Hell I'd be interested in an examination of how it manifests itself in entertainment media(non news / documentary types)

Principally because people often think "oh it's just entertainment"

...which is to me like saying "oh it's just desert"

.
Like your digestive system(biological or physiological) knows the difference

All it recognizes is sustenance it maybe able to use as a resource now or later.
The designation of something as "just" entertainment(or desert) is more or less a memory mnemonics(like tying a ribbon around you finger to remember something) so that you know how much to ingest in relation to other things; or how to categorize/offset what was ingested. Put another way people need to know what they are taking in(and where it came from) even if it's "just entertainment".
Damn I just got all philosophical and shyt

.........fukk it, I'm going in coach