Media, Home and Family by Hoover Stewart M.;Clark Lynn Schofield;Alters Diane F.;

Author:Hoover, Stewart M.;Clark, Lynn Schofield;Alters, Diane F.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

As this conversation illustrates, John did not use television so much to inform his specific religious beliefs as to contemplate his distance from television, including what he saw as the biggest barrier to reflecting his basic beliefs: its commercial nature. The family's specific religious beliefs were bolstered by Bible reading and church, where they studied the concept of sin that John articulated. Television offered specific examples of behavior, and the parents, exercising their authority, constantly made decisions about whether to show the examples or turn them off.

In fact, in many of their stories of television watching, the Hartmans described occasions when the parents or Glen decided to turn off the television because the program was not appropriate for the younger children. There was little immediate discussion of the reasoning behind turning shows off, all the Hartmans said. Instead, the children were expected to learn underlying meanings in church and in other family interactions, and to try to follow parental media practice by imitating it or going along with it—a practical application of belief.

Accordingly, John said he could imagine better television: It would provide a variety of choices, just as he saw the Internet offering a great deal of variety to the alert user. He clearly thought these media offered only a few of many choices available in life. This notion of individual choice was integral to the Hartmans' approach to life, and in fact the Hartman parents believed that one of their main tasks as parents was to encourage their children to make good choices based on their rather specific set of beliefs. The ability to make good choices would increase as the children grew older, with parental authority always looming, at least in the background. Teenager Glen, then, was seen as able to make better choices than his younger sisters, and he sometimes was left to monitor his sisters' television viewing. Their beliefs, and the monitoring help, gave the Hartmans parents a kind of tolerance and calm about television and other media that Janet Roelof did not have, as we will discuss in the next case study.

Sharon's calm was evident in a story she related about the time Glen found pornography in an email message. Relating the story to emphasize Glen's good judgment, Sharon said, matter-of-factly, that he came to her to tell her about it. The interviewer, surprised at her manner, sought to determine if Sharon was more disturbed than she appeared to be by the pornographic message in her son's email.

Sharon: When he was talking to [his cousin], he came in the other day and said, "There's pornography on here." He could tell what it was from the blurb, what it was. [She's talking about the email header.] You could tell.

Interviewer: Someone just sent him?

Sharon: Yeah. Before we even knew how to get on, it was on AOL.

Interviewer: Doesn't AOL have any responsibility for that?

Sharon: I don't know. All I know is that Glen recognized it and I said, "You're right!"

Interviewer: Did you register a complaint?

Sharon: [Indicates she did not.

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