Page 240 - Religion in the Media Age Media, Religion & Culture

Representing outcomes 229

cated, and with what he perceives were simpler family relationships
during those times. When Fred is asked about which shows he dislikes
the most, he replies:

Fred: Umm... yeah, there are a lot . . . there are shows that I dislike but I
probably watch them as well. So, on one hand I can say this is base,
lewd and crude and stupid BUT I’m also attracted to it. So, I think the
Howard Stern show is absolutely abhorrent. It is awful. NO
redeeming value at all but occasionally I’ll watch it just because it is
lewd and crude and has no redeeming value. But, a show like Jackass
on TV. It is just... absolutely crude and there is no redeeming value
and I think it’s awful but I’ll occasionally watch that as well.
Interviewer: Do you watch these because they sort of alert you to what’s
out there in the whole world, or. . . .
Fred: No. It’s just people doing stupid things and sometimes there is an
attraction to people doing stupid things, I guess.
Interviewer: Is there any relationship between your likes and dislikes here
and what you consider to be your spirituality?
Fred: Umm... well not with Jackass but certainly with Andy Griffith.
There is an innate sense that there is goodness in everyone and that
there is value in personal relationships and you know, things were much
simpler and the problems we see now. It may just be a fairy tale in my
mind, but there is an attraction in that for me, especially with kids
growing up now and worrying about what is going on in the world.
Fred is uncommonly self-revealing about his viewing and listening habits.
His motivations for these “guilty pleasures” are far from clear. All he can
say is that he simply watches them. In a way he is a bit like Jay Milliken
in Chapter 6, who seemed to make some of his viewing choices simply on
the basis that things “were on” the two channels he could receive. When
given the opportunity to ascribe another motive, Fred rejects it, returning
again to the simple notion that he is attracted to viewing people doing
“stupid things.” Like Megan Sealy, he interprets a question about spiritu-
ality and media to refer to values and ethics, and then describes his
favorite program, The Andy Griffith Show, as conveying a sense of posi-
tive values and a simpler time, something that he sees as positive for
children today.
We met David Mueller in Chapter 7. He is in his twenties, the father of
three, and a devout Mormon. He and his wife, Kathy, take their roles as
parents in the media age very seriously. Unlike some parents we’ve inter-
viewed, they seem very aware of the range of television and other media
available to their children, and stress the importance of kids learning to
make their own moral and spiritual judgments in their media choices. The
Interviewer follows their lead, asking at one point,