Philosophy

Janson Media is a producer and supplier of film, television and video programming. Programming that is entertaining, informative, thought-provoking, and enlightening. Programs about people and places. Programs that tell great stories.

Our catalog features entertainment and information of high quality covering a wide range of genres, both documentary and drama. Our programs are fun and interesting, and often important, and we have an abiding interest in values and inspirational programming, and in wholesome family and children's films.

We know how that must sound to the literati, the gatekeepers of our nihilistic postmodern culture, the folks who find it difficult to even utter words like "values," "family" and "wholesome" unless using them in a pejorative or ironic sense. We must sound hopelessly nostalgic, unsophisticated, out-of-touch, square, unhip, and maybe even politically incorrect.

Well, we apologize. But we have no interest in creating programs that glorify violence, or are saturated with sex. Instead, we choose to produce and distribute programs that, for the most part, families can watch together comfortably. Unfortunately, that makes us "countercultural" in a business in which channel after channel provide a steady diet of near-pornographic violence, sex, "adult" comedy, wrestling, soap operas, and talk shows that often "bleep" more words than they allow.

Once upon a time in America, families would watch television together. Today, parents actually strive to protect their children from television.

Once upon a time in America, pop culture reinforced our shared values. Today, parents lament the influence of popular culture from television, movies, videogames, music, and the internet.

Once upon a time in America, network programmers, movie moguls, and music industry executives accepted their responsibility to shape and inform the culture. There was no need for complex ratings systems. Today, networks have even abandoned the idea of a primetime family hour, and industry executives just use ratings systems as marketing tools to lure underage viewers or listeners to their product.

The sophisticate's response to this unremitting telecast of trash, is to suggest that one can always simply "change the channel," or just "turn it off." So depressing is the landscape of television today that many thoughtful people would like to do just that. Turn it off. Throw it out the window. Disconnect. But information, and the culture it informs and defines, is like the air we breathe. It's everywhere. You can run, but you can't hide.

We believe that television is an incredibly powerful medium, one which has completely redefined our culture over the last half-century. Those who doubt the power of the medium should consider why it has proven to be the most effective advertising vehicle in the history of mankind, why corporations and political candidates are willing to spend so much of their hard-earned money to buy the thirty seconds of airtime they know will influence behavior, perceptions, and desires...

We believe that the creators, producers and suppliers of films and television programs have a great responsibility, one which many are not willing to accept.

We are.