Today in class we discussed the issue of how common censorship is in the world around us, and how unaware people are of the history that is being erased right before their eyes.
Most of this censorship is issued by the government (FCC). Radio is very censored because in many situations, parents don't have control over what their child listens to because the radio is so easily accessible. If radio stations are blasted for having vulgar dialogue, then they lose listeners...causing the station to lose advertiseres, which can only result in one thing...failure. The only way to keep the station going would be to keep it clean and acceptable for all ages (an ex. of censorship for big money). For example, Howard Stern, who had so many issues with the FCC on public radio that his only outlet was Sirus Satellite Radio (TM). Eminem's hit, "The Real Slim Shady" was prohibited from various radio stations because of the song's crude content.
Censorship isn't just in the media,it's also in history...or what we are told to believe history is. The Chinese government is a huge offender of censorship. The Chinese gov't is making a dyre effort to whitewash their history...with the assistance of such powerful search engines as Google (TM). For example, if you google "Tiananmen Square" in China, nothing pops up. If you google the same thing in the U.S., loads of information on the subject pops up. I find it strange that Google (TM), with all it's power, is not even reaching its full potential throughout the world.
Censorship is even at our school. Take the mass blocking of gaming websites, YouTube, etc. No matter whether you see it or not, censorship surrounds everyone because the world is forever under the influence of giants.
3 comments:
Lindsey,
This is an interesting discussion,
and I like the examples you provide here. That Google put up no fuss whatsoever in China is part of the story. They were in a position of real power -- since China wanted to share in the "information superhighway," yet they relented and chose money over truth.
Since we're trying to think critically about everything: Your first paragraph shifts pronouns from "we" to "they." Why?
Last: we're about to explore this issue even more fully. When, if ever, is it okay to limit speech?
Linz, this is a really interesting point. I think it goes hand in hand with the torture blog I posted about where to draw the line. I feel that they both deal a lot with personal opinions, that it's impossible to say all things either one way or the other. There are so many exceptions and situations that are difficult to classify as free speech, censored, etc (as you mentioned, with so many great examples!)
Your blog made me think of the book (I believe this is the title), "1984", where "Big Brother is watching." and it follows this idea of someone always looking over you, or as you said "giants."
This entry, reminded me of our project we are currently doing in class of civil liberties in different war eras. My era is Vietnam War, and I was reading about the TRUTH about Kent State. At Kent State Unversity, students were protesting against the war because of the "incursion into Cambodia." The mayor of the school ended up calling the National Guard to come control the protester; however, a simple act to protect the students from violence ended up killing 2 and wounding 12. After the Guardsmen shot and fired at the students and threw teargas. Ironically afterwards was the real trajedy, when reports had bared facts and most Americans thought that the kids "asked for it". In AMERICA, where we are suppose to have freedom of press, you would think they would tell all the facts and not whitewash the issue. This should have been covered completely but even everyday in iraq, we most ask ourselves, are we getting all the facts? i'd answer, NO.
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