Dead Bodies Now Shown With Increasing Frequency On Prime Time TV

Dead Bodies Now Shown With Increasing Frequency On Prime Time TV… | The Huffington Post

Whenever I read stories about sex and violence on TV, two positions always arise. One is the liberal viewpoint that Americans are preoccupied with sex, and that violence never seems to get a mention. Surely violent images on TV is more harmful than sexual images. The other position is that parents should control what their children watch. Both of these positions, while valid, are simple justifications for maintaining the status quo. We just love our sex and violence and want to keep it on TV.

But what people never seem to talk about is what the increasingly violent and sexual nature of television says about us as people. Turning up the heat on TV is necessary to keep our attention. From a producer's perspective, it's about competition- how to keep your viewers interested. And the main competition on TV is the news-- how can you compete with war, torture, sex crimes, and the destruction of the planet? We are becoming desensitized at an alarming rate, not only because of the entertainment we watch, but the news we watch. The cycle gets evens worse though, because news organizations base their editorial choices on the same criteria- what story will get the public's attention?

Our reality is becoming warped, and the number of dead bodies shown in crime dramas is proof positive of that.