In the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, groups representing the TV and film industries began rolling out a national educational campaign last week, aimed at informing parents how they can manage what their children watch.

Everybody in the country has reacted to the unfortunate tragedy in Newtown, and regardless of the gun control issue, [our industry has] said, ‘What more can we do in things that we control to try to help.’

Participants in the campaign include the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Cable Association, the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, and the National Association of Theatre Owners, as well as Verizon FiOS and DirecTV.

“Everybody in the country has reacted to the unfortunate tragedy in Newtown, and regardless of the gun control issue, [our industry has] said, ‘What more can we do in things that we control to try to help,’” said Matthew Polka, CEO of the American Cable Association. “That’s what this represents in the nature of those things that we can control and how we can help our customers to be more educated about ways we all can be mindful of violence in our culture and how best to minimize it.”

In the coming months, the campaign will unveil a variety of resources through different communication channels, including television public service announcements, educational and informational websites, in-theater advertising, and social media, among others.

The campaign “hopefully will educate parents, and help them to remember and to recall that other tools exist via cable [and other outlets] to help them control the amount of violent content that might come into the home,” said Polka.

A great deal of coordination went into organizing a campaign with so many players, but having the same goal made it easy, Polka said. “From my perspective and in my interaction with these groups, it sprang from our collective desire to say, ‘What can we do, and how can we help?’”

The effort shows the impact that associations can have on an industry or the larger community, he added.

“There’s a lot that binds us as associations in the fact that we’re people, we care about the suffering of others, and, truthfully, issues like the Newtown tragedy make it easy to want to work together,” Polka said.

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