” “"Bringing to a wide public opinion the current debate on the possible harmful effects of the representations of violence on mass media": this is the appeal made by card. Karl Lehmann, president of the German Bishops Conference, who spoke yesterday in Bonn at the ceremony for the awarding of the Catholic Media Prize. "Violent videogames, videos available on the Internet of terrorist attacks and executions, films taken with cell-phones containing scenes of beatings or mobbing, are as highly problematic dimensions of the use of mass media as the scenes of sadism in films or on TV", stated Lehmann during the ceremony. "Overcoming these violent phenomena is a goal that concerns all of society, which mass media too must keep into account. Unlike what happens for the environment or food, society is still poorly sensitive to the possible pollutants of mass media", he added. Now in its fifth year, the prize was awarded this year to journalists Angela Graas and Bastian Obermayer, "examples according to the cardinal of how mass media can stimulate one to question oneself on existential matters". ” “
