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Strollerderby
Mad Men Shows Off TV Violence Old-School Style
You’ve heard the argument from pro-TV parents (guilty): “what they’re seeing on [insert name of program here] is no more violent than what they’d see on the news.”
It’s a debate that’s inspired university studies . . . and now a bit part on an episode of Mad Men. When little Sally Draper got kicked out of the room Sunday night, told to “go watch TV” (code for “leave Mommy alone), she plops herself in front of the tube just in time to catch the newscaster riffing on the violent death of a monk protesting the Vietnam War.
The fact that the girl was freshly in mourning over the death of her grandfather and champion made it slightly more disturbing – something the Mad Men creators very much intended. But it made it no less real – the famous “burning monk” Thich Quang Duc, set himself on fire in a busy intersection in Saigon in June 1963. Photos of the man half in flames are horrifying to an adult – and flashed on the screen for Sally Draper’s eyes for a few seconds before being replaced by the next story of the summer of ’63. And how many REAL kids watched that same broadcast forty-six years ago?
Score one for the “it’s not TV in general that’s causing the problem” parents. The news isn’t newly violent – it always has been. No wonder researchers are advocating parents look specificially at the “realistic” violence of TV news (AKA, real) when opting which programs to tune into with their kids in the room.
Riffing off of the studies that have linked TV watching to increased aggression, a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2004 cited the coverage of Sept. 11 and the Iraq War as specific concerns, noting: “the enormous amount of public concern and research effort that has been directed at the prevalence of media violence and at the harmful effects that it may have on children thus far largely has ignored the regularity of real-life violence depicted in television news.”
And suddenly that argument stands. What kids are watching on the TV isn’t worse today. It’s just different.
Image: TV.com
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[...] hi-jinks her character gets up to (driving Grandpa Gene’s car, mixing cocktails, stealing, watching too-old-for-her tv), Shipka’s gotten a bite at the adult apple already. Not to mention she’s a star on one [...]
Mad Men’s Sally Draper Speaks! | Strollerderby commented on Sep 13 09 at 4:08 pmjessie c b commented on Sep 07 09 at 12:29 pmWow. Missed that one. I remember when the Israeli Olympic team was pretty much assassinated in front of my eyes back in the early 70′s. I still get a really horrible feeling just thinking about it. And Vietnam was always on the news. I think is actually way more censured now. I watched the Trade Center go down in real life. The husband was even closer. I know what was down there in ground zero. Those people did not all get blown into oblivion, they landed somewhere on the ground. The press kept it out of the news. A minor miracle. Can’t be said that was often the case when I was a kid.
cavale commented on Sep 07 09 at 2:47 pmum… i think a spoiler alert is in order here?
thanks for ruining it for me.
jeannesager commented on Sep 07 09 at 7:30 pmCavale – the show aired last night. It’s not exactly a spoiler anymore.
cavale commented on Sep 11 09 at 9:52 pmuh, isn’t that tantamount to saying; “the movie premiered yesterday, it’s not a spoiler anymore.”
not how it works.
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