A modern morality tale... at MyDaughter

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A modern morality tale...

Sunday 21 August 2011

Categories: Media Influence, Role Models, Technology & the Internet

Raising girls is about much more than feeding and clothing them, keeping them safe and educating them. Parents and schools work together to give them a moral framework by which to live. We model good behaviour, worthwhile values and ways of living. But sometimes it feels like gardening in a gale. The wild winds of media hype seem to blow away our careful guidance.

However much we tell our girls how unrealistic the air-brushed images of “celebrities” are and point out what messy and tragic lives so many seem to lead, impressionable girls believe what they see and read. What we see as tawdry they see as glamorous. So many young girls seem to just want to be famous.

Perhaps the mayhem of the Murdoch media situation will help them to understand a little better what lies behind the words and images. Once they learn how this empire seems to have sanctioned the hacking of Mille Dowler’s mobile phone messages, when they realise the methods which some of the media have used just to get a “story”, perhaps they will learn not to trust everything they read. Over the coming months as they hear more about the extraordinary lengths – often illegal or immoral – used to produce salacious stories to sell more newspapers hopefully our girls will develop a better understanding and a more sceptical approach.

Posted by Alison Morris

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