Censorship & Media
Issues and Effects
1st Amendment to the United States Constitution:
RAPPS!!!!!
• Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of
grievances.
Censorship Definition
• Basically, censorship is simply the
act of removing or forbidding
anything that a controlling body
deems to be offensive or
objectionable in some way.
• However, censorship can
eventually lead to “outlawed”
• *Most people believe in the right to free speech, but debate
whether it should cover flag-burning, hard-core rap and
heavy-metal lyrics, tobacco advertising, hate speech,
pornography, nude dancing, solicitation and various forms
of symbolic speech. Many would agree to limiting some
forms of free expression.
• *Freedom of speech doesn’t give blanket protection to
some things—
• ·
Yelling fire in a theater
• ·
Airing pornography on network tv or obscene
material
• ·
Harassing people
Is censorship ever “good?”
• Censorship:
• ·
Can be used to protect people/interests in
matters of national security/inappropriate
material for children
• ·
However, it can also be used as a means of
suppression/agenda setting
• ·
Some artists feel that it is an infringement
upon their rights
• ·
It removes freedom of choice in some
cases
FREE SPEECH
• *Free speech can be
interpreted to mean symbolic
speech or expression.
• 1 minute stretch break!
• Go, go, go!
• Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch!!
Intellectual Freedom
• “Intellectual Freedom is the right of every
individual to both seek and receive
information from all points of view without
restriction. It provides for free access to
all expressions of ideas through which
any and all sides of a question, cause or
movement may be explored. Intellectual
freedom encompasses the freedom to
hold, receive and disseminate ideas.”-ALA
Intellectual Freedom
• "If there is a bedrock principle
underlying the First Amendment, it is
that the Government may not prohibit
the expression of an idea simply because
society finds the idea itself offensive or
disagreeable."--Supreme Court Justice
William Brennan
• *Boundaries of acceptance change with
culture—Elvis, cursing, etc.
• Elvis on Ed Sullivan—1957—to avoid
seeing his gyrating pelvis, Sullivan
ordered the cameras to shoot him only
from the waist up
• Double beds in married couples rooms
• Acceptance of curse words on Friends
• NYPD’s use of language and nudity
Obscenity
• ·
Miller Test (Supreme Court 1973):
• Before sexual material can be judged
obscene and therefore unprotected by the
First Amendment, a judge or jury must
determine: 1. that the average person,
applying contemporary community
standards, would find that the work,
taken as a whole, appeals to prurient
interest; 2. that the work depicts or
describes, in a patently offensive way,
sexual conduct specifically defined by the
applicable law; and 3. that the work,
taken as a whole, lacks serious literary,
artistic, political, and scientific value.
• PIPO AND SLAPV!!!!!!!
Obscenity
• “ Obscene material is material which deals with
sex in a manner appealing to prurient interest..” –
Justice Brennan.
• The Court defined material appealing to prurient
interest as ''material having a tendency to excite
lustful thoughts,'' and defined prurient interest as
''a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or
excretion.''
• So THAT’s what prurient interest means!
• FCC—Federal Communications
Commission; government agency
responsible for overseeing content
of network radio/TV programming
• Janet Jackson Superbowl "wardrobe
malfunction" aired on CBS. MTV produced the
show. Both MTV and CBS are owned by media
conglomerate Viacom. The maximum fine that
could be levied by the FCC at the time was
$27,500. Congress passed special legislation (The
Broadcast Decency Act) and raised the fine to
$550,000.
Did you know that fines for indecent
programming exceeded $7.7 million in 2004? The
total was only $48,000 in 2000.
Indecent material--cannot be shown between 6
am & 10 pm on network television.
Obscene material cannot be broadcast at any time
(networks only).
• ·Profanity-- a word choice
or usage which many
consider to be offensive.
Profanity &^%a*!!
• Profanity-- The original meaning
of the term was restricted to
blasphemy, sacrilege or taking
God's name in vain (profane
speech, or swear word), especially
expressions such as "God d**n it",
"go to Hell", and "d**n you".
Profanity &^%a*!!
• However, the meaning has been extended to
include scatological, sexist, homophobic,
racist, or sexual terms.
• The FCC has ruled that profane language
could not be broadcast "at times of day
when there is a reasonable risk that children
may be in the audience."
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What are the five main freedoms for
which the 1st amendment provides? Hint:
RAPPS!
• What are the three conditions of the Miller
Obscenity Test? Hint: POPI & SLAPV!
Did you know?
• *Prayer is allowed in school with some
restrictions.
*The American Civil Liberties Union was
created to assist people who feel their civil
rights have been violated.
*Banned Books Week is recognized during
September.
*Smith Act of 1940--also known as the Alien
Registration Act
*McCarran Act of 1950 was used by Senator
JoeMcCarthy to "weed out" communists.
