Censorship in Art in the Media 3 Topics

xv.iv Censorship and Liberty of Spoken communication

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the FCC's process of classifying material every bit indecent, obscene, or profane.
2. Describe how the Hay'southward Code affected 20th-century American mass media.

Figure xv.iii

Attempts to conscience material, such every bit banning books, typically attract a great deal of controversy and debate.

Timberland Regional Library – Banned Books Display At The Lacey Library – CC Past-NC-ND 2.0.

To fully empathise the bug of censorship and liberty of speech and how they apply to modern media, we must commencement explore the terms themselves. Censorship is divers as suppressing or removing anything deemed objectionable. A common, everyday case tin be plant on the radio or television, where potentially offensive words are "bleeped" out. More controversial is censorship at a political or religious level. If you've ever been banned from reading a book in school, or watched a "clean" version of a movie on an plane, you've experienced censorship.

Much as media legislation can be controversial due to First Subpoena protections, censorship in the media is often hotly debated. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law…abridging the liberty of spoken language, or of the press (Case Summaries)." Nether this definition, the term "speech communication" extends to a broader sense of "expression," significant exact, nonverbal, visual, or symbolic expression. Historically, many individuals have cited the Commencement Amendment when protesting FCC decisions to censor sure media products or programs. However, what many people practice not realize is that U.S. law establishes several exceptions to free spoken communication, including defamation, detest speech, breach of the peace, incitement to crime, sedition, and obscenity.

Classifying Textile every bit Indecent, Obscene, or Profane

To comply with U.S. law, the FCC prohibits broadcasters from airing obscene programming. The FCC decides whether or non material is obscene by using a three-prong test.

Obscene material:

1. causes the average person to have lustful or sexual thoughts;
2. depicts lawfully offensive sexual carry; and
3. lacks literary, creative, political, or scientific value.

Material meeting all of these criteria is officially considered obscene and normally applies to hard-core pornography (Federal Communications Commission). "Indecent" fabric, on the other hand, is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be banned entirely.

Indecent cloth:

1. contains graphic sexual or excretory depictions;
2. dwells at length on depictions of sexual or excretory organs; and
3. is used merely to stupor or arouse an audience.

Cloth accounted indecent cannot exist broadcast between the hours of 6 a.thousand. and 10 p.chiliad., to make it less probable that children will be exposed to it (Federal Communications Committee).

These classifications symbolize the media'due south long struggle with what is considered appropriate and inappropriate material. Despite the existence of the guidelines, withal, the process of categorizing materials is a long and arduous one.

There is a formalized process for deciding what fabric falls into which category. First, the FCC relies on television audiences to alarm the agency of potentially controversial textile that may require nomenclature. The committee asks the public to file a complaint via letter, east-mail, fax, telephone, or the bureau's website, including the station, the customs, and the appointment and time of the circulate. The complaint should "contain enough detail about the material circulate that the FCC can understand the exact words and language used (Federal Communications Commission)." Citizens are likewise allowed to submit tapes or transcripts of the aired material. Upon receiving a complaint, the FCC logs information technology in a database, which a staff member and so accesses to perform an initial review. If necessary, the agency may contact either the station licensee or the individual who filed the complaint for further data.

Once the FCC has conducted a thorough investigation, it determines a final classification for the cloth. In the case of profane or indecent material, the agency may take further actions, including possibly fining the network or station (Federal Communications Committee). If the material is classified as obscene, the FCC will instead refer the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice, which has the authority to criminally prosecute the media outlet. If bedevilled in court, violators can be field of study to criminal fines and/or imprisonment (Federal Communications Commission).

Each year, the FCC receives thousands of complaints regarding obscene, indecent, or profane programming. While the bureau ultimately defines about programs cited in the complaints as appropriate, many complaints require in-depth investigation and may result in fines called notices of apparent liability (NAL) or federal investigation.

Table 15.1 FCC Indecency Complaints and NALs: 2000–2005

Year	Full Complaints Received	Radio Programs Complained About	Over-the-Air Idiot box Programs Complained Nearly	Cable Programs Complained About	Total Radio NALs	Full Television set NALs	Total Cable NALs
2000	111	85	25	1	7	0	0
2001	346	113	33	6	half-dozen	i	0
2002	xiii,922	185	166	38	vii	0	0
2003	166,683	122	217	36	three	0	0
2004	1,405,419	145	140	29	9	3	0
2005	233,531	488	707	355	0	0	0
Source

Violence and Sex: Taboos in Entertainment

Although pop memory thinks of old black-and-white movies as tame or sanitized, many early on filmmakers filled their movies with sexual or violent content. Edwin Due south. Porter's 1903 silent motion-picture show The Great Train Robbery, for example, is known for expressing "the appealing, securely embedded nature of violence in the frontier experience and the American civilizing process," and showcases "the rather spontaneous way that the attendant violence appears in the earliest developments of cinema (Film Reference)." The picture show ends with an image of a gunman firing a revolver direct at the camera, demonstrating that movie theatre's fascination with violence was present fifty-fifty 100 years ago.

