Is Media Overemphasis on Child Predators Influencing Public Fear?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the media's portrayal of child predators and whether this emphasis influences public fear. Participants explore the implications of frequent media coverage on societal perceptions and individual behaviors, touching on themes of morality, media responsibility, and psychological reflection.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express concern over the frequency of child predator topics in media, suggesting it contributes to public fear.
  • One participant questions the motivations behind media focus on such topics, linking it to personal internal debates about morality.
  • Another participant challenges the idea that media figures control their content, arguing that multiple writers and producers influence what is presented.
  • A participant reflects on the irony of those who vocally denounce child molestation potentially having their own unresolved issues related to the topic.
  • There are mixed opinions on the quality and relevance of the media shows discussed, with some participants dismissing the hosts as unworthy of attention.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus; multiple competing views remain regarding the implications of media focus on child predators and the motivations behind it.

Contextual Notes

Some arguments depend on assumptions about media influence and personal psychology, which remain unresolved. The discussion also reflects varying levels of familiarity with the media figures mentioned.

Pengwuino
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My god, is it just me or has every single episode of this guys show lately been about child predators?!?

Kinda scary to think there's so many perverts out there... or well, am i allowed to call them perverts? Not "misunderstood"?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
who is this nobody you refer to?
 
He's smurf!:-p
 
whats a smurf?
 
I don't know what's it exactly! But it could be useful for thread hijacking anyway. :rolleyes:
 
Don't you jerks ever get your daily dose of american empirialist propaganda?
 
Who is this bozo anyways?
 
a few shows ago it was about meth and the guests were dog the bounty hunter and stephanie from full house

donny deutsch is the head of a huge NY advertising company, he now has a nighttime talk show
 
He sounds like a real looser to me.
 
  • #11
He sounds like a real loser to me. I guess now I know who Danny Deuotch its.
 
  • #12
What are you talking about MK?
 
  • #13
I'm asleep, is this about David Deutsch?
 
  • #14
First, I vote that CNBC changes the name to Donny Douche. It'd at least be funnier.

Second, I had a religion and psychology teacher who gave a good lecture one day about how the subjects that people find important to discuss, denounce, whatever, are also the subjects that they themselves are conducting a sort of internal debate about: ie, if I bring up a debate on tax policy, more than likely it's because I've been thinking about taxes and the like recently. In the same sense, he said that he's always been a little unnerved by preachers who focused on strongly denouncing the sins of things like child sex, youthful lust, and wickedness - not because he necessarily disagreed with their points, but because they seemed to him to be settled issues and sort of superfluous. He said a case in point was when that one TV preacher got busted with child pornography or something in the 80s, after repeatedly spending a large portion of his focus on youthful lust. I don't remember the incident, but anyway, it seems funny that this issue of child predation and child molestation should begin to appear so frequently on the news (from Nancy Grace, to Bill O'reilly, to Donny Deutsch). It makes you wonder, who out there is this resonating with - clearly somebody. A news anchor, even? Probably not. But someone out there's sure eating this stuff up.

If you met a person who spent half of his conversation saying things like "molesting children is wrong! molesting children is wrong", wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that this ideas crossed his mind in some way or another?

Just a thought...
 
  • #15
jhe1984 said:
If you met a person who spent half of his conversation saying things like "molesting children is wrong! molesting children is wrong", wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that this ideas crossed his mind in some way or another?

Just a thought...

The theory sounds fine, but most news anchors and talk show hosts don't control their content alone. Each show has many writers and producers. Also new anchors ramble off like 20 stories a day so they must be thinking about quite a lot according to your theory.
 
  • #16
Greg Bernhardt said:
The theory sounds fine, but most news anchors and talk show hosts don't control their content alone. Each show has many writers and producers. Also new anchors ramble off like 20 stories a day so they must be thinking about quite a lot according to your theory.

And since we know that it is rarely that news anchors ever think, it looks like the theory, in this particular case, has been invalidated.
 

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