Media Needs to Have Self-Regulation

Earlier in the semester, our class read the book “Entertaining Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman. This literary piece discussed the concept that everything media related is becoming more and more “entertaining”. This meant that groups such as news organizations were becoming less concerned about the news and more concerned about the number of viewers they were attracting. It also meant that trivial and stupid programs such as comedies were, and still are, replacing programs such as intellectual dramas documentaries. This process only became possible because the power and influence of media started to increase, and media outlets could do whatever they wanted. The unrestricted freedom of media could become a problem however many people say that the government cannot get involved with media expression because it would infringe upon the basic constitutional rights of the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. So the solution of media self-regulation was proposed.

Media self-regulation occurs when organizations voluntarily obey decisions passed by a board of people associated with media. There are many examples of attempts at media self-regulation in the U.S all with varying degrees of success. It is evident that there are some very successful regulations because there are rating on movies and video games, and the fact that there is a lack of mature content on television channels labeled “children’s” channels and during times when there may be more children watching other “regular” channels. However, even these are only transient successes. It is possible to release unrated movies, the only reason there are not so many is that very few cinemas will show unrated films. Furthermore, there is still mature programming playin...

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... what times can certain materials be aired on television, the ages that people must be or at least should be to see specific content (ratings), and if certain channels can show certain types of content. I feel like it would be fair if there were laws saying that forbids mature content on channels targeted primarily at children, laws forcing movies to be rated , or even laws forbidding mature content between the hours of 7:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M., a time period when there are often young children watching television. Some of these laws may need extra parts to make them fair, like the law that requires ratings should also require cinemas into giving all film ratings equal airtime. The government will not take advantage of their power over media if we, America as whole, do not allow them to. Some government influence in media is the only way to properly regulate media.