William D. Romanowski is a professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. He wrote Pop Culture Wars: Religion and the Role of Entertainment in American Life and Eyes Wide Open: Looking for God in Popular Culture.

John P. Ferré is associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. His focus is on media, religion and culture. He is the editor of Channels of Belief: Religion and American Commercial Television (Iowa State University Press, 1990).

Kathleen S. Lowney is a professor of sociology at Valdosta State University in Georgia. She has written about television talk shows and morality.

Paul Levinson is a professor in Fordham University’s department of communication and media in New York.

Todd A. Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University in New York. He wrote the book The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 1996).

Michael C. Keith is a professor of communication at Boston College and a radio historian.

Read about an Associated Press poll posted Feb. 21, 2004, on the CBS News web site that gauged Americans’ reaction to Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction. The poll found that 54 percent of Americans found the incident to be in bad taste but not illegal.

Read a 2004 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation that looks at how parents feel about media content and ratings systems.

Read a Feb. 5, 2004, article that talks about how shock is used as a marketing tool.