Porter was non the only U.Due south. filmmaker working during the early years of movie theatre to utilise graphic violence. Films such as Intolerance (1916) and The Birth of a Nation (1915) are notorious for their overt portrayals of vehement activities. The director of both films, D. W. Griffith, intentionally portrayed content graphically considering he "believed that the portrayal of violence must be uncompromised to show its consequences for humanity (Film Reference)."

Hays Code

Although audiences responded eagerly to the new medium of film, some naysayers believed that Hollywood films and their associated hedonistic civilisation was a negative moral influence. As you read in Affiliate 8 "Movies", this changed during the 1930s with the implementation of the Hays Code. Formally termed the Motion picture Product Lawmaking of 1930, the code is popularly known by the name of its author, Volition Hays, the chairman of the industry'due south cocky-regulatory Motion Picture show Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which was founded in 1922 to "police all in-house productions (Film Reference)." Created to forestall what was perceived to be looming governmental control over the industry, the Hays Lawmaking was, substantially, Hollywood self-censorship. The code displayed the move picture show industry's delivery to the public, stating:

Move picture producers recognize the high trust and conviction which take been placed in them past the people of the world and which have made move pictures a universal form of entertainment…. Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily equally entertainment without any explicit purposes of educational activity or propaganda, they know that the movement motion-picture show within its own field of amusement may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking (Arts Reformation).

Among other requirements, the Hays Code enacted strict guidelines on the portrayal of violence. Crimes such as murder, theft, robbery, safecracking, and "dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc." could not exist presented in particular (Arts Reformation). The code besides addressed the portrayals of sexual practice, proverb that "the sanctity of the institution of marriage and the dwelling shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common matter (Arts Reformation)."

Figure 15.4

As the chairman of the Motility Picture Producers and Distributors Association, Will Hays oversaw the cosmos of the manufacture's self-censoring Hays Code.

Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

As television receiver grew in popularity during the mid-1900s, the strict lawmaking placed on the picture manufacture spread to other forms of visual media. Many early sitcoms, for instance, showed married couples sleeping in separate twin beds to avert suggesting sexual relations.

Past the end of the 1940s, the MPPDA had begun to relax the rigid regulations of the Hays Code. Propelled by the changing moral standards of the 1950s and 1960s, this led to a gradual reintroduction of violence and sexual activity into mass media.

Ratings Systems

As filmmakers began pushing the boundaries of acceptable visual content, the Hollywood studio manufacture scrambled to create a system to ensure appropriate audiences for films. In 1968, the successor of the MPPDA, the Movement Picture Clan of America (MPAA), established the familiar movie ratings system to help alert potential audiences to the type of content they could expect from a production.

Film Ratings

Although the ratings system changed slightly in its early years, by 1972 information technology seemed that the MPAA had settled on its ratings. These ratings consisted of G (general audiences), PG (parental guidance suggested), R (restricted to ages 17 or up unless accompanied by a parent), and X (completely restricted to ages 17 and up). The system worked until 1984, when several major battles took place over controversial material. During that year, the highly popular films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins both premiered with a PG rating. Both films—and afterward the MPAA—received criticism for the explicit violence presented on screen, which many viewers considered likewise intense for the relatively mild PG rating. In response to the complaints, the MPAA introduced the PG-13 rating to signal that some fabric may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13.

Another change came to the ratings system in 1990, with the introduction of the NC-17 rating. Conveying the same restrictions equally the existing 10 rating, the new designation came at the behest of the motion picture industry to distinguish mature films from pornographic ones. Despite the arguably milder format of the rating'southward proper name, many filmmakers find it too strict in practice; receiving an NC-17 rating ofttimes leads to a lack of promotion or distribution considering numerous movie theaters and rental outlets refuse to bear films with this rating.

Television and Video Game Ratings

Regardless of these criticisms, nearly audience members find the rating organisation helpful, particularly when determining what is appropriate for children. The adoption of industry ratings for television programs and video games reflects the success of the picture show ratings system. During the 1990s, for instance, the broadcasting manufacture introduced a voluntary rating organisation not unlike that used for films to accompany all Television receiver shows. These ratings are displayed on screen during the first 15 seconds of a program and include Television receiver-Y (all children), TV-Y7 (children ages 7 and upwards), Tv set-Y7-FV (older children—fantasy violence), TV-G (general audience), Tv-PG (parental guidance suggested), TV-14 (parents strongly cautioned), and Television set-MA (mature audiences only).

