Censorship On Television Essay, Research Paper

Television, radio, and now even computers are growing as quickly as anyone can imagine. As these media sources expand there is a continued need for censorship. In this day and age television, being the least censored of the masses, should have certain simple and specific regulations set upon it. Television programs should be censored based on content, the time slot it will be showing, and the audience that will be viewing it.

The first part of television that should be edited out or changed is content. For the most part television has been lenient on it censorship of things such as, violent crimes, cussing, and the use of illegal substances. Violent crimes make up a considerable amount of television programing. Crimes such as murder and rape should be banned from public television completely. Along with violent crimes there is often use of illegal substances and weapons. This gives children the idea that it is ok to use these unlawful items; they also start to think that since this activity is being shown on television it must be what everyone is doing; children, especially younger children, like to fit in by doing the same things that everyone does. The use of strong language may also be offensive to many people. The use of these words should be cut out almost entirely, or they should be regulated according to the time slot that they are running in.

Time slot that a television program is showing in should also be taken into consideration. Depending on the time of day determines the age of the audience that is watching. Television can be broken into four time slots morning, day, evening and late night. Morning television programs should be regulated for smaller children. Since mostly children and a few adults are watching at this time, quality children’s shows, cartoons and some news should be shown during this time. During the day period shows should be geared toward adults and preschool aged children. Television programs such as soap operas, game shows and cartoons should be available for viewing. The evening time slot should be more for family viewing; the majority of the shows should be comedies or mild dramas. Finally the late night programing should be more adult oriented, but only to a certain extent. Shows during this time period should be appealing to the middle aged adult, most of whom are unemployed. The television programs should always be directed toward the audience that is watching them.

There is a wide variety of people in the world; many of those watch television every day. Children are the most impressionable of all of the audience; they take what they see and hear and put it to use in their every day life. Teenagers also take what they see and put it to use in there life. They sometimes see something that looks cool and they want to try it; they either try something daring, or something stupid. This puts other people and themselves in danger. Adults are the most sensible of all of the viewing audience. When they see someone acting out a situation on television they take it as someone acting, all fiction. Elderly, the last of the group, are more uneducated on the modern way of doing things they were not brought up with television; therefore, they don t understand everything that is going on in the programing.

Audiences around the globe are all tuning in every day to watch their favorite television programs and personalities. Children, teens, adults and elderly all in front of their television sets waiting on a bit of entertainment. Television should be taken as pure entertainment, not to see how much the viewers will take. The audiences have no control over what is broadcast; this should be changed so that the viewers can control what goes into the homes of millions of people everyday. It should change in not only on television, but on media in general.