Censorship of Violent and Controversial Topics in Broadcasting

Censorship of Violent and Controversial Topics in Broadcasting

Introduction

            It is no doubt that media has gone through a myriad of transformations ever since its inception. The main agenda of the press is to pass information, educate, and entertain the masses. Traditionally, the news comprised of some tiresome methods which could not reach broad audiences. This, however, continued to change until the present day eras where the media can reach people through a variety of ways of communication, including the radio, television, film, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and, most recently, the internet among others. This paper will look at broadcast media, specifically in the field of airing controversial and violent content.

Before delving into this relevant content, it is vital to have a general understanding of what broadcast media entails. Broadcast media is a narrower field of the entire media. It consists of electronic media, which includes television, radio, and the internet (Bell et al., 2015). Broadcast media has the capability of reaching wider audiences than all the other media platforms. The reason for this is that it has its audio contents are available in the majority of the languages, and therefore, there is likely to be less of a barrier when it comes to the style. The reach is also broad due to the availability of the medium of transmission, especially the radio. It is also a cure for illiterate audiences who need to get information.

History of Broadcast Media

            Broadcast media dates back to the early 19^th century. This was when there was the introduction of telegraphs as the most rapid means of communication. The transmitters would utilize the airwaves to send messages. At the beginning of the 20^th century, people began experimenting with audio transmissions, which led to the birth of the radio as a means of communication (Damasio et al., 2015). By the time it was 1920, radio had already become a household medium of communication utilizing that AM band, which later moved to FM. Still, in the 1920s, television broadcasting began, albeit experimentally. After the second world war, it became more famous and utilized the VHF and UHF spectrums. At this time, broadcasting mainly made use of the analog signals. Things only began to change in the new millennium with the switch to digital transmissions. The internet also became more famous as a means of broadcast media. There was also the introduction of cable television and radio, which is where the broadcast industry currently stands.

Problem Statement

            It is evident from the above information that broadcast media can reach mass audiences within a short period. This particular characteristic of broadcast media makes it quite a powerful tool when it comes to further either political or commercial objectives. It is also clear that broadcast media is bound to influence the masses. After all, it is the primary source of news and information for a majority of the countries around the globe. There has also been a myriad of technological developments that have contributed to various changes in the broadcast media world. One of these changes has been the removal of barriers to entry. It has been made possible by the introduction of new media such as cable television, radio, and webcasting. This particular effect has resulted in the addition of new players, which are both large or small, helping to do away with the monopolistic power of broadcasting. The other impact is the extensive audience reach, including people in the remote areas. Finally, there is the improvement of transmissions through the compression of frequency requirements.

Although the above, broadcast media has often come under fire for content that is supposedly harmful to its audiences. It has been accused of airing content that is harmful to the public-both the minors and the adults. They have made this possible through the presentation of violent and controversial topics as part of their broadcast content. Some argue that they are doing what they have to do to survive in the current competitive world. However, despite this, it is essential to understand that there are various responsibilities that broadcast media has towards the masses. This begs the question; don’t these professionals have any values to uphold? Don’t they work based on some ethical principles? These questions are, however, biased. They tend to lean on the side of friendly content. It is important to remember that despite the responsibility to have a positive impact on society, the media also has the responsibility to remain truthful and act as the mirror of society. Thus, there is bound to be some content that will rub shoulders the wrong way. It is not easy to get answers to these questions above until one gets to analyze the issue in detail, which is the primary purpose of this paper.

Research Questions

            The problem is clearly on the issue of violent and controversial topics in the media. Thus, these are the research questions;

1. What are the violent and controversial topics/content in the current broadcast media world?
2. What is censorship in broadcasting?
3. To what extent can the broadcast media censor violent and controversial topics without suppressing their achievement of the entertainment, informing, and advisory role to the society?
4. What are the effects of censoring violent and controversial topics for broadcast media?

These research questions will be subject to in-depth discussions and analysis below.

Violent and Controversial Content in Broadcast Media

There has been a rise in the number of people complaining about violent and controversial topics in recent years than there were some decades ago. This points to the fact that there has been a notable increase in this type of content in the broadcast media. Although this is the case, it is also important to remember that there has been an increase in the audience, which may also have been a contributing factor to the increased complaints. So, what exactly does violent content entail? Violent content includes having visual and audio portrayals and presentations of hostility by one human character or human-like character against another (Huessman, 2017). The hostile behaviors have the intention of injuring or irritating the other parties. Violent programs in broadcast media may range from talk shows on radio, movies and films, comedies to the news broadcast. Studies indicate that there is extensive violence in television programs than there is in radio programs.

