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=Censorship Today:= A project by Alex Hoffman and Martin Keeler

We were asked to ponder the following prompt:
__Think about the specific ways we are subjected to censorship (news, government, school, etc.). Is censorship ever appropriate? Record a PSA arguing for or against censorship.__

//**Our thoughts on the matter**//: Censorship may only be employed to offer direct protection of American citizens; all other uses of censorship restrict personal freedom.

=PSA:=

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=PSA Script:=

The Bill or Rights, established over 200 years ago, guarantees three unalienable rights to all American citizens:

Freedom of the press (an image of a newspaper fades in and out), freedom of speech (an image of MLK Jr. fades in and out), and freedom of religion (the symbol of some religion fades in and out.)

Although we'd like to believe in the consistency of these rights, the truth is that our society today is as proficient at restricting liberties as it is at endowing them.

Censorship has riddled America ever since the Alien and Sedition Acts of the late 1700s (show an old image that relates to the Alien and Sedition Acts), which denied citizens the right to criticize the government through the press.

Today, the restriction and banning of books by ultra-conservative groups, religious organizations, and schools is common (show the burning of books and Christian guide), with reasons ranging from the protection our children from "heathen texts" to indecent exposure to material that encourages sexual exploration.

Today, the media censors information about the War in Iraq for fear of being prosecuted by the government and having their rights to report on incidents in a war zone revoked (show an image from Iraq.)

However, studies show that students exposed to sexual education are less likely to be involved in teen pregnancies, and that the information about Iraq that is censored holds little tactical value (show images of Iraq and of a classroom.)

Please stand up against censorship that does not directly aid America or its citizens. Speak up when your first amendment rights are threatened, and educate your loved ones about these crucial freedoms. And, most importantly, refuse to be kept in the dark and to let your own government foster ignorance. Please visit www.stopcensorship.org to learn more about how you can make a difference today, and remember: education is strength.

=Producers' Note:= Ultimately, the main goal of our PSA was to prove our thesis that censorship, unless it directly aids America and its citizens, is detrimental to our nation and degrades the knowledge of our citizens. We planned to use examples from throughout our nation's history to reinforce the important role both our crucial liberties and the equally significant repression of these liberties.

As our task was to analyze the specific ways we are subjected to censorship, we decided to begin our PSA by describing and enumerating the Bill of Rights. The inclusion of the fact that the Bill of Rights was founded over 200 years ago reinforces the concept of the intended perpetuation of these freedoms and their strength as guidelines of our society's conduct that have stood the test of time. The image of a stack of newspapers serves to represent the freedom of the press that we have always known; the image of Martin Luther King, Jr. embodies the revolutionary and progressive ideologies that freedom of speech has brought to our nation; and the hodgepodge of religious symbols represents the freedom to practice any religion.

However, the seeming profusion and strength of such liberties is contrasted by the next paragraph of our PSA, which introduces the insidious nature of our government and links our freedoms that are endowed by the Bill of Rights with the practice of censorship in the United States of America.

To support the claim that our society is as proficient at restricting liberties as it is endowing them, and to introduce the history of censorship in America, the next paragraph briefly discusses the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, which made it illegal to criticize the government through newspapers, magazines, books, and essentially speech ([|Here]). This incident, albeit the first violation of the First Amendment, was not to be the last.

The next paragraph gives the aforementioned acts a modern parallel -- the banning of books. Many novels, such as Bridge to Terabithia, Of Mice and Men, and The Lord of the Flies have been banned by conservative organizations ([|Here]) for displaying disrespect for adults, using the lord's name in vain, and containing incidents of sexuality, respectively ([|Here]). These examples represent censorship of the press, and thereby violate one of the three tenets of democracy upon which our nation was founded ([|Here]).

The following paragraph of our PSA focuses more on a recent form of censorship by our central government. In Iraq, reporters for news agencies are only allowed to transmit information to their agency's website after it has been approved by the United States Government ([|Here]). Violation of a specific code established by the military that stipulates what information can and can not be sent -- which many officers interpret loosely to restrict the transmission of information that could potentially 'harm their troops' -- could result in a reporter, or possibly a news agency, losing their reporting privileges for a certain sector of Iraq. Indeed, although this disastrous occurrence would not only harm said news agency, the results of publishing "classified" material would be even more pernicious for the news agency, as one of the eleven most prominent media corporations would lash out at "our" agency for publishing information that the major corporations did not feel necessary for their target audience to view ([|Here]). In this case, the censorship of information about the War in Iraq is both fostered by the government, with the intent of "protecting" our troops, and is indirectly driven by the structure of the major news corporations themselves, which do not want an agency publishing material that is neither of prime interest to their readers nor that could jeopardize their company's funding if revealed ([|Here]). The next paragraph, albeit brief, reveals that the attempts by conservative organizations and our government to censor books and war intelligence, respectively, reap few rewards for American Society. Rather, depriving citizens of sex education increases the likelihood of teen pregnancies, and much of the censored information about the War in Iraq concerns neither troop movements nor attack plans -- information that could be of potential use for insurgents -- but rather exact troop concentration and casualty numbers, which are still supplanted by rough estimates by the news agencies ([|Here]). Ultimately, the censorship of the press and speech (collectively) by society's conservative groups and our own government do not directly aid or educate America's citizens -- rather, they restrict the freedoms that are intended to exist without impediment in the United States.

