission before they they took part in the research, then that was okay.”

David Walsh, Ph.D.

National Institute on Media and the Family

Concern about violent video and computer games is based on the assumption that they contribute to aggression and violence among young players. That conclusion was originally based on the extensive body of research about the effects of television violence on children’s behavior. Prominent organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association have all concluded that the scientific evidence shows a cause-effect relationship between television violence and aggression among the children and youth who watch it. Based on this research, many social scientists have hypothesized that we should expect video games to have an even greater impact for the following four reasons.

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html

1. Children are more likely to imitate the actions of a character with whom they identify. In violent video games the player is often required to take the point of view of the shooter or perpetrator.
2. Video games by their very nature require active participation rather than passive observation.
3. Repetition increases learning. Video games involve a great deal of repetition. If the games are violent, then the effect is a behavioral rehearsal for violent activity.
4. Rewards increase learning, and video games are based on a reward system.

While the research base conducted on video games is small compared to that conducted on television, early results are showing that the concern is indeed warranted. Anderson & Bushman have conducted a meta-analysis of 35 different studies of violent video games (2001). A meta-analysis is a type of study in which researchers analyze the results of other studies to see if there are similar patterns of results; Anderson and Bushman showed that there is a consistent pattern of results in five areas.

For more go to:

http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html

The Society is not surprised that over half the sample (56%) of more than 600 adult “primary caregivers” of children aged between six and 13, who were interviewed as part of a report into children’s television viewing habits; were unable to identify 8.30 p.m. as the time after which programmes that are NOT suitable for children are shown on television The report containing this statistic entitled Seen and Heard, dated 6 May 2008, was commissioned by the BSA – the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

In response, the Families Commission issued a media release, calling for the 8.30 p.m. “watershed time” – to be more widely publicised by broadcasters. But is this an adequate response if the Commission is truly concerned about certain so-called “adult-only” material – pornography, sexual violence, graphic violence, blasphemy and obscenity – being viewed, or potentially viewed, by tens of thousands of our country’s children and young persons every night of the year from 8.30 p.m. onwards? Society president John Mills says the Society says “it is a totally inadequate response” and notes “we have written to the Chief Commissioner, Dr Rajen Prasad, pointing this out and called for more effective solutions from him to the problem of children and young persons being exposed to unsuitable, morally corrosive and corrupting television content.”

The Society, together with Media Matters (formerly called Viewers for Television Excellence or VoTE), has been calling for some years for the “watershed time” to be moved from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. AND for this time to be more widely and regularly publicised by all television broadcasters. These organisations and many others, also want the BSA to deal properly with complaints over standards of taste and decency and enforce proper standards. Such calls appear to have fallen on deaf ears and have certainly not been supported by Families Commission with its 40 full-time equivalent staff funded by tax-payers.

VoTE and SPCS have pointed out that New Zealand has one of the earliest “watershed times” among OECD countries and a move, at least to 9 p.m., if not 9.30 p.m., would be a positive move in the right direction. “It would help safeguard our children and young persons from exposure to the corrupting, pernicious and morally corrosive influence of television violence, sleazy pornography and repetitive obscenity and profanity,” says Mr Mills. “Of course the change in the watershed time needs to be backed up with good communication to caregivers from responsible broadcasters and government agencies,” he adds.

Society executive director David Lane says…

“It is well-known to informed viewers that offensive and objectionable content, including obscenity, gratuitous sexually explicit material, sexual violence, etc. all regularly feature on free-to-air and paid television programmes from 8.30 p.m to 9.30 p.m. This so-called exclusive “adults-only” time slot is a farce as it is a time period during which a significant number, if not the majority of younger children aged from 11 to 13 years and young persons aged 14 to 17 years, are still up and actively watching TV or engaged in other activities in rooms where a TV is operating. Research commissioned by the BSA has been published that shows that the vast majority of children and young persons are indeed accessing television programmes during this time period when so-called “Adult only content” is screening,”

“The Society believes that the link between the repetitive, addictive and compulsive viewing by children and young persons of objectionable gratuitous content, is morally corrosive and its effect upon a number of vulnerable individuals, leads to violence, criminal activity, sexual dysfunctions etc” Lane says.

“The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has identified New Zealand as having the least regulated broadcasting system in the world,” says Mills “and David Lane has been responsible for putting together a Society submission on proposed changes to the regulatory environment to deal with changing digital media formats etc, which has been submitted to the Ministry.