Censorship Essay, Research Paper

Censorship Censorship is the supervision and control of the information andideas that are circulated among the people within a society( Censorship ). I believe that music, books, and the media should not becensored. In the first amendment, it states that it is a right to have freespeech. So if it is in the constitution, then why is everything censored. Throughout history there has been many cases of censorship. Every society has had customs, religious observances, dress, and sexualexpression that were regulated. In ancient times, in Athens, Greece, Socrates sacrificed his liferather than accept censorship of his teachings. In Rome only peoplewith an authority were allowed to speak freely. For example members of their senate were allowed to talk freely. If someone did speak orperhaps write what they were thinking they were killed. In one case a person was set on fire and the so called authority watched them die aslow painful death. Music has been and is still being censored. Let me give you anexample. I personally listen to the type of music known as gansta rapor just plain old rap. Some of the artists of this music industry are: Snoop Doggy Dog, Too Short, Master P, Bone Thugs -N- Harmony, Sean Puffy Combs, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Mobb Deep, NAS, the late TupacShakur a.k.a. Makaveli and Notorious B.I.G., and so many more. If Iwould go to the mall and I wanted to purchase one of these artist scompact disc, I would not be able to because of the black and whitesticker on it. The sticker has the following phrase written in big letters PARENTAL ADVISORY EXPLICIT LYRICS. Because of that sticker theperson at the sales counter is not allowed to sale it to me unless I havean I.D. stating that I am over seventeen years of age. If I am under the age ofseventeen then I would not be able to buy the CD. How do they determine what is to be censored and what isn t? I

own the Notorious B.I.G. s CD ,entitled Ready to Die, on this CD there is asong that is titled Me and My Bitch. That song is rarely played on the radio and when it is every time it is supposed to say bitch it is censored. The thing is, that there is a new song out that is on a variety of radiostations it is on top eight at eights and everything and it is not censoredand the name of this song is Bitch. Not once in this song is that wordcensored. That is not right to censor that word in one song and not inthe other, even though they shouldn t censor either of them. Books can also be censored. A novel I have recently read, TheCatcher in the Rye, had been censored. I read the uncensored renditionbecause it was the author s, Jerome David Salinger, original version. J.D. Salinger obviously used those swear words in his book for a purpose. Ihighly doubt that he just put them there for the heck of it. So if you censor it than it is not truly what the author wanted to express byusing the strong language. The media is also a victim of censorship. One specific aspect of themedia is the television. Regular television and cable is definitelycensored. If you have premium channels then you will be able to tellwhich one is censored and which one is not. If you subscribe topremium stations then you know that nothing is censored. On regularcable television there are certain things censored. The premiumchannels contain a lot more violence, stronger language, and moresexual situations that may contain nudity. As you can see practically everything is censored, but why is it? The ancient times will give the benefit of the doubt to and say they hadno pieces of legislation s that said that you weren t allowed to express yourself freely, as in the first amendment. Whoever censors things mostlikely never heard of or read the Bill of Rights to understand that wehave the freedom of speech. I still strongly believe that censorship iswrong.