Examines how the "good and evil" rhetoric, in both the entertainment and the news media, has helped children to dehumanize the enemies, justify their killing and treat the suffering of innocent civilians as necessary sacrifice.
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008)
In depth look at the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, this film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation
Digital Nation (FRONTLINE) (2010)
Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained? This in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world continues a line of investigation that began in 2008, with the FRONTLINE report "Growing Up Online."
Growing Up Online (FRONTLINE) (2008)
MySpace. YouTube. Facebook. Friendster. Nearly every teen in America is on the Internet every day. They socialize with friends and strangers alike. Peers inside the world of this cyber-savvy generation through the eyes of teens and their parents, who often find themselves on opposite sides of a new digital divide. A generation with a radically different notion of privacy and personal space, today's adolescents are grappling with issues their parents never had to deal with. Investigates the risks, realities, and misconceptions of teenage self-expression on the World Wide Web.
Girls: Moving Beyond Myth (2014)
Focuses on the sexual dilemmas and difficult life choices young girls face as they come of age in contemporary American culture. Challenging long-held myths about girlhood, the film draws on the insights of girls themselves to explore and shed light on their actual lived experience as they navigate our increasingly hyper-sexualized society. The voices of a diverse range of girls are supplemented with accessible analysis from leading experts on girls and sexuality, including Lynn Phillips, author of Flirting with Danger; Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Director of the Body Project; and Deborah Tolman, author of Dilemmas of Desire.
For years, there has been widespread speculation, but very little consensus, about the relationship between violent video games and violence in the real world. Joystick Warriors provides the clearest account yet of the latest research on this issue. Drawing on the insights of media scholars, military analysts, combat veterans, and gamers themselves, the film trains its sights on the wildly popular genre of first-person shooter games, exploring how the immersive experience they offer links up with the larger stories we tell ourselves as a culture about violence, militarism, guns, and manhood.
Merchants of Cool (2001)
Explores the culture in which today's American teenager are growing up and how they've come to view themselves and their parents.
