Sunday, May 22, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The problems with censorship in the media
And the following controversies
Censorship is defined, as a way to control information and ideas in society and is motivated by many different organizations such as moral, political and religious groups.
I find that censorship has been abused in the past few years. People that want to limit free speech and don’t have a thick skin are using it.
Everything is at risk of censorship from movies, books; music even video games have been major targets of controversy. The problem with censoring is you have people wanting to remove parts of media because it offends them and only them. Best example is with Gone With The Wind where the only argument is with the quote “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”. The problem is not with subject matter or context it is just the fact that the film uses the word damn. Also, with the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in where the debate comes from the fact that is has the word “nigger”. A new revised version of Huckleberry Finn has been released changing the word “nigger” to “slave”. Nothing else has been changed except for that word. That change was made for no other reason than some teachers and school boards felt uncomfortable and didn’t want to offend people. However, the problem with this is if the word is removed the book looses an opportunity to educate students about the time the book was written.
Video games have had a long hard history of being targets of controversy. One example in Australia the game Left 4 Dead 2. The game is set in a zombie apocalypse and the players must fight through hordes of the undead to survive. The Australian ratings board doesn’t have the M rating so anything overly violent cannot be released. Left 4 Dead 2 did get an Australian release but the game was heavily censored. Why do videogames get such outrage from people when they feature violent subject matter? Mostly because they are not looked at with the same respect as books or movies they are more looked at as children’s toys lacking any real literary value. But that is a closed minded way to look at this growing new medium
In short censorship is different for everyone. Some people are ok with having offensive words bleeped out and others think that it is completely pointless but to each his own, do I think that all books, movies and video games should not be regulated because they are inherently all art? No some things are made just to be offensive or gratuitous. Not made with a message but just to shock or be risque for example Bum Fights, Disaster Movie or Human Centipede those films in my opinion where not made to educate or have a social statement or is some cases even to be entertaining. They are made just to be offensive or in some cases because the Directors are incompetent to me those have no artistic merit. But you can’t judge all forms of Media just on some bad eggs. Information in all forms should not be censored we should not try to hide the truth of humanities dark side. Long ago a wise man once said “To kill an idea was as much a sin as killing a man. Books are not dead things but do contain a potency of life in them to be as that sole was who progeny they are nay they do persevere as in a vile the purest ethicascy and extraction of that living intellect of who bread them. Unless wariness be use as good as kill a man as kill a good book, he who kills a man kills a reasonable creature gods image but he who destroys a book kills reason its self, kill the image of god if it where in the eye”
That my view of censorship in media
That’s me view on this topic
Final quote
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/1961-Free-Speech
60 minuets story
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/18/60minutes/main20044663.shtml
