The best place I know of to go to get a start on making a difference is the National Institute on Media and the Family, www.mediafamily.org. They have a lot of things on there, but a few highlights include:

A tv rating system that you can actually participate in

Training and speaking engagements

Books, videos, etc.. you can buy

Interactive activities and quizes

Links to every other organization that covers this topic.

I've seen the head of this organization, Dr. Walsh, speak, I've read one of his books, and he has written for the magazine I work for. It's definitely a good place to start if your looking for what to do and what's out there.

I've read the Walsh newsletter, and while I think it performs a good service, I'm somewhat concerned about its accuracy at times. One of the things his group is successful about doing is to organize national boycotss against companies that advertise on programs that portray questionable activities and language, which is a good thing.
Another thing that can be done locally is to make know to your local stations what you like and don't like about their newscasts. Letters and phonecalls.
Of course children need to be taught to question what they see on TV and to understand that it isn't "fact" but is someone's opinion. But this all depends on their ages and maturity level. There have been towns that pressured their local stations to not put on so much crime news, and to be more responsible about the news stories they portray -- to include them in a context. )For example, because blood and guts attracts viewers, such stories are often put on without explanation and viewers get the impression that murder is rampant. But many of the murders are gang warfare and vendettas, meaning that it's not random attacks but part of an underworld lifestyle.)
There's a famous story about Orange County going bankrupt but nobody there knew that the budget was in trouble because reporters didn't talk about the budget because viewers found it too boring. So the federal government had to bail out one of the wealthiest counties in the country! And in Chicago, they tried to do a serious newscast that avoided sensationalism and that looked more like the news of our childhoods, but despite its high quality, its ratings fell and after 8 months the network canceled it. So we all need to honestly ask ourselves if we're willing to suffer through boring talking heads and understand complicated issues or are we also part of the problem.
As I said before, I get news from public radio and usually just watch American Movie Classics and Twilight Zone reruns.

One of the things we have done is to get rid of cable. Although, there is still a lot of inappropriate things on the local stations, it significantly reduces the number of channels we get. We also purchase movies from a company called Feature Films for Families. All of their movies are rated G and they all teach morals and values. It's a start!

Although it has been a while since anyone has posted here, I thought I would pass this along since so many discussed taking action. The Lion and the Lamb project is seeking examples of ads for mature-rated games and r-rated movies aired during programs children are likely to watch. E-mail information with date, time, station or program during which the commercial aired to lionlamb@lionlamb.org. For more about them, visit Lion and Lamb Project

[ February 05, 2003, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: Candice Johnson ]

Sorry about the blank message! Being new to this forum, I simply clicked on the send button too soon.
It can be quite difficult to monitor your children's tv viewing at times. While you may do quite well at monitoring it at home, children visiting at friends' houses may not be monitored that closely by their parents.
We found out something quite amazing when raising our four children. They tended to do censorship on their own. They did not care for the sex-filled shows and turned them off. They saw some of it on friends' tvs and were disgusted by it. They preferred the children's programming they saw on our tv.
All four of our children grew to be responsible, caring adults. With the exception of our youngest son, all had children of their own and are responsible parents too. So we have been very fortunate. Even after losing our youngest daughter, Teresa, in the house fire in 1999, her daughter, Regan, is being raised by her father and is growing up to be a lovely young lady. She loves Mary Kate and Ashley, especially the younger movies, and cartoons. She loves Barbie dolls. And we monitor what she watches on tv here when she visits.
You can write to producers of shows, networks, and advertisers. You can boycott advertisers, but this is not effective unless you write a letter to the company telling them why you are boycotting. Otherwise, they simply increase the advertising.

That's funny. My son acts like that too. I ask him if he thinks I'm not old enough to understand it or what?!
Another thing to pay attention to is that commercials as well as programs play a game of pitting kids against their parents.
My kids used to make the appeal that they needed to do something because they were teenagers. I used to tell them that there's no such thing as teenagers -- it's a marketing invention. The more I think about it, the more true I'm sure it is. Our parents' generations didn't differentiate between adults and teenagers. Other countries didn't used to, until recdntly. It's a target market and serves to compartmentalize people. And now, most tv is made for "teenagers." It's mostly Not made for older folks because they can't get us as new customers for their products.

This article is pretty good. It's about an 11-year-old who wanted to take action, but got turned down. There are also some good links at the end.
Article

Been a while since I have posted anything here, but I know a lot of you were talking about ways to get involved. This is a petition done by Media and the Family to the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto about the violence portrayed against women, Sign it and/or pass it along.

http://www.mediafamily.org/video_clips/petition.shtml

Thanks...I signed the petition, being careful to only fill in the needed necessary fields.