Censorship- Miss miller

Censorship

Censorship refers to the examination of books, periodicals, plays, films, television and radio programs, news reports and other communication media for the purpose of altering or suppressing parts thought to be objectionable or offensive. Censorship is in place to stop the audience or viewer from being offended by the material shown on screen or heard. With censorship comes a lot of disagreements. Some people believe in the freedom of speech and that an individual should have the right to say whatever pleases them where as other people believe that freedom of speech can come across negatively depending on the person listening i.e. a young child.

Ofcom is the communications regulator. They regulate TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. They make sure that people in the UK are protected from scams and sharp practise such as bad or foul language televised on the radio or TV. Ofcom filter through unaired material that current artists send in to get cleared to see if the content in their music videos or songs is appropriate for the general public to listen too. This means that offensive language, nudity, drug references and other abusive mater are not allowed to be shown on air encase it may affect the viewer in any shape or form.

Artists like Eminem and Rihanna have been pulled up in the past for producing material that has been seen as offensive. Rihanna is a perfect example of an artist who doesn't believe in censorship. In fact she strongly disagrees with it. She believes that she should be able to reflect her personality through her music even if this means using offensive language and often portraying scenes of nudity. She often sais that she shows nudity in her music videos to show that she isn't afraid of being judged on her looks or body. She thinks that this will help her female audience feel comfortable in their own skin no matter what size or shape they are. She also sais it makes her music videos memorable which helps her promotion for that specific song or album. Rihanna's fans have grown up with her often coming across as breaking the rules so she doesn't see why she should have to change her image now. She quotes "Changing my image now could confuse a lot of my loyal fans because they have grown up with me over the years and seen how I have matured. Changing my image could lose me a lot of fans because I could become labelled as being fake". To this day Rihanna still fights against the censorship law, complaining that it is act against human rights.

Rihanna's record label are also strongly against censorship. They believe that censorship doesn't give the songs produced justice and that blurring certain words out can disturb and ruin the song. Songs should be sung with passion and from the heart, censorship takes the personality away from the song by constantly interrupting them if they have offensive language within them. The record label believes that parents are to blame for not looking out for their children more. If more parents payed closer attention to what their kids are listening to then this argument would never have occurred. Record labels and artists shouldn't be the ones suffering for parents not restricting what their kids watch and listen too. Rihanna's fans idolise her no matter what she does. Changing her image will only make people confused and question why she has done it. If her fans love her the way she is then we no point in changing her image at all.   

Parents For- Rihanna has over 4 million followers on twitter, instagram and Facebook. Do you really think its acceptable to be showing herself off in a sexual manner like twerking and grinding on men when a lot of her fans are under the age of 16. These actions can have an influence on the development of that child's life. Rihanna also has a lot of drug references in her music videos as well. This can cause curiosity in young children which can cause them to take drugs in later life. Rihanna should be an idol to children and fans. At the moment she is doing the opposite. After her latest music video Rihanna was seen taking part in serious sexual acts and exposing herself in a disrespectful way. After the first showing on the video, Rihanna lost a total off 20,000 loyal fans because they saw it as being humiliating and exposing the female body in a way it shouldn't be. As a parent we shouldn't have to watch our kids 24/7 to see what they are watching. Instead we should live in a world where censorship should be controlling what gets filtered into our homes.

Parents against- However not all parents are against censorship. Some parents believe that nudity is natural and that people should be able to feel comfortable in their own skin. Rihanna is the perfect example of this. The reason Rihanna has so many fans is because she is herself and she doesn't change her image around her critics. Other parents think that you cant stop children from finding revealing stuff on the internet. If its on there, they will find it. However 70% of parents that we asked this question to think that there should be restrictions in place at home to filter what their children watch. This means that censorship shouldn't have to be pit in place to do the job of parents.

Drugs are also a part of everyday life now. If children are brought up correctly then they shouldn't be affected by the viewing of drugs abuse on TV. Instead of hiding it we should show children the affects it can have on your life and then let them decide whether they want to take the risks by using it.

Fans- We believe that artists should have the freedom of speech to say whatever they please. Surely top artists like Rihanna shouldn't be punished for being herself. If the viewer watching feels offended then they should listen to someone else. We live in a world now where restrictions are taking over and peoples freedom of speech is being limited. Censorship will only have negative impacts on the music industry. On Fan said "Lyrics sung cannot change a person or make them do anything they don't want to do". " People make their own choices in life, you cant blame music for a handful of people acting out".

However when Rihanna released the music video for S and M, she lost a lot of loyal fans due to the explicit content shown within the video. Throughout the video Rihanna was taking part in sexual acts and displaying taking part in drugs abuse. Because of this she lost over 20,000 fans on social media due to them feeling disappointed in the light she had shown herself. A lot of the fans that were angry were woman. They felt that Rihanna had shown a woman's body in a way it shouldn't be shown of TV.

Music channels- MTV and AKA are two well known music channels, known for showing the best current videos and songs on their channel. MTV only allow offensive language after the water shed time (9pm). Any music played before then is filtered to make sure that no offensive language or drug references is played. MTV have made it clear that they are for censorship because they believe that the music played can come across as offensive to certain viewers who are listening. MTV usual only play music that is in the top 40 charts for example Ed Sheeran, Jason Derulo and Kanye West. The artists that they play know that they have to submit a clean version of their song to MTV if they want them to play it. AKA on the other hand are against censorship of songs.   

Radio stations-

Capital only plays explicit content music after an allocated time (9 o'clock). Any music played before that time is censored so that its does not offend the viewer. However Capital extra are very lenient with certain words included in some songs. 

In order to allow songs to be played wherever possible, it is common to censor particular words, particularly profanities. Some music labels or artists produce censored versions themselves, sometimes with alternative lyrics, to comply with the rules set by various radio and television programs. Some stations decide to censor them themselves using one of several methods:

• Blanking; when the volume is silenced for all or part of the word.
• Bleeping; playing a noise, usually a "beep", over all or part of the word.
• Resampling; using a like-sounding portion of vocals and music to override the offending word.
• Resinging; Replacing the offensive word/phrase with a more appropriate word/phrase.
• Backmasking; taking the offensive word and reversing the audio, sometimes the whole audio is reversed (often because it is a home-made job), but more usually only the vocal track is reversed.
• Repeating; repeating the word said just before the explicit word was used.
• Skipping; deleting the curse word from the song without a time delay.
• Disc scratching; in hip hop, scratching on the word, making it sound like another word, or make the word said faster or slower.
• RoboVoicing; making the word totally non-understandable by overpowering a robotic voice effect (usually used as a last resort for home-made jobs).
• Distorting; Usually in hip hop, less offensive words such as "shit" or others are distorted. It is usually done by shifting down the pitch.

 

Conclusion

 

From looking over these different arguments it is clear that there is a clear divide between for censorship and against it. I personally think that censorship should be in place but too a certain degree. Parents should be the ones who should look out for what their children are watching and listening too. If parents were more careful then censorship wouldn't have to be needed altogether. On the other hand parents don't have control over everything children do. The media also has to be careful what they show on live TV shows for example MTV. Young children can become exposed to drug abuse and offensive very easily so main stations like radio 1 and MTV have to be careful what they play before the water shed hour.

Overall this debate has helped me massively with planning my music video. I have now learnt that deciding on censorship is crucial if we want our music video to succeed. We will have to decide on censorship when we chose which song we are going to use with our video. We need to make sure that beeping out the offensive language will not affect the song in any way by interrupting it or making it not make sense.