Violent and indecent content on children’s television again provoked the ire of concerned parents and legislators. National studies began to surface, linking a child’s exposure to violent content on television with violent episodes occurring later on in that child’s life. For example, the show Dungeons and Dragons originally ran from 1985 through 1987 on CBS became an instant controversy because the main characters who were a group of children were supposed to kill their nemesis in the first episode. The children were also given a weapon to defend themselves against enemies. America was outraged and the FCC began to receive pressure from both parents' rights groups and Congress to re-examine the 1984 policy of deregulation of children's television. Congress finally identified the ineffectiveness of the market theory of deregulation espoused by the Reagan administration because there were more commercials on television than ever before, broadcasters aired anything that would make a profit, violent television shows erupted, and there was virtually no regulation of the content airing on television. Self-regulation was not regulation at all.
3.1 Indecency and Obscenity on Television
The pressure from parents’ rights groups such as the ACT, was finally exposed in the Action for Children's Television v. FCC (ACT I) in 1988 where the concern was limited to the indecent exposure and obscenity on television at hours when children were likely to be watching. The Court looked at the regulations imposed on commercial broadcasting networks in 1987 as a response to parental outrage and the government’s responsibility to care for children’s well-being and protect them from obscenity and indecency on television.
In doing so, the District o...
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...do not want to spend the money to air educational children’s television programming knowing they do not have the audience and will only lose money. In addition, broadcasters are facing practical issues in their efforts to comply with these regulations. For example, a single thirty-minute episode from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego or Ghostwriter from PBS costs as much as $390,000 bringing this cost more than most non-educational programs. Another problem occurs when a broadcaster spends the money to air “educational” television shows and the FCC decides that show is no longer deemed as providing necessary educational content. The broadcasters also contend that many Americans subscribe to cable or satellite television where there are many channels and children will opt for programs on Nickelodeon or Disney over what the broadcasting station has to offer.
As the technologies associated with communications have evolved, so have the messages that are being transmitted. In an effort to shield citizens from offensive speech, the United States government passed the Communications Act of 1934, which created the rules that a broadcaster would have to obey to remain on the air and restricted broadcasters from “utter[ing] any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communication” (Scalia 2). This ban on obscene language was only to be in effect from the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. in an attempt try to limit children from hearing the offensive speech. Congress created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate this act and in 1975, the FCC implemented the statutory ban on indecent broadcasts when the comedian George Carlin did his “Filthy Words” piece during a daytime broadcast. In FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, the Supreme Court found the ban to be both good law and constitutional. The FCC said...
In Pacifica, the Supreme Court justified the FCC's regulation of the broadcast media in part on the basis that indecent material on the airwaves enters into the privacy of
In the years of 18151860, the Market Revolution was underway, as was the Second Great
Obviously, parents want to do the best things they can to protect their children. However, their fears misguide their thinking when it comes to censorship. As Charles Taylor points out, censorship does not only include pornography or excess violence on television, classrooms and libraries all across America can feel its presence. (Taylor) According to the National Coalition against Censorship website Congress passed the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA) in 1981, which provided funds to charitable and religious organizations t...
During the late 1700’s and well into the 1800’s, American’s lived through expansive growth including economic transformation, politics, labor classification, and increased population were a result of overall growth of the United States. This growth affected how the Americans lived, worked, voted, and were viewed by their fellow citizens. Americans were transforming the lives for financial gains, their own rights, and overall a more content life.
For centuries, governments have tried to regulate information thought to be inappropriate or offensive. Today’s technology has given the government an excuse to interfere with free speech. By claiming that radio frequencies are a limited resource, the government tells broadcasters what to say and what not to say. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) carefully monitors news, public, and local programming for what they consider obscenity (Hyland).
