They benefit from the entertaining and informative aspects of broadcast images and printed words, but ultimately have harmful social influences. The second major category of media is the printed word, a much older form that originated in the Western world in the mid-1400s with Gutenberg's press. Each has its own set of pitfalls based on how their industries pay for themselves. Movie producers are fond of telling those who protest the content of their images that they are just giving the public what the public wants.
Sex sells, and it sells for a reason.
But in the reality that lies outside the darkened theater or living room, there is only one ending and the morals in it are fuzzy and subject to debate. For one reason or another, though, the consumers of mass media images often have a hard time figuring out what side of the screen they're on. We worry that the negative messages conveyed in the media will be passed on to real life. We think that seeing Dr. Dre or Van Halen objectify and demean women on MTV will cause men in reality to do the same. Studies on how concretely observed behavior correlates to actual behavior are sketchy, but that doesn't stop parent groups from demanding ratings on the level of violence and adult content in television programming.