How we got started:
The NW-ARM, started from three different directions. The first was the Spokane Academy for Family Television which was a local Chapter of the statewide Foundation for Family Television. The Foundation was developed in 1991 in response to a statewide survey by a University of Washington research team which found widespread dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger among Washington State's parents with the quality of television programming for their families. With the leadership of Jean Gardner, Washington's first lady and wife of then Governor Booth Gardner, a group of parents, community leaders, educators, and professionals concerned with children's issues formed this organization as a vehicle for taking constructive action in their local communities.
The second component of the NW-ARM grew out of Gonzaga University and the work of Professor John Caputo who was then Chair of the Communication Arts Department. Professor Caputo hosted several conferences looking at media and social values that included media theorist Dr. George Gerbner of the Annenberg School of Communication and Dr. Paul Soukup, S.J., of Santa Clara University. These conferences were community forums that examined the life of children growing up in a media culture.
The third component grew out of the West Central Community Center. The WC Community Center held a town hall forum to look at the root causes of violence in their neighborhood. One of root causes identified was violent content of media products. The West Central Community Center invited Dr. Caputo to talk about what the research on media says about influencing children. At the same time, Jan Foland, a Salk Middle School teacher in Spokane wrote an article in The Spokesman-Review describing her concerns about children and media and a petition she was starting to form a group of concerned citizens to monitor and counter the impact of violence in our media on the lives of our children. It was when these three groups came together that the Northwest Alliance for Responsible Television/Media was finally formed (now the Northwest Alliance for Responsible Media NW-ARM).
Statement of Media Responsibility for the Twenty-First Century:
A Media Manifesto
The Northwest Alliance for Responsible Media was formed to address the issue of media impact on our culture and specifically on our youth. The United State has been blessed by a free, democratic system of government that has allowed us to develop massive communication industries. These industries with their creative and talented people have been part of a major communications revolution in the last half of the twentieth century. As we move into the 21st Century, the United States is the most media saturated society in the world and to that end, we have made our communication products among our top exports.
With this freedom and power also comes responsibility. We recognize the roles and responsibilities of parents, schools, churches and community in fostering a healthy community. We also recognize the roles and responsibilities of the film, television, Internet, video game, electronic and print industries in this same process. We hope that in partnership, communities and the communication industries can assume a "Mantle of Stewardship" so critical to the health of our community. We therefore urge all interested parties including families, schools, churches, legislators, and media industries the adoption of this Statement of Media Responsibility:
- A responsible media will act as a central unifying force to help our communities avoid fragmentation and loneliness, not by promoting a stifling homogenization of taste and class, but by respecting the human dignity of every human being in our products and programming.
- A responsible media will be a pro-active unique force for social change and will not only react to ongoing events that tear at the heart of what it means to be a healthy society, but actually assist communities in identifying and solving community problems.
- A responsible media will act as a representative of our pluralistic society to be sure that media control does not rest in the hands of a few but is diverse and dynamic in giving voice to us all.
- A responsible media will act to restrict gratuitous violent and sexual content from content that serve no purpose in developing a story, plot or game, but as mere titillation or degradation of the human being.
- A responsible media will act to revise and mandate an effective parent-friendly rating system (designed by parents for parents) for all programs, films, video games on cable network, computer applications and motion-picture shows.
- A responsible media will act to create a Children's Hour on network television, which carries diverse programs of news, education and entertainment appropriate for specific age ranges.
- A responsible media will help to urge parents to get involved in monitoring their children’s use of media products by familiarizing parents with new ratings systems, v-chip technology , and recommending to parents keeping tv sets, computers and video games out-of-children’s rooms and establishing clear rules to help balance their children’s lives.
- A responsible media will help sponsor media literacy programs on television, in schools and communities, because a knowledgeable viewer can make better choices and be less vulnerable to media messages that can mix fantasy with reality.
- A responsible media will help increase support for public broadcasting that can produce shows with educational content for smaller audiences of children, the elderly, and at the same time give greater visibility to programming of high art and culture.
- A responsible media will act to restrict the use of children’s television program characters in the sale and endorsement of commercial products.
- A responsible media will provide Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on the potential harmful effect of excessive viewing of TV, films and video, particularly with respect to violent content and images.
- A responsible media will act in unison with the Federal Communications Commission in designing a clear set of compliance regulations that will help to develop standards of inappropriate, violent, sexual or profane content.
- A responsible media will act to eliminate inappropriate promo clips or news stories that frighten viewers of all ages by being used as "teasers" during early hours of the evening.
- A responsible media will act to help legislators draft and enact federal regulations over the Internet, video game and music industries relative to violence, sexual content and pornography.
Together, artist, producer, station manager, parent and child, we can make our understanding and use of media a blessing we can all be proud of in the development of healthy communities across our nation in the Twenty-First Century.