Table 15.2 Television Ratings System

Rating	Meaning	Examples of Programs
TV-Y	Advisable for all children	Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer
Television-Y7	Designed for children ages vii and upwards	SpongeBob SquarePants, Captain Planet
Television receiver-Y7-FV	Directed toward older children; includes depictions of fantasy violence	The Powerpuff Girls, Pokémon, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Telly-G	Suitable for full general audiences; contains little or no violence, no strong linguistic communication, and piffling or no sexual material	Hannah Montana, The Toll Is Right, American Idol
TV-PG	Parental guidance suggested	The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Tyler Perry's House of Payne
Boob tube-fourteen	Parents strongly cautioned; contains suggestive dialogue, stiff language, and sexual or violent situations	Sabbatum Night Live, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Jersey Shore
TV-MA	Mature audiences only	South Park, The Boondocks, The Shield

At about the same time that tv ratings appeared, the Entertainment Software Rating Board was established to provide ratings on video games. Video game ratings include EC (early babyhood), E (anybody), East 10+ (ages 10 and older), T (teen), M (mature), and AO (adults only).

Table xv.three Video Game Ratings System

Rating	Meaning	Examples of Games
EC	Designed for early childhood, children ages 3 and older	Nickelodeon BINGO, Winnie the Pooh ABC's, Elmo's Globe
East	Suitable for everyone over the historic period of six; contains minimal fantasy violence and mild language	Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Lilliputian Big Planet, Frogger, Myst
E 10+	Advisable for ages 10 and older; may incorporate more violence and/or slightly suggestive themes	Dance Dance Revolution, Tales of Monkey Island, Rock Band, Scribblenauts
T	Content is advisable for teens (ages xiii and older); may contain violence, rough humor, sexually suggestive themes, use of strong language, and/or simulated gambling	Final Fantasy 14, The Sims 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl
K	Mature content for ages 17 and older; includes intense violence and/or sexual content	Convulse, 1000 Theft Auto Four, God of State of war, Fallout 3
AO	Adults (xviii+) only; contains graphic sexual content and/or prolonged violence	Playboy Mansion: Individual Party, Manhunt 2

Even with these ratings, the video game industry has long endured criticism over violence and sex in video games. Ane of the peak-selling video game series in the world, Grand Theft Auto, is highly controversial because players have the option to solicit prostitution or murder civilians (Media Awareness). In 2010, a study claimed that "38 percent of the female characters in video games are scantily clad, 23 percent baring breasts or cleavage, 31 percentage exposing thighs, another 31 percent exposing stomachs or midriffs, and 15 per centum baring their behinds (Media Awareness)." Despite multiple lawsuits, some video game creators stand by their decisions to place graphic displays of violence and sexual practice in their games on the grounds of freedom of oral communication.

Cardinal Takeaways

• The U.Southward. Government devised the three-prong test to determine if textile tin can be considered "obscene." The FCC applies these guidelines to determine whether broadcast content can be classified equally profane, indecent, or obscene.
• Established during the 1930s, the Hays Code placed strict regulations on flick, requiring that filmmakers avert portraying violence and sex in films.
• Afterward the decline of the Hays Code during the 1960s, the MPAA introduced a cocky-policed moving-picture show ratings arrangement. This system afterwards inspired similar ratings for television and video game content.

Exercises

Wait over the MPAA'south caption of each film rating online at http://www.mpaa.org/ratings/what-each-rating-means. View a film with these requirements in mind and think about how the rating was selected. So answer the following short-answer questions. Each response should exist a minimum of 1 paragraph.

1. Would this textile be considered "obscene" under the Hays Code criteria? Would information technology be considered obscene under the FCC's three-prong test? Explain why or why not. How would the film be different if information technology were released in accord to the guidelines of the Hays Code?
2. Do yous agree with the rating your chosen film was given? Why or why not?

References

Arts Reformation, "The Move Motion picture Production Lawmaking of 1930 (Hays Code)," ArtsReformation, http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html.

Case Summaries, "Outset Amendment—Religion and Expression," http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/.

Federal Communications Commission, "Obscenity, Indecency & Profanity: Frequently Asked Questions," http://world wide web.fcc.gov/eb/oip/FAQ.html.

Flick Reference, "Violence," Flick Reference, http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Romantic-Comedy-Yugoslavia/Violence-Ancestry.html.

Media Sensation, Media Issues, "Sex and Relationships in the Media," http://www.media-sensation.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_sex.cfm.

Media Sensation, Media Issues, "Violence in Media Amusement," http://www.media-sensation.ca/english/issues/violence/violence_entertainment.cfm.

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/15-4-censorship-and-freedom-of-speech/

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