Censorship- Miss Miller

Censorship is the supression of speech and public communication in a variety of different contexts such as books, music, films, the press, radio, television etc that may be considered to be harmful or sensitive. A variety of methods are used in channels such as mtg or aka in order to solve for this example: There has been a lot of controversy based around censorship within music videos and the music itself. We had a classroom debate and students within my class were playing the roles of the artists, fans, recording label, parents and radio stations. The debate was based on Eminem and the type of music he uses within his music videos and way he presents his music. This should allow me to understand all the opinions of the people that listen to offence music.

The law on censorship that Ofcom enforce is that they make sure people in the UK get the best from their communications services and are protected from scams and sharp practices, while ensuring that competition can thrive. There was a communications act that was introduced in 2003, the act says that Ofcom’s general duties should be to further the interests of citizens and of the consumers. Ofcom make sure that people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offence material. People are protected from being treated unfairly in television and radio programmes, and also from having their privacy invaded. However Ofcom do not deal with disputes between people and the telecom provider and they do not deal with the content of television or radio adverts.

In class we had a debate about Eminem, people within the class were representing different characters that were associated with the artist. The character that played Eminem explained how he had a hard life growing up in a caravan. Therefore the music should not be censored as it is about his life and he has overcome many things, so his song relate to his life experiences and people can learn from his mistakes. Both of the fans agreed that his music should be able to be played as it educates teenagers but he could do it with out being too explicit. The feel as if it should not be censored but there could be more done to make sure that he does not swear or talk about violence as much as he does. Eminem's record label supports him, as they are representing the artist. They said that he has sold many albums world wide therefore his music is respected, his album Marshall Mathers LP sold over 10 million copies, which shows how well he followed.  This therefore shows that his music should not be censored as people like what he doing with his music, which is evident from this amount of copies that his album sold.

The parents have mixed views about the artist as some are for and some are against. The parents that are for his music explain that it is down to the parents whether or not they allow their kids to listen to that type of music. It would also be up to the parents of the children to teach them right from wrong therefore they cannot say that the music has an effect on the children. It is how they have been brought up and what impact this has had on the child. Children can draw positives from his music as he has overcome many obstacles and he is where he today, which shows to the children that listen to it they can reach any goal that they set or themselves. However, the parents that are against his music explain that the explicit language and music that he has often offends young children therefore it should be censored. Also they parents explain that his attitudes may be adapted by children and they may look up to him as a role mode. They may follow his attitude of not really caring about society.

The radio station kiss 100 agree and disagree with his music. They agree with the language that he use but they don’t agree with the lyrics that explain about him killing people. They feel as if ration stations censor things that do not need to be censored. MTV support the censorship as they don’t want to offend any of, their large audiences and lose viewers. They don’t want complaints from audiences, as they are the biggest music channel in the world. The radio station AKA want to represent the true artist and what they represent therefore they disagree with censorship. Radio stations are channels that are often played in public places because of their reliability to play censored material. Many radio stations agree with censorship as they believe it protects children from harmful content, it also ensures that listeners will enjoy listening to the radio as uncensored material can often make a listener very uncomfortable depending on the amount of swear words and inappropriate references there are in a song. Censorship also allows far more artists to be played on the channel opening up to different genres and encouraging an even wider range of listeners to the radio station.

I think that artists should not be censored as they educate people on their experiences and they help people not to make the same mistakes they did, it also their expression of music and by censoring their music you are censoring the artists meaning behind their lyrics. However, I think that they can still educate people but they can do it without being to explicit as children listen to the music and they may adopt the views of the artist. For example if a artist talks about rape or mugging then the child may adopt this if they are not educated by their teachers, parents or music. In conclusion. the artists are telling the story behind the song through the music video, therefore i feel as if they should be shown to some extent. Finally, if some music videos do show violence or drug use then these music videos show be shown at a later time, so children will be asleep and therefore they are protecting them but still showing the music video after a certain time. 

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