In the U.S economy, there were two causes of the shifting employment pattern. The first one is deregulation and the second one is deindustrialization. “Most analyses point to two major structural developments in the U.S. Economy as the main cause of shifting employment pattern in the late twentieth century: deregulation and deindustrialization”(Chomsky 4). The meaning of deregulation is to “remove government regulatory controls from an industry, commodity, and etc.” (dictionary.reference.com) and deindustrialization means to “cause to lose industrial capability or strength; make less industrial in character or emphasis” (dictionary.reference.com). Chomsky states that “Not only did jobs disappear in this period, but the nature of jobs in this country underwent a shift” (4) means in the period of shifting
As I read Television as a teacher written by Neil postman, His main argument throughout the article is that television isn’t a good or effective way to use education, and he describes how it’s actually worst for us and were not learning the full purpose of education and learning by watching tv. His main example was Sesame Street, and how children sit in front of a television for hours watching what they call education television and claiming they get knowledge from it but they're getting no social interaction by watching it. Also, Neil postman makes excellent points by comparing education television to a real classroom, saying how a classroom has social interaction, the ability to ask a teacher question, development of language, and it’s a
Exercising the freedom of speech has two sides: the speaker and the listener. Censorship is unfair to both sides. When it takes away the speaker’s Constitutional freedom of expression, it simultaneously revokes the listener’s right to develop an informed opinion based on unobstructed truth. This opinion has been supported by the courts. In 1982, an informal agreement between several broadcasters from major media outlets known as the Code of Broadcaster Conduct, which banned “depictions of sexual encounters, violence and drug use, as well as excessive advertising,” was nullified because it was a violation of First Amendment rights (“Broadcast Decency”). Excessive censorship is viewed as unnecessary by both the American public and by the government that endorses it.
For example, a good TV show that helps a child become smart and learn a couple things is Sesame’s Street. Sesame’s Street is kid’s show that’s been airing since the 1960’s. The show is consist of humans and puppets, who use comedy and cartoons to teach children educational things; based off songs and games (Sesame Workshop). I’ve seen this show work for children right in front of my face. Ever since I was sixteen I would go to my grandma’s Day Care and help her with the children. At her Day Care, Sesame’s Street was always being played. The kids would learn so many things from the show. There was one episode here Elmo and the Cookie Monster would sing the Alphabet in a song. It wasn’t like the original song, this one was different and catchy. So catchy that I’d find myself singing along the song too. I could definitely see that catchy song working for the kids too because every time I would see them, I would ask them the alphabet and they said to me, perfectly. So I absolutely disagree with Sach, parents shouldn’t keep their in a box and hide them from TV, instead they should search for the appropriate ones and show it to
McCarthy, M. (2005). THE CONTINUING SAGA OF INTERNET CENSORSHIP: THE CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION ACT. Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal, (2), 83-101.
Some people have views that cable television is beneficial to students. In this fictional scenario, one can see the arrival of the idea of cable television onto the campus of Bowling Green State University. The administrators while sitting around their monstrous finely polished eastern oak table in their soft reclinable chairs, smoking their illegally imported cigars, thought of what seemed to be en ingenious idea. They thought of a way to supposedly improve the learning environment of students. One idea can be speculated that stood out in their minds. An idea that could give their students an incredible edge over other students from some other schools, the idea could be none other than the introduction of cable television into every room on the campus of their fine university. To them, this would give students access to explore a vast amount of educational and informational channels such as Discovery, Life, CNN, Animal Planet, and Health. Disney would also be provided for the mentally challenged, playful at hear...
The consequence of having trends of declining political participation, declining party affiliation, and growing cynicism about government is that we now have a significantly large population that has been politically exhausted for quite some time. This has led to more extreme rhetoric in political parties as those who might have a more moderate political voice have left because they feel that they no longer have a voice in the political process. Combined with new technology of media, we have seen the ultimate consequence of these trends in the 2016 election in which a candidate that campaigned on extreme rhetoric won the election despite a significant majority of the population voting against him. With the growing unpopularity Donald Trump’s
Derivative instruments are ‘financial contracts whose value is based on, or derived from, a traditional security such as a stock or bond, an asset, such as a commodity or a market index’.
Censorship is an important and essential part of television. Without the presence of censorship television would be unsuitable for our younger viewers because censorship helps to filter out the appearances of nudity, real life violence, the use of profanity and other obscene gestures during the youth viewing hours. However, during the prime time viewing hours it?s a different story. The method the television stations use is a mere waste of time and money because a little symbol in the corner of the screen is not going to prevent a child from watching the program. The only way this method can work is if the parents/guardian is there to change the channel but let?s be realistic, how many parents/guardians actuarially have the time to monitor everything there children watch. So most children do end up viewing these programs anyway, and whether we like it o...