The national violence television study states that there are approximately 57% of programs that contain violence (Jahan & Khan, 2017). Worse still, there seems to be no punishment for the perpetrators of these violent acts in the programs. The visual translated to the masses is usually the same most of the time, triggering them to act violently as they have a picture of no consequences for their actions. However, most researchers will focus on the first three and forget about violence in the news items. News programs also showcase some amount of force. It is even worse since it relates to true stories happening in the world. They may include a depiction of wars, social ills such as murders where broadcast media will subject viewers and listeners to gruesome scenes and audio recordings (Harper & Philo, 2014).

Controversial content includes that which brings about a dispute or a disagreement as the involved parties have differing opinions (Mehrad et al., 2015). Broadcast media is known for this. They use controversies to gain an audience. Thus, most of the time, they will introduce topics that do not augur well with the targeted parties and cause drama. The topics range from religion, politics to family, and social responsibilities. For instance, there could be content that talks explicitly about the acceptance of the LGBTQ community in a country that does not encourage this. By so doing, the broadcast media channel is assured of getting audiences from both proponents and non-proponents who will end up arguing about it, thus creating popularity out of the controversial topic. Controversy also appears in the form of discussing issues regarding the way of life, such as the government’s ways of conducting business when it is highly risky in that particular country (Harper & Philo, 2014). Thus, there is bound to be an audience from both proponents and opponents. Controversial content may change the perception of viewers and also impact the audience and ratings of the channel of broadcast media (Nagler et al., 2015).

Censorship in Broadcasting

            Censorship is suppressing speech, communication to the public, or any other information based on the considerations of its capability to cause harm or inconvenience the viewers or the laws of the land (Abbasi & Al-Sharqi, 2015). The suppressed content may also be sensitive. The bodies responsible for censorship include governments, private institutions, and even corporations. This is usually a rare scenario, especially in countries like the U.S, where the freedom of speech and expression is a guarantee according to the constitution. However, it is imperative to understand that the has the right to regulate and repress broadcasting based on the effects the content is likely to have on national security and peace.

Censorship of broadcasting dates back to 1941 at the beginning of the second world war in the United States. President Roosevelt then created the office of editing, which had the authority to shut down radio stations that had offensive and sensitive content related to the war. After that, there was a development where censorship would take place if the broadcasting medium were reporting things such as the advancement of military troops, which could endanger their activities and capabilities of winning in the war (McDonald, 2014). Currently, there are more common forms of censorship, which include de-facto suppression. It includes withholding, denying, and limiting access to information most of the time orchestrated by the government. It may also include the leaking of information or disinformation to the masses to protect the interests of a country. The broadcast media can also decide to do the above on their own, especially if the matter is quite sensitive. For instance, after the September 11 attacks, most broadcast media channels chose to refrain from information that could aid terrorists to advance their agenda.

The extent of Suppression of Content without going against Broadcast Media Objectives

To understand the scope of suppression of content that broadcast media can take, it is essential to learn of the different types of censorship that these media channels can withstand. There are different types of censorship present for broadcast media in today’s world. One of these is moral censorship, where there is the removal of specific facts that may be inappropriate for particular audiences. Moral restraint removes or avoids the use of graphic details and images. The people responsible for editing content, whether it is fiction or reality, have to face the decision of whether to go into detail about any heinous acts or just report of the happening of the law (Pandita, 2015). The broadcast media professionals, therefore, need to find alternative methods that describe the crime and its atrocity without offending the audiences (Cheng & Yang, 2019). Some people may interpret the lack of detailed description as an attempt to sanitize the content and the perpetrators. However, the professionals are only acting in a way to protect their audiences against the offense.

There is also military and national security censorship. It started in the period after the second world war. This type of restriction seeks to hide some information that may be of benefit to the enemy as military troops conflict. The censorship may prohibit broadcast media from airing the location or the size of the forces and the strategies that they are utilizing. These operations are considered sensitive, although whistleblowers continuously challenge them.

Political censorship is where the government or political parties usually withhold some information to avoid any rebellions or embarrassment. Thus, the broadcast media will report the same to the masses. Most of the time, political censorship is usually a battle between the broadcast media and the political leaders of the day. Since the government is trying to prevent leakage of information that is a potential embarrassment, they are bound to avoid release by the media houses. Therefore, it often results in ugly legal and even underground battles as they try to prevent leakage of information. However, the broadcast media has to remain steadfast in their commitment to inform the masses of any under dealings of the government. Thus, they have to come up with stringent measures and strategies to represent such information.

