Was Perth filmmaker Simon Barker trying to be terribly clever trying to "create an awareness of the issues faced by Aboriginals" by showing white Australians dressed as Aborigines, drinking and engaging in criminal activity?

Perhaps he was too clever, ending up proving he was at best, naive and at worst, stupid to think he could fight racism with racism.

Or was he being blatantly racist?

It reminds me of the episode of The Office where the staff member who used a wheelchair was left sitting in the stairwell during a fire evacuation. Everyone just raced passed her. It caused a bit of a stir in the disabled community in the UK and I think I remember Ricky Gervais defending the scene by saying he wanted to create awareness.

Hilarious? No. Clever? Not even. The scene only served to reinforce bad behaviour.

Avatar is another failed attempt to point out human folly, this time on the big screen. The 30 or so minutes of rampant destruction of the Na'vi's Home Tree on Pandora was meant to highlight our blatant disrepect of the environment.

But really, it just glorified it.

Burgeoning reality shows like Noise Control and Police Ten 7 mean that now, if you behave antisocially, you're likely to get on TV. Good reason to do so, because then you can watch yourself and have a laugh with your mates.

And then there are the crime shows – CSI, Criminal Minds and the like – which show people how to think like a killer. Awesome.

I am constantly amazed at the way we blatantly use screens, which are becoming more and more prevalent, to depict violence, destruction, prejudice, rudeness and irresponsibility. Then we wonder why we live in a society where these are becoming bigger and bigger problems.

The power of the screen is huge and I'm not sure if we are aware that, where once screen media reflected reality, it's now creating it. I don't want to be a kill joy – I enjoy the occasional over the top display of graphic violence to get the old adrenalin pumping. But have we gone too far? Don't we need a bit of balance? A few more "this is how it could be" stories?

Is that too clever an ask?