The final paragraph is a summation of our PSA's message and a reiteration of our thesis statement. This paragraph states the goals (primarily stopping censorship) and means (primarily by speaking out) of the organization called Stop Censorship; a group dedicated to the doctrine of our thesis statement. The last line, "education is strength," ridicules one of the Party's key elements in //1984////.// Although in the book, this line appears as "ignorance is strength," and refers to both the strength of the Party lying partly in the ignorance of the proles; the theory of //doublethink//, a kind of self-imposed ignorance, or, "mental cheating" (215), according to Goldstein's book, where a citizen is forced to ponder the Party's beliefs, which often results in said citizen both thinking about his or her feelings about a subject and, at the same time, forcing him or herself to accept the dogma of the Party; and in the inherent sanity that is induced by an ignorance of the Party's atrocities and lies. The inclusion of an image of Arnold Schwarzenegger both contributes to the humor of the line and conveys the strength and potential of a citizenry that is fully schooled in the practices and methods of its government and society.

During the research process, many of the sites we visited discussed censorship to great lengths but failed to discuss the importance and relevance of censorship to America's history -- rather, these sites focused on periods such as Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. These sites were supplanted by sites such as [|this] and [|this], which focus on censorship of the media and press almost exclusively in the United States. The two aforementioned sites explain the management of news agencies and their dependency on large corporations and the government to a great deal, and relate this information to the conflict in Iraq and to the governmental censorship of information that is of little consequence.

Another useful website featured the beliefs of [|this religious organization], and introduced the foregoing process of book burning to protect children from satan, thereby further developing our understanding of the role censorship plays in our society. This website also had an intriguing forum, which can be found [|here]. The ultra-conservative members of this forum and the opinions they delineate through their posts augment the reader's understanding of why these baptists believe in the censorship and burning of any book that may convey satan's words.

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Today there exists two primary forms of censorship: censorship of knowledge and censorship of imagery. Both types accomplish the same deception through the withholding of truth in its entirety. When images are censored or altered, the viewer is left to imagine what lies behind the black bar, and is therefore cheated out of knowing the whole truth. The same holds true for censored information, which denies the learner of all information, whether they need to know it or not. Censorship may only be appropriate when dealing with material deemed harmful to the minds of children. All other uses of censorship deny a person of their right to know the complete truth of whatever knowledge they seek.

The delicateness of a child's mind should employ censorship to alternatively convey the same message while excluding some certain aspects that might affect their mind in a negative manner. If a movie that contains heavy violence, nudity, and profane language is exposed to a child too young to maturely process it, that child may interpret what he sees as appropriate behavior, and grow up to become a violent, profane sex-maniac. For this reason, viewer-rating systems are employed. Through the categorizing of films and television programs, content deemed inappropriate for children of specified ages is censored. In another scenario; a mother of two children (ages 6 and 8), dies in a car crash on the way to pick them up from school one day. To tell the children that their mother died peacefully and without pain when she had been horrifically mangled and suffered for minutes before passing on would be an appropriate use of censorship. To later inform the children of the truth behind their mother’s death would be also be an acceptable and appropriate action, as their heightened maturity would allow them to process and accept the truth without risk of psychological damage.

In George Orwell’s //1984//, The Party takes advantage of the emptiness of children’s minds by filling them with hateful, propagandist teachings. Because children have yet to endure necessary thought process spurred by a multitude of experiences, they know what they are told to know. Because children are unaware of their psychological enslavement, they do not know they are being wronged, and therefore have no reason to object. The term “ignorance is bliss” often captures the theme of many modern day occurrences. This term refers to the peace and happiness in being unaware of any troubles or conflict around oneself. In Orwell’s //1984//, there is no bliss, there is “strength”. The Party slogan “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” carries a similar meaning. Through the use of censorship, the people of Oceania know very little about anything, which is what The Party sees fit. Never knowing of injustice in their lives, Party Members’ ignorance ensures their unquestionable submission. By maintaining such absolute obedience, The Party remains strong. This philosophy underlies that by remaining ignorant, people do not obtain strength for themselves, but for those in power of The Party.

As for the mature mind, any adult denied of the entire truth through exposure to censorship surrenders their right to coexist on an equal level to those who have the truth. In the adult world, the only application of censorship may be justified if the secrecy of such information withheld is deemed imperative to national security. It is assumed that when giving power to those who make critical decisions for the people, that those decisions are in the best interest of the people, and therefore the secrecy around such information is acceptable. An example of such a case might include details on the government’s plans in a conflict of war, which if released entirely could jeopardize the plan’s execution. The power bestowed in the people who keep such secrets is indeed great, and must be kept in check at all times.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER Jon Lansing

=Works Cited:=

Kelly, Melissa. Top 10 Banned Books. __www.712educators.about.com__. 25 May 2007. 

Phillips, Peter. Media Censorship and Free Press in America. __www.thirdworldtraveler.com__. 25 May 2007. <[|http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/Media%20Censor_ProjCensor.htm][|]>

Ockerbloom, John Mark. Banned Books Online. __www.onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu__. 25 May 2007. 

Book Burning Safety Tip Chart. __www.landoverbaptistchurch.org__. 24 May 2007. 

Press Freedom vs. Military Censorship__//. www.crf-usa.org//__. 30 May 2007. 

The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. __www.earlyamerica.com__. 30 May 2007. 

__www.drooker.com__. 31 May 2007. 

__www.indamixworldwide.com__. 31 May 2007. 

__www.content.answers.com__. 31 May 2007. 

__www.landoverbaptist.org__. 31 May 2007. 