The author first discusses the links between moral disquiet in society and media content and priorities. This is followed by a discussion of television portrayal of "social censures," that is, how society should deal with moral transgressions. Also discussed are television and the theory of "mass society," mass society and moral panics, and television and permissiveness. Implications are then drawn for the study of violence in the media. In a concluding statement, the author notes that the media present a variety of portrayals of society's social-order personnel and institutions. The police officer has human failings that undermine efforts at rational social control, or a heroic officer must challenge a corrupt and inept police bureaucracy. The police story is presented in a number of ways, and each viewer, in selecting what to watch and in reactions to what is viewed, is influenced in perceptions of what is happening in the real world. 64 notes and references