Controlling our New Media

In today's society media is all around us. Whether we are watching TV, listening to the radio, picking up a newspaper or even surfing the Internet, media is becoming an integral if not already part in our daily lives. Although this can be extremely beneficial, helpful and efficient; it can also create headaches for parents and other reserved individuals. Some people find things they see in the media to be offensive, crude, or just inappropriate to either themselves or others they care about. A parent most likely isn't going to want to let their 8 year old see a nude picture or a devastating car crash video on the Internet if they can help it. This only makes sense, which is why things such as community standards and control systems have been brought up. The development of regulatory regimes some websites and agencies have created have both a legitimate and effective role in some of today's controversial and sensitive stories and context. This gives power to these agencies such as itunes and YouTube to be able to control what they let out to the public. It's up to their terms and conditions on what/who they allow to see certain material on their site. It's up to them to what they feel is appropriate and "viewer friendly" to their said audience. Old school classic regulation isn't going to cut it anymore; real regulations and control need to be enacted to limit what is and isn't considered "censor able" material. It's a tough job to fill, especially when responsibilities and standards are set so high today. In order to earn the trust of people such as parents, sites need to prove to their audience that they offer a safe, productive place to offer their goods. In YouTube's case for example, they have a designated page just to informing and teaching parents how to watch for what their children are watching on their site and what rules they have for membership into their site. Without this knowledge, their wouldn't really be a reason to censor any of their material and then the out pour of concern and most likely anguish of what their releasing to the public would be tremendous!

Is Censorship Invisible or does it create Invisibilty?

This source sums up many peoples fear of censorship. This feeling originates from the idea that censoring something can completly hide what the creators intent was for their piece. In this picture you see nothing but a black screen. This is designed to make one think; what was orignially in the box, was there ever anything in the box? This is one of the problems and unpredicibilty censoring something brings. Once material is censored, there's no telling how the viewer is going to interpret or not be able to interpert it. The way this picture was censored, there is no way to tell what was originally displayed. Material is censored for many different reasons, it's not just to hide crude vocabulary and flashy attire. Sometimes it can used to block out a certain idea or belief or even ones opinion on a specific matter. This is what makes censorship so controversial and such a large issue to explore. These "blackend" images are found quite heavily through sites such as YouTube and Google TV. This could be done to agree with the sites user agreements and terms or on the terms and disgretion of the publisher/creator.

Censorships Power of Persuasion

This picture shows us exactly how powerful censorship can be when it comes to completely changing the meaning of something. In this case the word f*ckr is introduced. At quick glance and to the common eye many could see this as potentially a swear word. Adding to this all the children's eyes are covered like there not allowed to see "the mystery word". The mystery word is meant to say flickr, which is a program on yahoo that basically is like a search engine for pictures. The point of this picture is meant to show us how hiding or blocking something can completely change both the meaning and the interpretation someone makes of what their seeing. All this picture is blocking is the brand name "flickr" when it's obvious how people could easily mistake this word for something much worse. Therefore, this shows us that just because you censor something, it doesn't mean that your doing the viewer a favor. You could potentially be hiding something that the viewer does not need protection from in the first place and make them believe their watching something worse than what they really are and end up having a negative feeling towards it as a result; a feeling that might not be there if the material wasn't censored in the first place.

Censoring the Music Industry

This article suggests the use of ratings as a form of censorship. Although the dealings are not specifically geared towards online video streaming, they still focus on websites online, especially those that deal with music videos. Therefore it’s extremely close to instant streaming. The article warns the reader that there should be ratings on certain music and music videos. This is on the basis of words used in the songs, clothing the singers are wearing, and the manner to which they are performing. This is an important idea to be brought up because the same idea can be thought of in terms of video streaming. Should there be mandatory things that should automatically be censored? We will address this along with what this article says about their feelings on mandatory censorship on particular types of videos. This article will be extremely helpful to us on the fact that we can better understand the feelings behind why certain things have a basis to being censored and for what age groups.


http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/calls-to-tighten-online-content-20110730-1i5dh.html

YouTube Limitations

We chose to research YouTube as one of today's instant media streaming sources. On the company website there is a "Policies and Safety" page giving us an idea of how they may censor users from accessing certain content. There is a minimum age requirement of 13 in order to create a YouTube account. Certain videos with "mature" or "inappropriate" content can only be viewed if the user logs in to the website with their account to prove their age. This is one of the few ways to prevent young Americans from viewing videos that we see as inappropriate. Is this something that should remain in existence or is it a parent's responsibility to monitor what their children are viewing?
Other countries in recent history have acted differently than the United States. On a larger scale we can see that YouTube altogether or specific videos were blocked at certain time periods according to the map on this site. http://opennet.net/youtube-censored-a-recent-history

In Turkey for example, YouTube was blocked due to videos that were insulting Mustafa Ataturk and "Turkishness" and has been permanently banned since January 2009. Similar instances have occured in Pakistan, China, and Tunisia.

"Censorship Causes Blindness."

We believe this picture represents all forms of censorship, from the general late-night Television to modern day YouTube clips. The picture shows the phrase “censorship causes blindness” as the words get smaller, proving that today there is so much censorship that goes into the editing process of all media types. It is then hard to determine of what we are hearing or watching is 100% accurate, such as news channels or some biased stations. Censorship is the cause of "blindness" in the fact that when we also view a web page, video clip, etc. we are not necessarily seeing the actual information that was intended to be shown on the page. We do not see the "real thing" which is what we want, and then make biased opinions based on false information. An example of this online newspapers where certain ones are biased toward being liberal or conservative. Information is presented, but with the intent the sway the reader's opinion on the subject. This in and of itself is a form of censorship.

Why Study Censorship?

We chose to research censorship in today's media because the world has many new forms of online streaming that did not exist a few decades ago. There are different forms of media providers such as iTunes, YouTube, Hulu, Google TV and many more. Our blog is not even being censored or limiting what we are telling you on the web! Our investigation has provided us with information of exactly how these programs limit user access or what users can view or purchase. We also thought it was worth while to compare today's forms of censorship to how this was done a little while back with late-night television. We found ourselves questioning censorship and whether it is effective on a large scale as it intends to be.

In the past, the most known form of censorship in the media involved cable television. Late night TV would and still does show mature rated shows, movies, live stand-up comedians, and much more. A warning or rating would be shown before the show started, informing adults who can then decide whether their children could watch it. This article below talks about the television rating system that developed in the 1990’s. There are two different sides; those who oppose it and those we like the new system. Some think that children are seeing too much sex and violence on TV and that the ratings are not doing anything to stop them from watching these shows that cause “violent adults”. This has developed much in recent history and has become a very complex and controversial topic.

“New TV Ratings: Censorship?” Weekly Reader Corporation: Current Events 97.2 (1997). Web. 4 Oct 2011.