An end to TV porn and swearing?

There are encouraging signs that South Africans are not only growing increasingly weary of the deluge of profanity, bad language and sex on television, the movies and other mass media, but that they’re prepared to finally cast aside their apathy and do something about it.

Only last month a crowd of disgruntled citizens marched on the offices of e.tv to protest against the channel’s late night pornography.

And when, in my weekly column on the News24.com website, I wrote about the growing trend in the United States against the use of expletives on television, the site was inundated with e-mails from South Africans complaining with considerable passion about sex and profanity on TV—so much so that the response function on the website had to be closed down.

With use of four letter words in every second sentence, liberal smatterings of profanity and a morsel of gratuitous sex in just about every US movie and TV series, one can be forgiven for assuming that Hollywood researchers have proven that there would be little hope of profit and box-office success without these essential elements.

Yet research now shows that more than half of adult Americans insist that their Federal Communications Commission should have the authority to fine any of the major TV networks for airing a single expletive or “four letter word”.

The poll was conducted only a few months ago by Harris Interactive on behalf of Morality in Media, a non-profit organisation based in New York that works to curb traffic in obscenity and uphold standards of decency in the media.

In the poll, among American women who work and have children in the home, 69% agreed, 39% strongly so. Among all adults between 45-54 of age, 62% agreed.

Robert W Peters, president of Morality in Media, commented: “There is a perception on the part of many in the secular entertainment and news media that because they, along with many in their circle of friends or co-workers, curse with impunity, everyone else must do likewise, or at least not be bothered too much by it.”

Getting back to South Africa, according to the SA Press Association, religious groups angered by late night pornography on TV, protested vociferously outside e.tv’s Cape Town studios a month or so ago. Said Taryn Hodgson, the international coordinator of the Christian Action Network: “We have had enough! Porn on free-to-air national television is outrageous. There are many parentless homes in South Africa and many homes where children are not supervised as to what they are watching.”

Members of Africa Christian Action, Christians for Truth and other mission organisations and churches were acting in a bid to rid the channel of the films, which “fuel rape and abuse”.

Ms Hodgson quoted a report on a study by a Johannesburg-based therapeutic manager that found that child-sex offenders generally turn television into a “surrogate care-giver” due to absent parents and “unmet emotional needs”.

“Even so-called soft core pornography has been shown to fuel sexual abuse. It desensitises the viewer by objectifying the women. This can lead to addiction and a desire to view more hardcore material,” she said.

“I cannot believe that e.tv feels no sense of social responsibility for the harm they are causing, considering that South Africa has some of the highest rape statistics in the world and one of the highest HIV prevalence rates.”

The next move among some protesters seems to be targeting companies that advertise during the screening of these films.

And that really is what modern consumerism it is all about. No amount of protesting will get a TV or radio station, or any other mass medium for that matter, to change its position on content and programming. But the minute advertisers start believing that their association with certain programmes is doing their brands more harm than good, they will pull out in a heartbeat. And the media will drop whatever it is that offends their advertisers even faster.

So once again, whether or not porn and profanity declines or increases will probably have nothing to do with how many people protest, and everything to do with money and how many advertisers withdraw their support.