Excessive TV viewing hazardous to moral health, study reveals

Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2007 / 10:10 am

Heavy television watching parallels a decline in moral values and a sense of personal responsibility, a new study by the Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center has found.

According to a report on LifeSiteNews.com,  in a new Special Report entitled “The Media Assault on American Values,” released by the CMI June 6, a clear correlation was shown to exist between an increase in the number of hours a viewer spent watching TV and a decline in the strength of personal moral values.

On the issue of abortion, 44 percent of light TV viewers (those who watch one hour or less per night, accounting for 22.5 percentage of the population) said abortion is wrong, compared to 27 percent of heavy TV viewers (those who watch four hours or more per night, accounting for 25 percent of the population).

While 39 percent of light TV viewers said sex outside of marriage was always wrong, only 26 percent of heavy viewers considered sex outside of marriage to be always wrong. 64 percent of light viewers opposed same-sex marriage, compared to 57 percent of heavy TV viewers.

While only 28 percent of heavy viewers are frequent church goers, 47 percent of light viewers go to church regularly. More than half (51 percent) of heavy viewers said they rarely or never attended church, while only 29 percent of light viewers said they went to church “rarely or never”.

The complete report can be found at:
http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/