Argumentative Essay: Should Music Be Censored?

1304 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Censorship in modern society

Censorship is currently being approved by many, but there are also many that disapprove of it. Some see censorship as necessary, while others see it as a constraint of our rights. Also with the media age here individual voices can now be heard. Many debates have spawned from censorship, and all the arguments have been the same. All arguments have consisted of one side demanding to turn a blind eye to reality, while the other side believes that we need to take reality head on and fix its problems. This unnecessary restriction needs to be vanquished. Those responsible for book banning, censored lyrics, and confined art should no longer use ignorance as a shield. Many believe that music should be censored for its explicit content. For example, …show more content…

“governments and corporations seeking, to various degrees, to set limits on what is acceptable to say and what is not.” (Bollinger 52). With new technology many voices can now be heard, ranging from normal citizens to activist. Now the government and corporations have a greater urgency to limit our speech. “Google's experience in China reflects the growing concern over Internet censorship” (Haerens and Zott). Concern is shown in how Google censors itself for china, an example is when searching controversial phrases the user experiences connection problems. “They need to stand with us in fighting repression in China” (Haerens and Zott). Now getting access to internet china now can fight for its right against censorship. Also with its new found access to internet, though limited, they can see controversial an political events happen with their own eyes. Internet without censorship gives all individuals the ability to have a voice, and gather political information to help us benefit our choices in the future. Government having more urgency to censor speech through the internet is the product of the digital age, and concerns for censorship is shown with Google’s interactions with china. Google in china being very restricted and censored, is what leads to this

Show More
Related

  • Censorship and Book Banning

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.

    Read More

  • Music Censorship is a Violation of Free Speech

    1617 Words  | 4 Pages

    The First Amendment clearly states that the U.S. government cannot make a law stopping the freedom of speech. Pro-censorship supporters say music is not included under the First Amendment but it is since music is expression. The freedom of speech includes freedom of expression and the right to hold your own opinion. This country is founded on the idea that we should be able to say, read, or publish anything we want. Music is an artist?s form of expression and banning or censoring his or her music would be stopping his or her right to say whatever he/she wants. We also have and value our own opinions and ideas and in return, respect every one else?s. If someone bans or censors a certain song because of it?s ideas, then we are not respecting the artist?s right to an opinion. An audience might have a certain opinion which we can discuss among ourselves, yet if an artist wants to sing a song about it, people want...

    Read More

  • First Amendment And Music Censorship

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    The First Amendment to the Bill of Rights exists because the Founders of our country understood the importance of free expression. The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . ." (Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution 17). One of the ways the American people use this freedom of speech and expression is through the creation of the art form known as music. Music's verbal expression bonds our society through our emotions and experiences. This fundamental right of freedom of expression is being threatened by public and governmental groups who believe they have authority to monitor and decide what others should experience. The censorship of music lyrics is a violation of our First Amendment right, and public groups should not be allowed to bypass this right to censor obscene lyrics produced in the music industry.

    Read More

  • Censorship in America

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...from the other side of this argument is the fact that profanity and sexually explicit material shouldn’t be exposed to young children without their parental permission. But telling teenagers and young adults who are mature enough to choose what they want to listen to is completely wrong and unjust. The key word here is choice. As stated earlier, the thing that makes this country truly great is the idea that we have the right to listen to whatever we choose we want to listen to, not what a censor thinks you should be exposed to, it’s ridiculous.

    Read More

  • Google: Don’t Be Evil

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since its creation, the Internet has continuously grown in importance as a means to obtain information. This is due in part because it is not censored like the rest of America’s mainstream media, such as television, newspapers, and the radio. Nevertheless, the issue of censorship has raised many controversial issues, not only in the United States, but also throughout the world. In the debate by Intelligence2 (2008): Google Violates its Don’t be Evil Motto, it is argued that Google has violated its self declared motto that it wouldn’t be evil, thus putting people’s interest before their own corporate financial interests. While Google has committed certain questionable acts I do not believe they have violated their motto. Harry Lewis, Randal Picker, and Siva Vaidhyanathan argue that this violation is exposed in Goggle’s agreement to cooperate with the Chinese government in exchange of a larger monetary market and in its advertisement market (Intelligence2, 2008). Nevertheless, Esther Dyson, Jim Harper, and Jeff Jarvis argue that while such actions have occurred, the good it has brought to the over all population exemplifies their don’t be evil motto.

    Read More

  • Censorship in American Literature

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    Censorship has been a big part of the world’s history and especially America’s history. One of the most quoted amendments to the United States constitution is the first amendment; “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ...” This amendment guaranteeing free speech, press, and religion is still heavily debated and contested today. Censorship, as a challenge to free speech and press has been allowed many times and has been heavily debated itself. Many people censor for many different reasons and in many different forms. Censorship itself is not always a bad thing and has in some cases been used for protection of the general population.