Banned Books
• Distribution of the Bible is banned in Saudi
Arabia.
• The Bible was banned for a long time in the
Soviet Union.
• Harry Potter series
• Where’s Waldo?
• The Outsiders
• Goosebumps series
Banned Books
• The Savannah Morning News reported in
November 1999 that a teacher at the
Windsor Forest High School required
seniors to obtain permission slips before
they could read Hamlet, Macbeth or King
Lear. The teacher's school board had pulled
the books from class reading lists, citing
"adult language" and references to sex and
violence.
Most Frequently Banned Books
• Bridge to Terabithia
• The Catcher in the Rye
• How to Eat Fried Worms
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Lord of the Flies
• Of Mice and Men
• Harriet the Spy
Reasons Given:
• "garbage being passed off as literature"
• "glorified Satan”
• “encourages children to disobey”
• "if there is a possibility something might be
controversial, then why not eliminate it"
Reasons Given:
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings-Objections center on the description of a
rape she suffered as a child.
• Bridge to Terabithia--"profanity, disrespect
of adults, and an elaborate fantasy world
that might lead to confusion."
• Catcher in the Rye--It has been challenged
for graphic language since its publication.
Fall 2006 Banned Books:
1. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, by Harper Lee
2. GEOGRAPHY CLUB, by Brent Hartinger
3. THE GIVER, by Lois Lowry
4. THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO, by Helen
Bannerman, Christopher H. Bing (Illus.)
5. THE BLUEST EYE, by Toni Morrison
6. BRAVE NEW WORLD, by Aldous Huxley
7. FOREVER, by Judy Blume
8. HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE, by
J.K. Rowling
2006 Banned Books Con’t:
9. WE, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
10. WHALE TALK, by Chris Crutcher
If you’d like to know what these books are about, visit:
http://news.bookweb.org/booksense/4639.html
Banned Films
• The Great Dictator--banned in Hitler’s
Germany
• Ben-Hur--banned in China for "propaganda
of superstitious beliefs, namely
Christianity."
• Matrix Reloaded--banned in Egypt
Clear Channel’s List of Post 9-11
No-No’s
• U2 "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
• Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls Of Fire"
• Drowning Pool "Bodies"
• Louis Armstrong: "What A Wonderful World"
• Rage Against The Machine: every single song
• Martha & the Vandellas: "Dancing In The Streets"
• Led Zeppelin "Stairway To Heaven"
Banned Songs--50’s & 60’s
• Dean Martin--Wham Bam, Thank You,
Ma’am
• Rosemary Clooney--Mambo Italiano
• The Kingsmen--Louie, Louie (attempted)
• TRS--Satisfaction
• Van Morrison--Brown-Eyed Girl
Banned Songs--70’s & 80’s
•
•
•
•
Loretta Lynn--The Pill
John Denver--Rocky Mountain High
George Michael--I Want Your Sex
Olivia Newton-John--Physical
Banned Songs--90’s & 2000’s
• 2 Live Crew—Nasty As They Wanna Be
album
• Ice Cube--Death Certificate
• Madonna--Justify My Love
• Ice T--Cop Killer
• Eminem--My Name Is
• Eminem--The Real Slim Shady
Food for Thought
• Police officers in Northwood, Ohio, order
14-year-old Daniel Shellhammer to remove
his shirt, which features slogans for the rap
group Insane Clown Posse. The officers
inform Shellhammer that Insane Clown
Posse clothing is "banned" in Ohio and that
they tear the shirt off his back and arrest
him if he does not comply.
Food for Thought
• A federal court ruled that a student is not
permitted to wear an Insane Clown Posse tshirt to school, saying it is disruptive. The
school principal says the t-shirt is not the
issue, but the philosophies the band
represents.
Food for Thought
• A private school in San Antonio, Texas,
suspends four students for attending a
Backstreet Boys concert in March. The
students are suspended for one day for
violating a school policy forbidding
"involvement in inappropriate music [or]
dancing."
Food for Thought
• MTV pulls the video for Madonna’s “What
It Feels Like for a Girl” because of the
video’s depiction of violence.
• MTV decides to air the popular tune
“Because I Got High”—but only in certain
day parts because of its drug theme. The
network says it will not air the video during
its popular teen show, “Total Request Live.”
Food for Thought
• Administrators at schools in Bethesda,
Maryland, and Los Angeles, California
move to ban “freak dancing” at school
functions, which they consider disruptive
and vulgar.
Questions to Ponder
• What role does censorship play in our
society?
• How does censorship affect the individual?
• Have entertainment media crossed the line
into obscenity/harm to children?
• What are your personal views on
censorship?
• What would you fight for/against?
• 1 minute stretch break!
• Go, go, go!
• Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch!!