Religious censorship depends on the main religion of the country. Some countries refuse to believe in evolution, while others refuse to believe in creation. Thus, in such scenarios, they may advise the media to avoid topics that are biased to one type of religion (Cheng & Yang, 2019). Next is the kind of censorship which aims at protecting people’s privacy. It often happens when there are minors involved or when the participants wish to keep their identity under wraps. One example is when a minor commits a crime, it is essential to keep their identity sealed to protect them from any instances of future harm. There is also concealing of the status of whistleblowers and rape victims to keep them away from the backlash of society or even adverse effects and threats on their lives. Lastly, there is corporate censorship. It is common when big corporations remove some of the content from the media, which may threaten to expose their strategies, reducing the competitive advantage. They may also censor information concerning their employees, which may shed them in a lousy light endangering the welfare of the organization.

After an understanding of this, it is vital to ask the question, to what extent is the broadcast media supposed to go when suppressing violent and controversial topics? The media has the role of informing, communicating, and entertaining the masses. When it comes to telling broadcast media has to make tough choices based on the culture of the society. The literature includes religion, morals, and values that the audience holds dear. This is especially necessary when dealing with violent and controversial topics. It is part of the social responsibility of broadcast media to ensure that the masses get content that will not cause harm. Studies indicate that there is a likelihood that violent content gives people the idea of committing violent crimes. Therefore, broadcast media should find a way of censoring this. It does not mean that they eliminate the airing of violent content since that would mean the closure of such productions. However, it means that they ensure there is limited access for the most vulnerable age groups. That is why there is usually film and content rating.

On military and political censorship, it is quite hard to achieve balance. Sometimes, the media tries to inform the people of the actual situation on the ground. It presents a dilemma as professional ethics for broadcast media demand truthfulness and integrity. Yet, they are sometimes forced to misinform the public in the name of the ‘greater good.’ sometimes the greater good is a treacherous method utilized by political forces to manipulate the media. Therefore, the professionals should always be ready to draw the line and analyze situations carefully before they decide to edit out content under the influence of external forces.

In conclusion, the decision to censor programs does not entirely lie in the hands of the broadcast media. It suffers from other external forces. The broadcast media has the responsibility to uphold integrity in all their dealings to ensure the excellent pf the public. Thus, they sometimes have to endanger their lives in the course of delivering truthful content. However, integrity also entails analyzing the controversial and violent content to see if it befits society. There is no need to have these content that will impact the community negatively in an attempt to create massive profits for the media house. The most important thing here is for broadcast media houses to act ethically and uphold social responsibility.

Effects of Censorship on Reliability of Content

Now that there is an understanding that censorship is sometimes beyond the control of broadcast media, it is essential to get a grasp of its effects to the content that the masses get from broadcast media. Censorship will hide some information from the masses. One of the impacts of suppression is that it may mislead the audience. It is a common occurrence that the broadcast media will utilize restriction to make the viewers believe what they would like them to understand. Sometimes this is never the truth leading to some form of misrepresentation. For instance, the violent content that is often aired may lead people to believe that the current society is in chaos.

This may translate to the real life of individuals who may begin to leave in fear and put on measures of defense all the time while it is not true (Browne & Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2015). There is also the issue of controversial topics. Broadcast media can easily sway the opinion’s public through censorship. They will categorically skip the information that would have been useful for the masses to make an informed decision, meaning that they deliberately mislead them. The restriction is also likely to cause the eruption of chaos in society through withholding or misrepresenting scenarios. For instance, if the media keeps reporting on attacks on specific communities in certain countries, it would naturally lead them to put up a front in defense, leading to violence among the masses. On the brighter side, it could also lead to the reduction of violence by magnifying the good and avoiding the bad in a society restoring calm within communities. Censorship could also reduce the impact that violent content has on the psychological states of the masses.

Conclusion

In most cases, censorship to broadcast media brings more harm than good, especially when it comes to real content. For fiction content, editing would be more beneficial. Since Broadcast media plays a vital role in society, and suppression only acts as a regulator, broadcast media must maintain its ethics to fulfill its purpose to the community. The community has the right to know the truth about, no matter how ugly or frightening it is. That is the true independent spirit of the broadcast media. When selfishness and monetary benefits, however, enter into this field, it changes all the logistics and leads to the alteration of the operations of the industry.

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