    Read More

  • Against Music Censorship

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    On one hand, people believe that lyrics should be censored so that people can be protected. And on the other hand, people believe that the First Amendment protects everyone's rights to free speech. Basically, it is a matter of whether lyrical censorship is accepted. Many people say yes, that there should be censorship because lyrics from songs tell our youth it is acceptable to participate in illegal actions such as murder, rape or drugs. These people believe that the lyrics actually drive people to become social deviants.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Internet Censorship

    1557 Words  | 4 Pages

    Internet is a powerful tool that allows users to collaborate and interact with others all over the world conveniently and relatively safely. It has allowed education and trade to be accessed easily and quickly, but all these benefits do not come without very taxing costs. This is especially true when dealing with the likes of the Internet. Countries in the European Union and Asia have realized this and have taken action against the threat of net neutrality to protect their citizens, even at the cost of online privacy. Internet censorship is required to protect us from our opinions and vices. Every country should adopt Internet censorship and regulation since it improves society by reducing pornography, racism/prejudice, and online identity theft.

    Read More

  • Is Censorship Good Or Bad For Society

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the government decides what is right and wrong for people, those people lose their ability to make those judgments. Censored media and content can be easily seen in China, one of the leading countries in population, economy, etc. According to Eleanor Albert “ The Chinese government deploys myriad ways of censoring the internet. ”(COFR, 2017) this can be from banning certain media to just flat out imprisoning journalist. These types of action are violations of human rights, all in the name of

    Read More

  • Democracy in China

    3306 Words  | 7 Pages

    Thornton, P., (ed.) (2010), ‘Censorship and Surveillance in Chinese Cyberspace: Beyond the Great Firewall’ In Gries, P. H., and Rosen, S., (eds) Chinese Politics (London and New York: Routledge).

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects of Censorship

    3203 Words  | 7 Pages

    Censorship allows governments more control of society than they already have, slowly progressing governments utilizing censorship to a dictatorship. Often times, this censorship can lead to immense rebellions. A good example of this is in China, where Google has been censored by a provider called The Great Firewall of China, which censors information that could be viewed as defamatory or insulting to Chinese government and culture. According to the article “Google turns off China censorship warning” as published by BBC News Technology, “Google has had a rocky relationship with the Chinese authorities since January 2010, when the company said it may shut down Chinese operations due to a ‘sophisticated and targeted’ cyber attack. Google said at the time that it was no longer willing to censor the Google search engine”. Many journalists have also taken a look at Egypt, which also utilizes censorship. According to “Egyptian authorities step up censorship” as published by the Committee to Protect Journalists website, the new military-run Egyptian government is censoring news outlets and keep journalists, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates. “Egyptia...

    Read More

  • Is Censorship Justified?

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever wondered the reason behind racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, children committing crime or violence? The main reason is that censorship is not properly imposed or there is a need of censorship in the society. Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain people, individual, groups or government officials find it objectionable, offensive or dangerous on others. There are varieties of other definitions but all have in common the concept of withholding information and/or resources from those who seek it. Hence censorship is essential in society to eliminate discrimination on basis of race and sex, protect children, maintain stability and restore what censor sees as lost moral values. Censorship occurs when expressive materials like books, magazines, movies, videos, music or work of art are restricted to particular audiences based on their age or other characteristics. (http://www.ala.org/oif/intellectualfreedeomandcensorship.html)

    Read More

  • Google's Dilemma in China

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    Google is the largest search engine across the globe, which has significantly transformed the use of the Internet as an information source. The influence of Google in Internet use as information source is evident in the fact that by June 2010, it accounted for more than 70 percent of total Internet searches in America. In addition to its success and profitability in the global market, Google is renowned as a highly ethical company as demonstrated in its corporate philosophy features. However, the firm’s behavior during the launch of its China-based search engine in 2006 generated huge skepticism from the United States government and several human rights organizations (Baker & Tang, p.2). Since the launch of Google’s Chinese search engine, the company complied with China’s censorship regulations by deciding to filter out terms that are considered politically sensitive. This decision attracted criticism from political leaders and human rights activists who accused Google of betraying its adopted ethical standards by ignoring the essence of freedom of expression and information access. As a result, Google faced a dilemma involving the clash between law and ethics. In the subsequent years, Google reacted to the dilemma by changing its rhetoric strategies in efforts to respond to the changing needs.

    Read More

  • Google And The Government Of China

    1782 Words  | 4 Pages

    China, also, will be able to achieve economic and technological advantages by working with Google while still controlling public opinion. By restricting Google by censorship, with minimal compromises on some services, China will be able to affirm its status as an independent actor in the global marketplace as well. Work Cited:.. James S. O’Rourke IV, Brynn Harris, Allison Ogilvy: Google in China: government censorship and corporate reputation Journal of Business Strategy Vol. 28.

    Read More

  • Has The Internet Done More Harm Than Good

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    The problem governments have when censoring the Internet is that it robs the option to surf the web and research things. If a country censors it’s population’s Internet, e.g. China, it would face huge amounts of unrest and the government popularity would decrease majorly. The ability for anyone to be able to publish anything online without barriers resulted in a large amount of information which could not only be incorrect but also could be criminal, discriminatory or offensive if it were available to the general population. This sort of information would not usually be widely published via offline channels, but with the invention of the Internet it is easily accessible by anyone like never before, and this is quite dangerous. Within certain country’s, the Internet is viewed as a hazard and a weakness....

    Read More

More about Argumentative Essay: Should Music Be Censored?

Open Document