Monday, January 3, 2011

First post of 2011 -- part 3: The media, celebrities, and children's view of marriage

You can hardly turn on the t.v. or pick up a magazine nowadays without being alerted to the breakup of some celebrity couple's marriage. These could be movie stars, athletes, musicians, or any other type of high profile entertainment figure.

A Reuter's article published last week draws attention to the fact that young children often look to these people -- especially sports stars -- as role models; the article is appropriately titled "Soccer scandals 'shaping kids' view of marriage," and was edited by Paul Casciato (no author is identified). According to the Dec. 29 article (which was published around 8:10 p.m. ET), kids get the idea that "marriages are not meant to last."

Certainly, these celebrities need to be more aware of how their actions affect the perceptions of our youth. But the media bears more than a little bit of the blame as well. How much influence would these scandals have, after all, if they were not routinely sensationalized by so many major news sources?

Click here to read the full article.

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