censorship

Consider the merits and demerits of censorship and state your reasons why you think it is un/necessary.


Is there a need to control what is given to the public? Should there be a need to pass media through guidelines before handing it to the public? Is there really a need for censorship? Personally, I feel that censorship is needed at least to some extend.

Censorship is needed to protect the “innocent minds” in the public. As most sources, like the television, are free and open, they can be easily accessible to young minds, which are easily influence. For example, children who are exposed to too much violence might grow up to have a tendency to violence. Also, some content contain adult issues that children may not understand, having an immature mind watching it can cause misunderstanding with in the child. These children grow up thinking morally different from the norm. Thus, there is a need to control what is being shown when to protect the interests of these “innocent minds”.

Another merit of censorship is to protect the interests of certain groups and prevent conflicts. This mainly pertains to race and religion. As both are sensitive issues, it is important to handle them with care. Censorship maintains a certain level of respect due to each group, keeping them satisfied. Without this, it would be easy to hurl insults and cause dissatisfaction between groups. This can easily result in racial riots or riots cause because of religion. Thus, a merit of censorship is to maintain the delicate balance between racial or religious groups.

Censorship allows gives the government control, allowing them to control issues that are being brought to the people. This also concerns national security, as the government can remove anti-government material before they stir up feelings in the people. It protects the government from external threats against their government, benefiting the people indirectly as they would have a stable government.

However, censorship does have its demerits, censorship takes away the freedom people have, the freedom of speech and expression. It takes away from the people the right that they should have to express themselves. With censorship, their creativity and artistic minds get constrain, and they are no longer able to let their minds run freely. Censorship also takes away the freedom of information, as it removes information and put it under constrains. People are not able to gather information as they should be without censorship.

Censorship also allows for propaganda. This happen when a government censor all other articles and only allow articles that are for their government to pass. People are no longer able to read different views other then those that support their government. Many examples of this can be found in history, where censorship is use by the government to minimize resistance from the masses.

All in all, censorship does have its merits and demerits. It may be good to a certain line, but it’s a fine line and hard to balance. Still, it is important to some extend as it helps to give a certain control over the media and information. Freedom may seem like a good thing, but sometimes a little control is better. Still, over censorship is not a good thing either. Thus, I support balance of censorship and freedom.

the mass media

the way the media presents what is perceived over what is real?


After reading the article, it can be seen that the media can be used to change the perception of things. Adding different views to what is actually real.

With reference to the Iraq war, it is seen that the mass media was used as a tool. It was use as a tool to change the thinking of the people. A tool used to cover up hidden real reasons and cover up mistakes. The media was used when they wanted to give different impressions on the people, making them seem right no matter the real reason, and allowing the people to accept their reason for what they did.

This shows the power of the media. The power to affect the thinking of people, throwing to them different views that can shake their stand. The power of the media to inform the people would mean that the media have a choice on how much to inform the people, and how correct the information is. The media can choose a certain set of information and withheld the rest, or report half truths. In both cases the media can choose to create a certain view that they want to give the people, which largely depend on the purpose of the source. when the purpose is no longer to just simply inform people and combine with a hidden agenda, it would be misleading. But the real power is not in creating this misleading sources, it is in making the people believe in these misleading source or rather leading the masses into believing in this certain view. it is the power to reach out and change the people without them knowing that they are being change. without them knowing that what they are reading has this hidden agenda to change them.

But, how is this possible, it is possible because of the level of trust the people put into the media. Because the media is a unique source available, it is generally trusted by most of the public. To most people, if different mediums and different sources say the same thing, it is generally trusted. Most people do not question the reports of the media even though they don't actually see the happenings. There is this unspoken level of trust between the media and the masses and this is what is played on.

Another possible reason is the availability of the media. The media is widely available and a large part of our lives. This wide coverage makes it able to reach masses and thus wield so much power, power in the form of being able to affect masses. Another effect of availability is that repeatedly telling people things affect them. For example, a man reads about a certain piece of news in the newspaper, and does not believe. But, the news is reported the everyday for 2 weeks. By then, he might have started to believe or at least believe it is possible. It is this repeated effect that the media can use, knowing that the media is available to the people everyday.

The power the media holds is real. But, knowing this, can we really protect ourselves from it? Are we going to question the credibility of every source, or if there more to it? how do we find out if there is? It would be difficult and there is no way that we can be totally unaffected, but we have to be more careful and more aware of what we are getting out of the media.