Censorship and The Media by jfrost https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy What is Censorship? What is the purpose of censorship? Why should media texts be censored, monitored or controlled? en-us 2017-07-25 09:43:21 UTC 2025-10-30 17:09:16 UTC hello@padlet.com Consider the ideological, political, religious justifications for censoring media texts jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179398030 2017-07-25 09:49:09 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179398030 Often photographic imagery is used to focus public attention on specific issues, to affect public opinion, to encourage public debate, BUT, often the public complains that these photographic images are too graphic, too disturbing for public taste. Images can be disturbing, often deliberately so, to create a public or political reaction, but, there is an argument that suggests that these images have a negative psychological impact on the audience whose opinion they intend to influence. They can turn people off - cause compassion fatigue. This may be deliberate; Public Health issues like (Smoking), Sexual Health (Aids), Animal Welfare, Environmental Degradation, Global Warming, Migration, Political Propaganda, Anti-drug Campaigns, (Legal Highs), Anti-war, Anti Globalisation, Human Trafficking, Charities (Homeless, Third World Poverty, Water Aid) and so on.So we can see Imagery has a function - to create an effect on the viewer. But because some people are offended by them or some Governments are worried about the effect on their control of their population, should they be censored? Some photographs are deliberately 'edited' for effect. Is this dishonest? What do you think? Read this. Click on the image and read the article. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179398243 2017-07-25 09:54:08 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179398243 Read this article about Internet Bloggers jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179399414 2017-07-25 10:28:47 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179399414 This article appeared in the Guardian Newspaper and caused a public out-cry because some critics considered it, insensitive, shocking, exploitative and intrusive. What do you think? jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179399675 2017-07-25 10:33:21 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179399675 Some critics of photojournalism consider some photographs too offensive, too upsetting, for public consumption. But do you need to shock to get a reaction from the public, to have an impact on public opinion and government policies which you may disagree with - a dissenting voice. Consider the role of journalists, they go where the public can't, ask questions that the public requires answers to - in the public interest. The Public Interest notion is important to justify the publishing or articles to prevent Governments from hiding information by using legal loopholes that should be in the public domain because, legislation or new laws should be subject to public scrutiny. It is possible that you too may be shocked by some of the images shown on this Padlet . so beware, jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179399848 2017-07-25 10:37:06 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179399848 Was this photograph justified? Arguably every photograph has a context, a story to tell, a point to make jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179400342 2017-07-25 10:50:24 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179400342 Some believe this image of a young child fleeing for her life following a napalm attack by American fighters on her village, contributed to ending the Vietnam War. Facebook decided to remove it, their justification for the censorship, was that the photograph was pornographic. How we interpret images is an interesting debate. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179400411 2017-07-25 10:53:19 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179400411 Visual reproduction of a constructed reality, could be an interpretation of a photographic image. Every picture tells a story; every picture is designed to fulfil a purpose; to affect YOU. It has been cropped, edited, superimposed, photo-shopped: it's a tenuous link to the original reality it set out to capture, distorted not only by the production process, the photographers eye and how that reality was framed, the context in which it was shot and our interpretation of it, our understanding of its meaning often viewed through our own ideological/cultural lens. Each image designed to create an emotional reaction, a resonance in the viewer, What was your reaction to some of the imagery displayed on this page? jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179400596 2017-07-25 10:59:42 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179400596 There is of course an irony in all of this. I myself am editing the photographs I am putting on this Padlet because I am concerned you might be offended by them. Should I? This is an interesting question, a moral dilemma even for a tutor. How does one use appropriate images to enable a free an open discussion about censorship? jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179401044 This is an interesting question/dilemma]]> 2017-07-25 11:12:21 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179401044 Sometimes people will say when watching news footage or seeing a photographs of a real - life situation, "Wow its just like a movie".Are we becoming desensitised to real life - reality is becoming more like a film, a weird performance art that we watch detached, because it is not happening to us. Are we becoming desensitised because of all the violence that seems to permeate our everyday lives; on the news, in the movies or in the games we choose to play? Are we finding it harder to differentiate between contrived reality and the real thing. Should real life be censored because it is too graphic for us! jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179401538 2017-07-25 11:27:23 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179401538 I would like you to look at these photographs and consider your emotional response to them. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179403939 2017-07-25 12:25:15 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179403939 Finally, censorship is a powerful weapon against free speech and freedom of expression, often used by governments to silence opposition and dissent. They say visual images can express what words cannot. One word can change everything. We used to depend on journalists to act as our eyewitnesses; discover the truth about what is happening in our world on our behalf - many of them have been silenced because they are either dead or in prison. The internet has had a powerful transformative impact on free speech and as Governments seek to silence their citizens, with the help of technology the citizen journalist has emerged to reveal stories that journalists would be unable to access; their ability to tell their stories restricted and compromised by legal or quasi legal restraints imposed by governments who wish to keep their secrets hidden. Think about Wikileaks. The citizen journalist is breaking down the firewalls of internet censorship - but this unfettered freedom can easily be abused; think about propaganda and how Youtube and Google and Facebook are being used to spread fake or false news stories. how can we tell a lie from a truth? Perhaps we need censorship to control or restrain those who would destabilise our civilisation and cultural beliefs. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179404039 2017-07-25 12:27:57 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179404039 When you consider Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze when she wrote her article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. If you apply her thesis to advertising and the representation of women, are you surprised that the photograph below outraged many women not just feminists. What do you think? Was it just a very effective example of advertising or should it have been censored or banned. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179404968 2017-07-25 12:42:35 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179404968 What should be censored? Violent content, anything that contravenes obscenity laws, but how do you define what is obscene and what is art? Any content that could be considered blasphemous, contravenes blasphemy laws, (which may well be differently interpreted depending on the law of an individual sovereign state), any content that defames or libels companies or individuals, contravenes libel laws, any posts or visual content that could be considered racist, sexist, homophobic or anything that could be considered likely to cause civil unrest, psychological damage, anything that could potentially affect people's behaviour; revenge porn, sexual content, pornography, but how do you define pornography? Anything that could be considered political dissent, political views that could be considered extreme, all extremist content ( but who defines what is extreme?). With the growth of the internet where the Dark Net provides a market place for guns, child pornography, terrorist recruitment videos, bomb making instruction videos; individual bloggers, vloggers, twitteratii and snapchatters, facebook and mobilephones that have turned us into independent broadcasters. What about videogames? Should we censor them? Or is simple classification for appropriate content as we do with films, or the watershed on television, adequate. Read this. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179416521 2017-07-25 15:14:06 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179416521 Here are the results of a recent survey about internet censorship jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179419970 2017-07-25 15:41:32 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179419970 Here is an article from the magazine New Statesman about online censorship. jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179420313 2017-07-25 15:46:20 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179420313 Exploring the issue of film censorship, be warned there may be content that offends, so the decision to view or not to view this content is yours. It is relevant to consider how public morals should be protected by censoring main stream entertainment media, but all the films on this site were given certificates for public exhibition, although they may be banned in your own country jfrost9 https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179420585 2017-07-25 15:49:47 UTC https://padlet.com/jfrost9/srdouqj17cyy/wish/179420585