Public Opinion on Television Censorship

Elizabeth Padilla

Public opinion is what citizens feel about a certain issue or question.

As

you know the issue is television censorship. Who has the right to

censor what

we watch? What should be censored? and what determines "censorship"

criteria?

Censorship can be an official or unofficial way to limit access of

people to

certain ideas. Government uses this to control the flow of ideas. What

some

people think should be censored is anything that contains violence,

sexual

activity, and obscene language. Many feminist are pro-censorship. They

believe that pornography is insulting to women. Conservatives want to

protect

the public from harmful influences, so they would be pro-censorship

also,

Liberals want to benefit the whole society.

Television is often used as an educational tool. Censoring it would

therefore limit what can be learned. Although what can be learned is

violent,

some of this violence has desensitized viewers. What society considers

acceptable, in this present time, is completely different from what was

acceptable 20 or 30 years ago. Violence, and obscene language have

become

more of a norm in society. Now people prefer to watch a violent

television

show as opposed to a fairytale type of program.

Who is it that wants censorship? Some parents complain about the

programming

on television. These parents expect broadcasters or the government to

do

something about it. But how about the people who don't mind this

programming?

A solution that came up, which is suitable for both sides, was the

rating

system. This system flashes a parental warning, which would say the

age,

thought appropriate, to watch the program. How much you follow this

system is

up to the viewer.

Through this the decision was put into the broadcaster's hand.

Stations put

out what brings in the ratings, what people want. What people usually

want

contains actions that are somehow violent. Some argue that the shows

influence their child's mentality and would lead them to behave in the

same

way. In response to this, many said that the programs shouldn't have an

affect as long as children are able to distinguish reality and fiction.

Also

the remote is in the parent's hand, meaning that the parents are the

people

that should control what their children watch. Putting the choice into

the

hands of higher authority, slowly takes away your freedoms. For

protection

from the government, people must give up some of their freedoms (order

over

freedom). By giving the choice to the government people are throwing

away

their liberties.

"Allow people liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely

according

to conscience..."

-John Milton