One criticism often leveled against the media is that they are contributing to the decay of morality. Indeed, a recent national poll reported that 70 percent of Americans are very or somewhat worried that popular culture, as portrayed in television and movies, is lowering moral standards in the United States. The concern is fueled by the tremendous amount of time youth are spending with the media and by their easy access to explicit content. Children can readily find stories about violence, sexual promiscuity, theft, and greed in a variety of media outlets including fictional programming, reality shows, rap music, and the Internet. Almost no research, however, focuses on how the media shape children's moral development. Researchers have written widely on how the media affect children's behaviors, both prosocial and antisocial. But they have paid little attention to the moral lessons children learn from the media that may be underlying these behaviors.

Moral development in children follows a predictable developmental path. When presented with an ethical dilemma, children under the age of eight typically judge an action as wrong or incorrect when it results in punishment or goes against the rules set forth by authority figures. As children mature, they begin to consider multiple perspectives in a situation, taking into account the intentions and motives of those involved and recognizing the often-conflicting rules inherent in moral dilemmas. In other words, their moral reasoning becomes more flexible and “other” oriented.

Article about moral decay in American society, here.

Hollywood gave us some pretty awful stuff in the last twelve months, but I can’t think of anything that broke any bold new ground in depravity, especially compared with what the mainstream has been forced to put up with in recent years.

Perhaps the worst transgression of the media was its slobbering, worshipful devotion to Barack Obama. 2008 may well be remembered as the year that journalism truly died. However, as much as conservatives love a good anti-media jeremiad, it’s also true that alternative, capitalist media are abundant and easy to find, and it’s also even true that there are some signs that the mainstream media may well report more fairly on Obama.

Most Americans think culture is becoming more immoral, and they view the media — both entertainment and news — as prime culprits, according to a new survey.

If the media continue to “singularly promote” secular values while undermining orthodox faith and values, it will be very difficult to reverse America’s moral decline, said the National Cultural Values Survey, released by the Culture and Media Institute (CMI) of the Media Research Center.

''Americans who care about the nation’s moral condition should insist that the media strive to more fairly represent all views, including those of the orthodox,” the report stated.

The survey of 2,000 American adults shows that the nation’s culture war is grounded in disagreements over religious issues, such as God’s role in life and whether religious belief is essential for a good and moral life, CMI Director Robert H. Knight said.

About 31 percent of Americans, regardless of political stripe, are “orthodox” — faithful Bible-believers who strive to live by “God’s teachings and principles,” see “a clear set of right and wrong behaviors” in every issue and believe government should be allowed to follow religious principles.

Seventeen percent of Americans, again regardless of political affiliation, are at the “progressive” end of the religious spectrum — many believe in God, but they strongly disagree that religion is “the most important factor” in forming their values or that religion is “the most essential ingredient” of a good, moral life. Progressives don’t want the government to follow religious principles and don’t believe that people “should always live by God’s teachings and principles.”

The largest group of Americans — 46 percent who described themselves as “independents” — do not fully identify with either of the other groups. However, they tend to align with the orthodox regarding belief in God, sexual morality and spiritual issues. They reject, for instance, progressive efforts to replace “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” — but side with progressives about using personal principles, not “God’s teachings,” to make certain moral decisions.

The culture war, according to the CMI report, occurs because the “morally absolutist” orthodox Americans are fighting to uphold values such as honesty, personal responsibility, sexual restraint and “classical character virtues.”