Censorship has a massive influence on how people think and shapes the ideals of society. This can be a positive thing but also has many negative correlations.
Children's television is a good example of how censorship can cause controversy. In programmes aimed at children there is violence or death is kept to a minimum as during the stages of development, if the child becomes desensitised to the violence, then as they get older they will try to mimic it or think that that sort of behaviour is acceptable. In this instance censorship is important as it prevents children's susceptible minds into accepting immoral behaviours.
In contrast sometimes the media can use censorship in a negative way which can alienate certain groups of people. Again with children's television, for many years it was unlikely to see anyone who had a disability, or was transgender, or was any example against was society would deem as 'normal'. This was because parents believed that children's exposure to all these different people would scare them when in reality constant exposure would make the child more accepting of other types of people.
A perfect example of this would be Cerrie Burnell, she was born with a right arm that only goes down to the elbow and sparked controversy as she was made a presenter on Cbeebies. Parents complained that having someone on television with one arm 'would' scare their children and sparked up 'difficult conversations' about her disability. There were no real reports of children being scared by Miss Burnell it was only the shock by society that someone different was on screen.
I think exposure of disability, whilst also other areas of prejudice such as homosexuality and being transgender to children from a young age is important, not only so that children grow up to be more accepting - as these people will just be normal people to them- but also if a child does have a disability or does feel like they might be homosexual or transgender then they will grow up knowing that there is a word for it and that the world is full of people like them and will stop children growing up feeling confused and alienated.
Film is a good example of censorship, as with each film comes a rating from the British Board of Film Classification. Without the BBFC everyone would be able to watch whatever they wanted. This organisation then has the power to influence the type of films seen by each age group, and in turn what is deemed suitable for that age group. People feel more trusting towards these organisations as they believe they are put in place for their protection. I personally think that there should be warnings on films with violent content or strong language but people should be able to make that decision themselves if they want to watch it and if they do, its at their own risk.
The government and the large media corporations are the source of censorship. As these control the different mediums of media, they can therefore control their image to the public. An example of this would be the recent rave incident in Lambeth, South London. This was the story that when an illegal rave was reported to the police with over 5,000 attendees, the police initially responded with just 2 officers, 3 hours later 6 more officers came to the scene, then when the 'ravers' became out of control further police officers were called. This was interesting as despite the event happening on Saturday 31st October, the full story didn't reach the BBC news show until Monday 2nd October. This is because after a few days the story has lost its sensationalism, and therefore makes less of an impact in the media. This story was postponed because it shows the state in a negative light.
China and places such as North Korea are examples of governments which heavily the content the people of their country has access to. This includes the news, so the government is never criticised
and also certain social media platforms such as YouTube are banned so that the public are limited to their exposure of other countries governments, in order to keep the people under control.
In contrast sometimes the media can use censorship in a negative way which can alienate certain groups of people. Again with children's television, for many years it was unlikely to see anyone who had a disability, or was transgender, or was any example against was society would deem as 'normal'. This was because parents believed that children's exposure to all these different people would scare them when in reality constant exposure would make the child more accepting of other types of people.
 |
| Cerrie Burnell |
A perfect example of this would be Cerrie Burnell, she was born with a right arm that only goes down to the elbow and sparked controversy as she was made a presenter on Cbeebies. Parents complained that having someone on television with one arm 'would' scare their children and sparked up 'difficult conversations' about her disability. There were no real reports of children being scared by Miss Burnell it was only the shock by society that someone different was on screen.
I think exposure of disability, whilst also other areas of prejudice such as homosexuality and being transgender to children from a young age is important, not only so that children grow up to be more accepting - as these people will just be normal people to them- but also if a child does have a disability or does feel like they might be homosexual or transgender then they will grow up knowing that there is a word for it and that the world is full of people like them and will stop children growing up feeling confused and alienated.
Film is a good example of censorship, as with each film comes a rating from the British Board of Film Classification. Without the BBFC everyone would be able to watch whatever they wanted. This organisation then has the power to influence the type of films seen by each age group, and in turn what is deemed suitable for that age group. People feel more trusting towards these organisations as they believe they are put in place for their protection. I personally think that there should be warnings on films with violent content or strong language but people should be able to make that decision themselves if they want to watch it and if they do, its at their own risk.
The government and the large media corporations are the source of censorship. As these control the different mediums of media, they can therefore control their image to the public. An example of this would be the recent rave incident in Lambeth, South London. This was the story that when an illegal rave was reported to the police with over 5,000 attendees, the police initially responded with just 2 officers, 3 hours later 6 more officers came to the scene, then when the 'ravers' became out of control further police officers were called. This was interesting as despite the event happening on Saturday 31st October, the full story didn't reach the BBC news show until Monday 2nd October. This is because after a few days the story has lost its sensationalism, and therefore makes less of an impact in the media. This story was postponed because it shows the state in a negative light.
China and places such as North Korea are examples of governments which heavily the content the people of their country has access to. This includes the news, so the government is never criticised
and also certain social media platforms such as YouTube are banned so that the public are limited to their exposure of other countries governments, in order to keep the people under control.
As briefly aforementioned, another aspect of the media which is censored is the news. In the same idea that censorship can be used to prevent negative imagery, the news can be an example of when the content is censored to put a certain message across. Some evidence of this would be news stories about the war in Afghanistan about the soldiers who were killed in battle. The perspective of these stories are very biased. Although the death of British soldiers is very tragic, the news always seems to miss out the death and destruction that Britain caused from fighting in these countries, and the many instances of rape and abuse that are again caused by soldiers who are fighting on 'our side'- however because these stories reflect badly on Britain and the government so they are subsequently censored out of the news we see and heard.
I personally believe that the news has the duty of being neutral and should deliver stories that are true on both sides, even if that means critiquing the government as otherwise it lures the public into a false sense of security and also a sense of power that everything in our country is fine when in reality there are most likely issues happening that effect the public negatively but are allowed to continue as people aren't told they are happening.
To conclude, censorship happens every day in every aspect of media that we use in our daily lives and had it's positive and negative aspects, as in some areas it is used for the public's benefit but in others it is used as a tool of control. I think that as technology increases, so will censorship. The more distant the public becomes from the facts and reality of national and global affairs, the more power the state gets- which could be dangerous.
I personally believe that the news has the duty of being neutral and should deliver stories that are true on both sides, even if that means critiquing the government as otherwise it lures the public into a false sense of security and also a sense of power that everything in our country is fine when in reality there are most likely issues happening that effect the public negatively but are allowed to continue as people aren't told they are happening.
To conclude, censorship happens every day in every aspect of media that we use in our daily lives and had it's positive and negative aspects, as in some areas it is used for the public's benefit but in others it is used as a tool of control. I think that as technology increases, so will censorship. The more distant the public becomes from the facts and reality of national and global affairs, the more power the state gets- which could be dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment