Entertainment & Pop Culture - Media

By Jerry Price - May 1, 2006

Obscene Broadcasts Are Prohibited at All Times

The Supreme Court established the definition of obscenity which is designed to cover hard-core pornography. Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment and cannot be broadcast at any time. To be obscene, material must meet a three-prong test:

  • An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;
  • The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and
  • The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Indecent Broadcast Restrictions

The FCC has defined broadcast indecency as “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community broadcast standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.” Indecent programming contains patently offensive sexual or excretory material that does not rise to the level of obscenity.

As such, the courts have held that indecent material is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be banned entirely. It may, however, be restricted in order to avoid its broadcast during times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience.

Consistent with a federal statute and federal court decisions interpreting the indecency statute, the Commission adopted a rule pursuant to which broadcasts—both on television and radio—that fit within the indecency definition and that are aired between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. are subject to indecency enforcement action.

Profane Broadcast Restrictions

The FCC has defined profanity as “including language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance.”

Like indecency, profane speech is prohibited on broadcast radio and television between the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Excerpted from Obscene, Profane & Indecent Broadcasts, FCC Consumer Facts (Federal Communications Commission) [Accessed December 15, 2005]

“Whatever form they take (ads, movies, computer games, music videos), messages can be good or bad for your child. Just as you would limit certain foods in your child’s diet that may be unhealthy, you also should limit her media diet of messages. Some examples of these follow.

“Messages about tobacco and alcohol are everywhere in media. Kids see characters on screen smoking and drinking. They see signs for tobacco and alcohol products at concerts and sporting events. Advertising and movies send kids the message that smoking and drinking make a person sexy or cool and that ‘everyone does it.’ Advertising also sways teens to smoke and drink. Teens who see a lot of ads for beer, wine, liquor, and cigarettes admit that it influences them to want to drink and smoke. It is not by chance that the three most advertised cigarette brands are also the most popular ones smoked by teens.

“Advertisers of tobacco and alcohol purposely leave out the negative information about their products. As a result, young people often do not know what the health risks are when they use these products. Sometimes TV broadcasts and print articles do the same thing. For example, a magazine might do a story about the common causes of cancer but not mention smoking as a top cause. Does your child know why? The answer may be that the magazine publisher takes money to publish tobacco ads or even owns another company that makes cigarettes.

“Children learn their attitudes about violence at a very young age and these attitudes tend to last. Although TV violence has been studied the most, researchers are finding that violence in other media impacts children and teens in many of the same harmful ways.

  • From media violence children learn to behave aggressively toward others. They are taught to use violence instead of self-control to take care of problems or conflicts.
  • Violence in the ‘media world’ may make children more accepting of real-world violence and less caring toward others. Children who see a lot of violence from movies, TV shows, or video games may become more fearful and look at the real world as a mean and scary place.

“Although the effects of media on children might not be apparent right away, children are being negatively affected. Sometimes children may not act out violently until their teen or young-adult years.”

Understanding the Impact of Media on Children and Teens (American Academy of Pediatrics) [Accessed December 19, 2005]

“The Los Angeles Times has added a regular pornography feature to its Entertainment section, prompting a family advocacy group to charge that the paper is adding to the growing problem of the normalization of pornography in society.

“The American Family Association warned that the LA Times has since the spring had reporter Ralph Frammolino write a regular column covering the pornography industry. The AFA’s Ed Vitagliano commented: ‘The obvious next step,’ in a society already over-sexualized would be ‘. . . for pornography just to be considered another part of the entertainment menu.’

“A study released in 2002 found that viewing pornography leads to several behavioral, psychological and social problems. The authors concluded that exposure to pornography puts viewers at increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies, committing sexual offences, experiencing difficulties in intimate relationships, and accepting of the rape myth. Evidence of a causal connection between pornography and violent sex crimes has also been established.”

Excerpted from Terry Vanderheyden, LA Times New Porn Column another Symptom of Normalization of Pornography in Society (LifeSiteNews.com), November 15, 2005

  • Eight in 10 Americans have access to the Internet from any location. As of January 2005, 81% of consumers have access to the Internet from any location. This is a remarkable rise from the 50% penetration figure from just six years ago (January 1999).
  • The number of people with a broadband Internet connection at home equals the number of people with a dial-up connection at home. In January 2001, only 12% of Americans with Internet access at home used a broadband connection. That figure has since quadrupled. Now, in January 2005, 48% of people with home Internet access have broadband, and 48% have dial-up service.
  • Twenty-nine percent of those who record TV to watch at a different time say the ability to skip through TV ads is the primary reason they record TV programming. Nineteen percent say both the ability to skip commercials and the ability to time-shift viewing are equally important. However, the majority say that fitting their TV viewing into their schedule is most important.
  • Twenty-seven percent of 12- to 17-year-olds own an iPod or other portable MP3 player. Ownership of portable digital music devices appears to be fueled by the young. Twenty-seven percent of 12- to 17-year-olds, 18% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 20% of 25- to 34-year-olds own an iPod or other portable MP3 player, compared with 9% of those 35 and older.
  • Twenty-two percent of Howard Stern’s listeners say they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to follow him to satellite radio. Sixteen percent of Americans say they currently listen to radio personality Howard Stern. In 2004, Stern announced that when his over-the-air radio contract expires he will be taking his show to Sirius Satellite Radio.
  • The monthly Internet radio audience represents an estimated 37 million Americans, and the estimated weekly audience is nearly 20 million Americans. As of January 2005, 15% of Americans say they have listened to Internet radio in the last month, and 8% have listened to Internet radio in the past week.
  • Fourteen percent of Americans have watched Internet video in the last month, and 8% have watched in the last week. The monthly Internet video audience is estimated to be approximately 35 million people; the weekly Internet video audience is nearly 20 million.
  • Eighty-one percent of owners say they “like” or “love” using their TiVo/DVR, while 78% of owners say they “like” or “love” using their iPod. In addition, more than half of TiVo/DVR owners (55%) say that their digital recorder has had a “big impact” on their life. Nearly six in 10 (57%) broadband Internet users say that their Internet connection has had a “big impact on their life.”
  • Those who use on-demand media audio devices/services spend slightly less time listening to traditional radio compared to the average. Those who own iPods/portable MP3 devices, subscribe to satellite radio or listen to Internet radio spend only 15 minutes less per day with over-the-air radio than the average listener.

Significant Highlights, Internet & Multimedia 2005: The On-Demand Media Consumer (Arbitron/Edison Media Research) [Accessed December 19, 2005]

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