Research into Censorship - Miss Miller

Censorship is the means that allow music videos and other exhibiting things that seem to grown up or mature for a younger audience can be covered up. For example If something seems to be too offensive then it can be played after watershed or something like that. Particular swear words and other explicit content can either be blurred or muffled out to be presented to the public. Overall there are plenty of different views for and against censorship and as a class we were are to learn these through individual research and group debate.

An Artists Point Of View.
Eminem is a particular artist that encourages censorship to be banned. Eminem is an artist that speaks his mind and influences people to do the same. This means that he believes he has the right to say and do what he wants without having to be approved or 'shut up' by censorship. As an artist he feels that real and raw music is the most successful at motivating his audience to feel they can do anything. Although he states he does not intentionally intend to hurt anyone feelings with his music he insists that it is just a way of expressing his own feelings and resentment towards particular situations. He was written a lot of real life stories and these can be portrayed in his music. He believes that having the particular strength to write realistic things helps him build a relationship with his audience as they may be experiencing the same emotions as him. He believes that even though elements of his songs may be offensive to people by involving sensitive topics such as drugs and rape. He states he would never take part in any illegal activities and that in his lyrics he isn't referring to himself as doing or performing any illegal acts himself. Eminems main goal is to have complete control over his own music and videos. He wants them to display a true and genuine display of what he is trying to interpret. He uses the harsher more stronger language choices to be able to demonstrate to his audience that they can combat anything they want and sometimes having particular language changes can give the audience that extra 'omph' to go for it. He doesn't ever state that he wants his music to be seen as offensive and make people feel uncomfortable but to him music is art and sometimes you do have to release some sort of anger out on the projects you create if that is what you are currently feeling at the time. This encourages the audience to be able to see themselves in a similar light and this allows them to be able to gets a good glimpse into what sort of person Eminem is. A real and true artist. As mentioned the majority of his songs are based on real life experiences and he feels that audiences will be able to recognise this and feel connected to him in a more meaningful way as they too believe that this type of music is very true meaningful. Overall he believes that his younger audience members are very intelligent and are able to uncover this type of material in his music. In particular he lives by the saying that if something is made unavailable to you, your only going to want to see it even more.

Record Label Against Censorship.
Shady Records is founded by Eminmen and Paul Rosenberg. Eminem decided to found his own record label due to the high demands of censorship from past founders. This particular record label actually sides with Eminem and believes that censorship should be done in the privacy of peoples own homes. This actually allows the artist to feel as though they are making stand and having the freedom to produce what they want, however they wish to. They also state that music is artistic and is able to take the audience to different feelings and emotions in there brain this allows them as a whole to be able to connect with the audience and make it a much more enjoyable experience if the words he is seeing is very true and meaningful. The beliefs on censorship are to an extent that it's down to parents what children can or cannot watch. The believe audiences admire artists like Eminem for being so honest and raw otherwise he may not have been as successful as people may have hoped for. The record label argues that music is a form of art and that it requires and contributes to people being able to express particular feelings and emotions through listening to the intense lyrics. They argue that things such as books and artwork are not censored so why should music be censored. This particular record label believes that without censorship they are still very successful gaining a lot of support and awards throughout the year.

Parents View For Censorship.
Some parents argue that they want to feel safe letting there children watch TV alone. Some parents argue that it is time consuming watching there children 24 hours of the day and it is simply impossible. They want the ability to have there mind at rest and allow them too watch TV while being protected from things such as violence and drug abuse. The opinion on the matter is that of would the artists that create these explicit songs be comfortable with there own children listening to all of it at a young age. In addition to this some parents feel threatening that there children may look up to a certain famous rapper and idolise them. This may result in them researching about the artist and there lifestyle, the child may feel inclined to behave like this also as it is seen as being 'cool' and 'popular.' In addition to this Eminem is known for producing very insulting and violence related lyrics. For example when he mentioned Ray Rice in his music. This caused a lot of issues within the audience and everyone who listened to this song due to the sensitivity of the subject. This made is a very controversy issue and resulted in a lot of trouble of the rapper. Overall it comes down to the fact that parents need to feel comfortable when placing there children in front of the television. They don't want to be able to control there children with what they can and can't watch overall they feel alot better when knowing they can trust what is on the television. Parents argue that artists that produce this material would not themselves feel comfortable with showing it to there own children so they don't want there children watching it either.

Parents View Against Censorship.
Parents are legally responsible for what there children see, hear and do. Although at a young age children are smart enough to pick up whats bad and good and should learn what to stay away from. Children should be taught the difference between good and bad and this allows them to be able to distinguish on things on there own without the use of censorship. There are some things that need to be done to educate people that not all things can be censored. Therefore it is essential that children are educated and produced as people who are not closed off from the open world or they will just get a huge shock as they grow up and this may be quite overwhelming to them as children.
Things such as the news that is played every morning may produce very sensitive subjects and overall be in listed as offensive to children, although they pick up on everyday adult worries such as murderous and etc. Overall some parents think that its good for children to be aware of whats right and wrong instead of being hidden from it and wanting to be a possibility for them to discover something unsuitable and not know what to do with that. Parents are ultimately able to argue with the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that being exposed to certain material creates physiological behaviour as some children are already born with or develop mental health issues through personal problems.

