Media Police

Tread Carefully: Race, Religon, and Culture

Tread Carefully: Race, Religion, and Culture

To Criticize Or Remain Silent
There are certain issues that are considered taboo to criticize. On the one hand, there are issues that are politically risky to discuss. However, on the other hand, there are taboo subject matters that seem entirely rational to critique, but remain outside the realm of ridicule. Why is this? Culture and society has played a major role in maintaining and protecting certain subject matters. The most popular taboo is religion. It is the one area of concern where people are deemed Read the rest of this entry »

Avert Your Eyes: Nudity and Sex

Sex has always been a highly-debated topic in most countries, and that is why it is considered controversial by so many people. Unfortunately, it seems as though nudity is beginning to play a huge role in film and other forms of entertainment. This means that millions of people are going to be forced to deal with sex regardless of how they feel about the subject. The bad news is that the availability of sex in mass entertainment exposes thousands of young people before they are emotionally prepared to handle the subject.

The best thing that parents can do in terms Read the rest of this entry »

Is Censorship Arbitrary in Today’s Society?

When you take a look at what’s acceptable on television today as opposed to decades prior you start to notice a strange disconnect between what was acceptable back then and what is acceptable now. For years, there has been a never ending battle between creativity and censorship, but it has largely been kept away from the public eye. Sure, you hear about things like the V-chip and the rating system, but you hear less about how commercials and advertising are used to chop up a program to avoid some of the more risky bits. Ever wonder why you keep seeing the same commercial for http://www.homesecurityfamily.com/ during the mid-way point of an episode of Family Guy?

One of the biggest problems with censorship is the seeming arbitrary nature of it. Oh sure, you can show a man getting his leg blown off in an explosion, but God help us if the broadcasters decide to lavish more than ten seconds of attention on a sex scene on prime-time television. In many ways, censorship is a lot like the war on drugs in that what used to be legal back then is now illegal now. Who knows what will be acceptable television in the future.

A Bloody Good Time: Violence and Gore

In the early days of cinema horror movies relied more heavily on implied violence and the imagination of the movie going public. Times have certainly changed, with modern horror movies maiming and killing in increasingly violent and graphic ways.

Has the public become so jaded at the sight of blood that we now require internal organs and torture scenes to keep us in the theater? The plot never seems to change, merely the grisly demise of the young people involved. We have evolved from shadowy figures chasing helpless women to invincible maniacs with hatchets, chainsaws Read the rest of this entry »

Watch Your Language: Swearing & Bad Words

In this day and age, many people choose to use words in their daily vocabulary that are not suited towards children’s ears and can be offensive to others. Swearing and bad language is typically frowned upon and those who stand by censorship believe in suppressing these offensive words.

It is common sense to watch your language when around children, as they can pick up on new words easily and tend to mimic things that they hear others say. Many times, when a child Read the rest of this entry »

Think of the Children!: The Importance of Censorship

Words or actions that are deemed unacceptable due to the harm those words and actions may cause an individual, adult and especially children are quickly censored. Censorship over inappropriate behavior and word choice is determined by a network, government official or the controlling figure behind the media outlet or presentation. Censorship goes beyond a curse word, or sexual explicit scene. Censorship is also used to protect religious and racial groups, those with different sexual preferences and also child pornography.

Censorship means that a specific word, Read the rest of this entry »

How Much Censorship is Too Much?: Where to Draw the Line

One of the major issues being debated today is censorship. On the one hand people want to protect themselves and children from subject matter that they deem inappropriate, on the other hand that keeps many people who want to see things from having access to them.

So, how does someone determine the right amount of censorship? Is it simply censoring broadcasts that the public has access to, like radio stations where anyone with a radio can turn it on and listen? Or should we also censor TV, even though Read the rest of this entry »

In the Beginning: the History of Censorship

Censorship is something that many feel is one of the worst evils a government can commit against its people, but every government does it in some form or another. Some have used national security as an excuse to suppress information, and others have simply banned the media from reporting on certain topics honestly. Censorship has been going on, in one form or another, since the beginning of human history as a population control. Egyptian pharaohs, for instance, could determine that Read the rest of this entry »