Symposium to Focus on TV Ratings

Entertainment industry executives and media experts will debate the strengths and weaknesses of the new TV rating system at a symposium Tuesday at Cal State Northridge.

The session, “The Television Rating System: Sense of Censorship,” will analyze the impact the rating system is having on American viewers.

The rating system is designed to warn audiences of material that may be considered offensive to some viewers. At the start of a program, a letter or number is displayed on screen that corresponds to a description of the program’s potentially objectionable content.

Since its inception on Jan. 1, the system has sparked controversy between some in the television industry, who argue that the system smacks of censorship, and family-values advocates, who contend it doesn’t go far enough.

Featured speakers at the symposium will be Jack J. Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America (via videotape); Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg; William Blinn, chairman of the Caucus for Writers, Producers and Directors; Nancy Malone, producer, director and vice president of Fox Television; Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now, a children’s advocacy group, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat (via videotape). Furnell Chatman, a KNBC Channel 4 reporter, will moderate the discussion.

The free symposium, sponsored by the college’s department of radio, television and film, begins at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center of the University Student Union on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St.

For more information, call (818) 677-3192.