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Leon Ellison
Graduation Project Research Paper
5 May 2017
Censorship in Mass Media

Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance quoted by Laurie Halse

Anderson, an American writer best known for children's and young adult novels. Living in the

States help one realize just how tightly controlled the corporate media is and how much they

practice Soviet-style censorship through creative omission. The United States is supposed to be

about freedom but the government continues to push for more censorship, including media

censorship. Mass media censorship impacts all Americans for this gives the government more

control over the lives of Americans. How is this country supposed to be different if the U.S. is

acting like the ones they used to fight? Even though some people believe violence in the media

has a detrimental effect on children's behaviors, feelings, and attitudes, censorship should

not be allowed because censorship is a violation of the first amendment, there is no link

between media violence and societal violence, and censorship prevents people from gaining

access to knowledge.

Some people think that censorship should be allowed and other people think that it

violates their rights. In things like TV shows and commercials when someone say or does

something that is not liked what happened, it gets censored, something that i have seen happen

on a TV show when someone swears or things like that they censor it or at worst cancel the

show. Censorship is the suppression of free speech, public communication or other information

which may be considered, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by governments,

media outlets, authorities or other groups. Censor means to an official who examines material

that is about to be released, such as books, movies, news, and art, and suppresses any parts that
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are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security as defined in the

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. William Neilsons article, The Theory of Censorship

asserts that the question of literary and dramatic censorship is not at the moment merely an

annoying perplexity in the life of a single city, but is an issue which concerns the whole country.

Censorship is a violation of our first amendment, because by censoring something you

are taking away that voice, or their expression what they were trying to let out. Many of these

people also believe that violent content should be censored because it desensitizes the viewer to

violence. Violent content does not desensitize viewers because Desensitization, refers to

decreased emotional response. So you may remember the first time you got behind the wheel of

a car, you might have felt nervous, anxious, even afraid you might hit someone trying to cross

the road. But after repeated practice, you got used to driving, maybe even finding it boring.

Granted you may still be terrible as a driver, but now that only scares other people. Thats

basically desensitization. Its normal but this does not mean you never get scared violent content

does not desensitize viewers. Brandon Gailles article, 32 Amazing Internet Censorship Statistics

asserts that 1.72 billion. Thats the number of people that are affected by internet censorship on

any given day and the #1 reason why websites are asked to be blocked or removed is actually

because of defamation. Privacy and security is the second most popular reason.Cerobins article

Censorship Statistics - Infogram, Charts & Infographics asserts that researchers interviewed

parents about their children's viewing habits at 30 to 33 months and then again at 5 years, < 2

or more hours of TV led to behavioral problems at age 5 > 2 hours of TV noticed no difference in

behavior.

Surely if violent things were causing violence than there would be a lot more violence.

People are getting less worried about violence in media like video games. For example, YouGov
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article Gamers Less Worried about Violence in Video Games asserts that Overall, 61% of

Britons with an opinion on the matter believe games cause aggression, while about 56% think

they provide a cathartic outlet for frustrations. People used to be more careful with violent video

games, movies, etc but not anymore they let children see things they shouldn't at such a young

age like horror movies. John Bingham article Study Finds No Evidence Violent Video Games

Make Children Aggressive Researchers interviewed just over 200 children aged 10 and 11 about

their playing habits including how long they spent each day and what types of game they

preferred. Meanwhile their teachers were asked to assess the childrens academic engagement,

behavior and ability to deal with problems. Two thirds of the children said they played video

games every day although boys were almost twice as likely as girls to do so. Around one in 10

said they played more than three hours a day, again a group dominated by boys.

Overall those who played for less than an hour a day were less likely to have problems

such as aggression than those who did not play at all. But those who spend more than three hours

a day displayed higher levels of aggression and were less academically engaged. Taken

together, this suggests that quantity may play a larger role than the quality of games played a

counter intuitive finding for many focused on the violent contents of some gaming contexts, the

paper concludes. It adds: These findings do not support the idea that regular violent game play

is linked to real world violence or conflict. Violence in the media is alright but too much of it

can have a bad side effects so its ok to see it just not too much for too long constantly. Children

with 3 hours or less are less likely to show violence or none at all than children with 3 or more

hours. Just because results show this. Even though some people believe violence in the media

has a detrimental effect on children's behaviors, feelings, and attitudes, censorship should not be

allowed because censorship is a violation of the first amendment, there is no link between media
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violence and societal violence, and censorship prevents people from gaining access to

knowledge. This is because it is the person that causes the violence not the media it is ultimately

up to them to decide if they do something violent. Censorship in the media would not affect the

violent displayed in children there will still be violence.

