Introduction
Censorship in television mainly aims at containing or suppressing certain words, images or ideas that may seem to the majority of people to be either offensive. Mainly it is done to ensure that actions either moral values or political ideologies by certain individuals are not impacted on the larger population. The government can carry out censorship, but this is normally considered unconstitutional as it interferes with the freedom of expression. However, censorship can be achieved by pressure from private groups who can organize boycotts.
Censorship may not be working on television. An important aspect to note is that what one individual considers being obscenity another may consider it to be the norm. What a director of a movie or an artist may consider as a piece of art may be considered to be obscene by the judges or police officers (ACLU 1).
The violence that is mostly portrayed in major shows on television continues to have an impact on the lives of the younger generation. Young individuals are at the greatest risk to be influenced negatively by television. An argument made by Socrates is that young people are impressionable at a young age. Most of the ideologies and concepts they learn at such a young age may be difficult to remove or change (Literary Thoughts and Ideas BlogSpot). As such, it becomes important to ensure those young individuals are exposed to material that will be of benefit to them and society.
Currently, there has been an increase in reality TV shows that seem to reward bad behavior. There seems to be no control on what is being aired among the reality TV shows. It is a common scenario that having a sex tape can make one land a good deal as a model for different fragrances. According to Green (1), reality TV shows normally target the immoral behaviors that their cast members portray to develop and increase their ratings and viewership. The increasing number of reality shows that portray immorality, and bad behavior is a major indication that censorship is not effective and more needs to be done.
The increased need for censorship in the television industry also introduces a major problem in achieving censorship. Censorship has the ability to create taboos and increase the number of forbidden material. Consequently, human nature is designed in a way that it wants the forbidden material. As such, the more man is denied, the more he wants of that forbidden material.
Conclusion
Application of censorship in television media needs to be increased in a way that may reduce the likelihood of increasing the need of individual to gain access to material that may promote bad behavior. Application of censorship needs to target young individuals who are more likely to be corrupted by exaggerated claims and lifestyles they may view on television. Increasing censorship in television needs to be done in collaboration with media literacy. According to Heins and Cho (1), media literacy has the ability and platform to teach young individuals how media messages are different from reality. Additionally, the media literacy may enhance the ability of the young individuals to analyze messages that they see on television especially in areas such as commercial advertising where issues of gender and morality are involved.
Works Cited
"Literary Thoughts and Ideas." : Socrates’ Argument for Censorship of Stories. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
"What Is Censorship?" American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
Green, Tom. "Reality TV -- Rewarding Bad Behavior." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
Heins, Marjorie, and Christina Cho. "CHAPTER ONE: What Is Media Literacy Education?" The Free Expression Policy Project. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
