TV's attempts at social consciousness...fails again.

This just happened. Degrassi jr High...very popular show...especially the new version. It's shown all over Canada...in English and French.

Recently...they tried to deal with the issue of 'cutting'....a popular form of ritual self-mutilation amongst teens. They tried to show a member of the cast who was having trouble with 'cutting' and her friends trying to talk her out of it.
Good idea...bring up a current concern and try to deal with it.

The problem is that they're trying to deal with it, in a very adult way...which is commendeable...but less than effective with the very young.
Results...in Hull, Quebec (Just opposite Ottawa)...a dozen Elementary school children who had watched the show...tried cutting for the first time.

Now...I'm not going to kick television when it's down...not really. They're really trying to put a strong case accross against cuttings....but it's done too subtely.
The subtelty and the message seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of the sensationalism of TV. Television claims that it's trying to give a message of strength to youths with shows like this one and others...but they don't seem to understand the medium nor their audience.

They're dealing with youths who are trying to find themselves whilst being bombarded by advertising and popular media.

My vote: Either strenghten the message going out so it's not overwhelmed with the sensationalism and idolotry associated with that media...or stop trying altogether.

Comments?

This is why children are supposed to start off life with a pair of people called parents. People who, if they're doing their job right, are there to make sure that kids don't get half assed information off of the Mass Media.

Professur said:

This is why children are supposed to start off life with a pair of people called parents. People who, if they're doing their job right, are there to make sure that kids don't get half assed information off of the Mass Media.

Click to expand...

The problem is that 'twixt the ages of 10-13, these kids are getting to the point where they're trying to create their individuality and are likely to not only 'not ask their parents for advice', but actually go out of their way to avoid that kind of advice. Besides... do you watch everything your kids watch and talk about it? Listen to all of their music, talk to all of their friends etc...?
Unlikely...even if you don't have a life. You can't be there all the time.

Degrassi has always been wishy washy with it's messages, but that is the nature of the show.

But having a kid try it cause he saw it on TV, is not ba parenting, or bad tv, it's natural selection.

MrBishop said:

The problem is that they're trying to create their individuality and are likely to not only 'not ask their parents for advice', but actually go out of their way to avoid that kind of advice.

Click to expand...

True. The difference between Beaver Cleaver & (fill in todays idiot show) is that Beaver had a bad test. Todays 13 yo is a pregnant recovering heroin addict with a single mom & a DNA sample for a dad. Oh, and that's supposed to be a good thing.

Gonz said:

True. The difference between Beaver Cleaver & (fill in todays idiot show) is that Beaver had a bad test. Todays 13 yo is a pregnant recovering heroin addict with a single mom & a DNA sample for a dad. Oh, and that's supposed to be a good thing.

Click to expand...

Not a good thing...a more realistic thing. Only they're trying to take all of the problems and squish them into one or two individuals...then solve all of the troubles in a 30 minute show (minus commercials).

It's highly optimistic and also incredibly stupid.... but at least, it's idealistic. They're not ignoring reality altogether.

Its no worst than the local news

"Little Jimmy blew his arm of with a pipe bomb he made in shop class ,here is how he built it"


" How does a twelve year old steal a car and die behind the wheel, film at eleven"


Not right at all.

A.B.Normal said:

Its no worst than the local news

"Little Jimmy blew his arm of with a pipe bomb he made in shop class ,here is how he built it"


" How does a twelve year old steal a car and die behind the wheel, film at eleven"


Not right at all.

Click to expand...

Tell me, what is scarier...that they (the news crews) think these "behind the scenes" up or that we (the viewers) watch?

MrBishop said:

Not a good thing...a more realistic thing. Only they're trying to take all of the problems and squish them into one or two individuals...then solve all of the troubles in a 30 minute show (minus commercials).

It's highly optimistic and also incredibly stupid.... but at least, it's idealistic. They're not ignoring reality altogether.

Click to expand...

There were lots of drug addicts & drunks roaming the streets "back then". They weren't on TV because if we want reality we can go outside. If we want mindless entertainment we watch Leave it to Beaver.

My TV is on all the time. Discovery (and its affiliates), TLC, Animal Planet, A&E...

Gonz said:

There were lots of drug addicts & drunks roaming the streets "back then". They weren't on TV because if we want reality we can go outside. If we want mindless entertainment we watch Leave it to Beaver.

My TV is on all the time. Discovery (and its affiliates), TLC, Animal Planet, A&E...

Click to expand...

I miss those shows The problem is that some TV shows are trying to find the median of mindless TV and purely educational TV. Many kids won't watch TLC or the History channel for long...not enough explosions. So...they watch "not exactly mindless TV" (no reality TV). Many of the shows that they watch, like the OC, are aimed at adults, or young adults..but are being viewed by children whose concept of TV is closer to reality than we'd like it to be.

If you have a hard time differentiating between what happens on TV and what happens in real life...then you tend to try to emulate the 'norm'...which is why clothing styles tend to resemble what you see in MTV videos, why piercings are popular, and sometimes..why things like Columbine happen

If you're trying to link Columbine to TV, I have to say you're stretching. Hard.

That was a simple case of non-parenting, IMO.

It's beyond stretching hard. It had nothing to do with TV. Everyone knows it's because they listened to Marilyn Manson and Rammstein.

The film "Elephant" by Gus Van Sant kinda shook me up . . . is that what it's like in high school these days? (The story line follows the Columbine events . . . sort of)

I'd have to see the film to be able to tell you for sure. Those guys were seniors the same year I was.

HomeLAN said:

If you're trying to link Columbine to TV, I have to say you're stretching. Hard.

That was a simple case of non-parenting, IMO.

Click to expand...

I'm not trying to link Columbine to TV... but many people are.

I know I'm gonna end up being "yelled" at for this, but I need to say it.

Columbine happened for many reasons, and Parenting was a small part of that. The big problem with WHY Columbine happened, and no one wants to see, is the bullying and the teasing that was going on behind the scenes.

We all heard that they were teased and bullied. THey were beat up in the school parking lots and were the school's "dead-heads". That is ONE of the major reasons this happened.

Yes, the media probably had something to do with it, but pretty much anything that happens in a teens life had something to do with this.

My opinion as to why no one wants to see the bullying as the major reason why this happened is because that places the victims in the wrong, and no one wants to place these "innocent children" with the "face of an angel" in the wrong.

These kids, the boys that did this, were different from pretty much everyone else in the school/town. Gotta clue you in that we must make anything that is different than us suffer for those differences. Well the kids suffered and the rest of the world mourned for the victims of the shootings. I mourned them all.

I went through about a year and a half of therapy to get over what happened to me in highschool, almost 10 years ago and then another 6 months after the shootings. I can sympathize with these kids though I still get put down for voicing this opinion, I will never back down from what I believe.

And I'm babbeling again..