You don’t have to love or even hate hip-hop music to find the “Independent Lens” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) documentary “Hip Hop: Beyond the Beats and Rhymes” thought-provoking.

A self-proclaimed hip-hop head, filmmaker Byron Hurt began to think about the music’s messages when he was hired as a youth counselor by Northeastern University. He began to question the music’s prevailing themes of extreme violence between black men and its dismissive, insulting portrayal of black women.

While many conversations about hip-hop revolve around race, this film discusses changing attitudes toward masculinity that transcend skin color. Hip-hop has emerged over the past three decades, a time that has also seen the rise of extremely violent movies and video games and the era of the exaggerated male physiques exhibited by actors like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, steroid-enhanced athletes and virtually every professional wrestler. As many here observe, these trends point not to macho swagger but to a culture of extreme male insecurity.

Hurt presents interviews with rappers Mos Def, Fat Joe, Chuck D., Jadakiss and Busta Rhymes, as well as dozens of would-be performers at hip-hop conventions and gatherings.

Many artists and amateur rappers agree that the hard look and attitude of many stars is only a pose. And some contend that the thuggish facade offered by 50 Cent and others is not “from the street” but driven by corporate suits.

The film notes that consciousness-raising music of groups like Public Enemy vanished right after most record labels were consolidated into just a few corporations. And the rise of radio giants like Clear Channel have only accelerated the trend toward hateful and banal themes of booty, bling and thug culture. Hurt and others describe an ugly preconceived image of blackness fabricated for a hip-hop audience that is more than 70 percent white and distributed by a music and radio industry dominated by white executives.

¢ “Frontline” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) continues its multipart series “News War.” Tonight’s installment looks at the increasing number of journalists sent to jail for withholding information about sources – from reporters involved in the Plame-Libby case to investigators looking into the BALCO steroid scandal to a San Francisco-based blogger who was covering anti-war protests.

¢ TV-themed DVDs available today include “Second City: First Family of Comedy” and a collection from “The Johnny Carson Show,” a 1955 talk show that preceded Carson’s work on “The Tonight Show” by seven years.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Like moths to a flame, online pervs flock to “Dateline” (7 p.m., NBC) only to get burned.

¢ The top-12 guys perform on a two-hour helping of “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ Lorelai wants to unburden herself of bad news, but Richard and Emily can’t bring themselves to listen on “Gilmore Girls” (7 p.m., CW).

¢ A boxer joins a double-dutch competition in the 2007 TV movie “Jump In!” (7 p.m., Disney).