Fans View Against Censorship.
Fans of artists such as Eminem believe that particular music genres should be able to express themselves but censorship overall stops this from happening.
In a particular song called 'Kim' about murder, Eminem announced that it is something he would never do, his message to his fans was to be able to have emotional connections to the songs and to be able to relate to them in certain ways. In addition to this fans admire him for being able to have the guts to rap about more appalling subjects. He wants to have a close emotional bond with his fans and this will contribute to him in a positive way as he is able to embark on a journey that allows him to do what he wants in his videos. He overall aims to gain respect and status by being as honest and true to himself as he can possibly be even if at times it is seen as offensive. He prides himself on being an artist that shares real emotions and experiences with his audience and he is able to do this by not being censored. Emimens raps are sometimes referred to as poetic and have inner meaning and connotations embedded in them. By censoring some of the words in the songs this may actually take away the inner meanings and therefore not be a true representation of the artist and the inner messages he wants to be taught. In addition to this censorship can disrupt the tempo of the songs as well as how smoothly it flows. If suddenly there is bleeping or silencing of words it will overall take away the concentration of the music and people will begin to concentrate on what is not there rather what is there. This may result in them looking up what is being censored out anyway and this will decrease the impact on the audience. The fans appreciate that he is able to talk about his personal life in this music and this makes them understand him more. As a fan censorship constricts the information the fans can get which is not the most important things to them. Some parts of Eminem's have suggestive parts to them which are ruined to by censorship as the inner meaning can't be revealed.

MTV's Opinion For Censorship.
Being such as popular TV channel MTV feel they have to abide strictly to there censorship rules. After watershed censorship of music videos is not followed by as intensely as it is not required. Censorship is not only used in MTV to stop children witnessing sensitive issues but to also stop artists making money off real life disasters, such as the 1999 shooting that took place in an American High School. Eminem's music has critically been labelled as homophobic which would also offended many straight and gay viewers. This is due to the fact that homosexual marriage and relationships are expected now throughout the world and have been made legal in almost every country, this makes it harder for Eminem to justify what he is doing and is younger audience member decide to take on board what he is saying they may end up narrow minded and very closed off from the real world which is why MTV needs to be careful at what they release to there audience. Eminem may be seen as using very controversy issues as a way of making himself more popular. This will result in more people talking about him and having an opinion on him and overall this makes for a wider and more productive audience. Some people may be drawn into this offensive behaviour and want to make it more accessible to people.

AKA View Against Censorship
The aim of AKA was to dismiss limitations to certain artists. They know that artists like Eminem want to express themselves and make themselves ideal people for there audience as they show true and meaningful feelings towards people. They are against censorship as they think it disrupts the creativity of the artists work and they don't believe it will be beneficial to an audience member or an artists. In 2005, Ofcom charged AKA with £18,000 from playing inappropriate content on there channel. In recent times they claim they haven't been fined again which means they obviously have everything under control now. 



BBC Radio One View For Censorship.
This particular radio station owned by the BBC is a very respected and family friendly channel. Which means that any controversy over any particular channel and its content could jeopardize the BBC's reputation. Eminems music in particular may cause alot of trouble for the BBC as it contains content that may be unsuitable to children such as particular songs regarding the inappropriate language, alcohol and sensitive subjects such as rape. As a radio station the BBC has to be careful as it is accessible to anyone that can asses the Internet. As it is a channel and production that people actually pay for they have to be very careful when obeying any rules and regulations towards it. For example the fact that the BBC have specific channels for younger children such as CBBC make it essential that they only display certain content that can not be redeemed as offensive, like Eminems music has done due to the increase in references to drugs and other times of abuse. The example of these particular lyrics can be seen by his songs 'Kill You.' This song contains a lot of disturbing subjects such as rap. He uses very degrading language that is aimed at women and this is one of the reasons why the BBC prefer to censor certain types of content. They believe it protects children and the younger more vulnerable audience from learning about such horrific issues at an age that they may not understand it. This allows the radio station to justify there censorship as they do not wish to jeopardize there audience by doing anything that would cause a lot of attention and controversy.

Overall I do think that censorship can be positive and negative from time to time. This is because of the intense material and the very young children at the age of two or three children may pick up of swear words and just immediately repeat them without knowing what there are saying, I do think it is important to protect the more fragile minds of children as they could be damaged mentally by learning about things such as rape and drug abuse at a young age as they are not old enough to understand and this could be a problem that requires a particular time of theory to help them over come. In addition to this at a young age children are more impressionable and require more attention to know whats right or wrong, without this particular guidance they may assume the content that isn't censored is socially acceptable to talk about in real life situations. However this is opposed by the fact that children are only able to know what is right or wrong, by being taught and educated on the matter which means that possibly when they hit a particular age the children might be able to regain control and have a more impressionable opinion on censorship.