Violence in the media should not be censored because it would impede us from knowing

what's going on and understanding it. Censoring whats going on would make it a little harder to

get information like news, especially if it has violence in it, and there is also other forms of

media like movies, games, etc. Some people would not watch media because there would be

incomplete transmission of information. There is always violence going on and if the media were

censored we not hear about wars, crimes, car wrecks, etc... Violence in the media should not be

censored because if it was it would impede us from knowing what's going on and understanding

it. FBI article "Latest Crime Statistics Released" asserts that There were an estimated 1,197,704

violent crimes committed around the nation. While that was an increase from 2014 figures, the

2015 violent crime total was 0.7 percent lower than the 2011 level and 16.5 percent below the

2006 level. Among some of the other statistics contained in Crime in the United States, 2015, the

estimated number of murders in the nation was 15,696. During the year, there were an estimated

90,185 rapes. The statistics show that there are a lot of violence in the e new and if we don't

know about the violence that's going on like in the statistics it could end up happening to us, we

would be uneducated of our surroundings and lack of knowledge leads to powerlessness.

Just because someone sees violence doesn't mean that they will commit violence and

anyone who has gone to the movie theaters can testify to that as most movies now have violence

in them. When someone sees something violent whether it be news, movies , games , tv and

when they finish watching this does not mean that they are going to go and murder , rape , steal
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most people watching violence could be watching it for several reasons to be informed , to

alleviate boredom. There is no link between media violence and societal violence and if someone

sees violence does not mean that they are going to commit violence.

Even though some people believe violence in the media has a detrimental effect on children's

behaviors, feelings, and attitudes. Violence in the Medias article " American Psychological

Association asserts that As a result of 15 years of consistently disturbing findings about the

violent content of children's programs, the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on

Television and Social Behavior was formed in 1969 to assess the impact of violence on the

attitudes, values and behavior of viewers. The resulting report and a follow-up report in 1982 by

the National Institute of Mental Health identified these major effects of seeing violence on

television:

Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.

Children may be more fearful of the world around them.

Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.

Aacaps article "TV Violence and Children" asserts that American children watch an average of

four hours of television daily. Television can be a powerful influence in developing value

systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is

violent. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found

that children may:

become "immune" or numb to the horror of violence

begin to accept violence as a way to solve problems

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imitate the violence they observe on television; and

identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers

Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.

Sometimes, watching a single violent program can increase aggressiveness. Children who view

shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to

imitate what they see. Children with emotional, behavioral, learning or impulse control problems

may be more easily influenced by TV violence.

Violence in the media does not cause violence, censoring the media should not be

allowed because it would impede us from getting information on what's happening in the world

and a lot of entertainment has violence in it so those people would find themselves without their

type of entertainment. Some people say that violence in the media should censored because their

children will attempt to imitate what they see but that's not true most people have enough sense

to know not to do something and if they don't want something in their home then block it or get

it out of their house. Even though some people believe violence in the media has a

detrimental effect on children's behaviors, feelings, and attitudes, censorship should not be

allowed because censorship is a violation of the first amendment, there is no link between

media violence and societal violence, and censorship prevents people from gaining access to

knowledge. Violence in the media does not cause because if it did there would be a lot more

crime going on because just because someone goes to the movie theaters and see an action movie

that does not mean they are going to go and do it. Violent tendencies reside within the

personality, whether or not the person watches something depicting violence. A television

program, a movie, or a videogame does not turn someone into something different than what was
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already a part of their personality. Children should be watched for some of them don't know

reality from fantasy.

Works Cited
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Aacap. "TV Violence and Children." TV Violence and Children. Www.aacap.org, Dec. 2014. Web. 24

Apr. 2017.

Bailey, Ronald. "Kill Pixels, Not People." Reason, Feb, 2015, pp. 16, SIRS Issues Researcher

Bingham, John. "Study Finds No Evidence Violent Video Games Make Children Aggressive." The

Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 12 Mar. 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Caspari, Sarah. "Does Virtual Violence Provoke Real Rage? Yes and no." Christian Science Monitor, 18

Aug, 2015, SIRS Issues Researcher

"Censorship." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Cerobins. "Censorship Statistics - Infogram, Charts & Infographics." Infogr.am. Infogram, 2017. Web.

17 Apr. 2017.

Fbi. "Latest Crime Statistics Released." FBI. FBI, 26 Sept. 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.

Flanagan, Mary. "Don't Demonize Video Games for Violence." USA TODAY, 25 Jul, 2014, pp. A.6,

SIRS Issues Researcher.

Gaille, Brandon. "32 Amazing Internet Censorship Statistics." BrandonGaille.com. N.p., 10 Aug. 2015.

Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

Horn, John, and Steven Zeitchik. "A Rapid-Fire Surge in PG-13 Violence." Los Angeles Times, 12 Nov,

2013, pp. A.1, SIRS Issues Researcher.

Neilson, William Allan. "The Theory of Censorship." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 Jan.

1930. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

"No Link found between Movie, Video Game Violence and Societal Violence." NewsRx Health &

Science, 2014, pp. 111, SIRS Issues Researcher

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Sheehan, Amanda. "Violence Keeps Kids Out of the Picture." Advertiser (Adelaide), 07 Jun, 2014, pp.

72, SIRS Issues Researcher

"Violence in the Media." American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association,

n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

YouGov. "Gamers Less Worried about Violence in Video Games." YouGov: What the World Thinks.

N.p., 23 Sept. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.