Monday, December 8, 2008

I ended up changing my topic and decided to focus on censorship vs freedom of speech, press, expression, etc.... Here's a rough outline of where im headed. Let me know if it flows well or if it feels like there's too much jumping around topics. Thanks for reading!

Government censorship is a necessity in keeping a safe and stable society, but censorship yields the possibility of becoming a threat to society. The laws which governments set for censorship in society can cross the line and begin to suppress basic freedoms such as freedom speech, of press, and of expression. The United States and its censorship agencies such as The Federal Commissions Agency (FCC), and Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) do a good job in censoring media in a way that allows people to express themselves, but also ensures that content is suitable for society. What content is and isn’t suitable for society? Censorship differs from government to government and from society to society. Most European countries and its citizens are accepting of nudity on television commercials, but most U.S citizens would be appalled at the sight. I will touch on several thoughts in regards to censorship and the difference between censoring content and suppressing basic human rights and freedoms. My analysis of censoring, in general, will come from collected history, studies from scholarly articles, and from collected thoughts and quotes regarding peoples’ experience with censorship.
The FCC has taken several questionable measures throughout history to insure that censorship within the Medias remains in conduct and to their standards of what is considered acceptable content. (Include example of Supreme Court rejecting a ban of certain malicious words on Fox) The FCC is run by the government, but various parts of the government, such as the Supreme Court, question whether the FCC’s censorship is within constitutional law. (State another example of an FCC questionable ban) The ESRB focuses on censoring and rating entertainment software, specifically and almost exclusively focusing on gaming. Their rules and regulations for rating software are based on several scaling procedures which focus on inappropriate content such as violence, drug use, sexuality, and profanity. Many argue that the ESRB can go too far at times with its censorship of violence, sexual themes, and profanity in gaming software. (Go on to give examples and quotes from articles)
Censorship throughout the internet has always been an issue around the world. In the U.S. people challenge the censorship of racist comments through opinionated blogs and articles because censoring such opinions can be considered unconstitutional.( include example of censoring racism from article-include argument against the censorship) Chinese citizens can’t go as far as searching for democracy related content or anything relating to the Dali Lama because it is against Chinese law to do so.

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