Censorship in Television and Movies: How It Has Changed Throughout the Years

1 1 Censorship in Television, Media, and Film throughout the Years: How Has it Changed? By Heather Soileau and Alexys Peron Abstract This project is about Censorship in television and movies: How it has changed throughout the years.

This project will describe the past television shows and major movie productions’ use of nudity, profanity, and violence and what they did to protect censorship in our homes. This project will show that in our new day and age censorship is being pushed to the limit, the children of our nation will hear and see violence, profanity, and nudity through their lifetimes. Information for this project was secured from various sources such as, books, internet websites, and government documents. Also, included with the project will be interview from various adults, seniors, and children so that they can explain their view on censorship.

This project intends to demonstrate that even though you trust you children to watch appropriate show we can’t help what comes on every channel. 4 4 The main purpose of this report is to learn and educate people of censorship over the years. Censorship is “the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body”. Many factors have influenced me and my partner to do our project on how censorship in American television, media, and films has changed over the years.

Most of these influences come from lessons in our English I class about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and many other classic novels that have been changed and modified over the years. However, we found more of an interest in censorship on television, being that there is much more profanity on television than books. In this research, a few questions that were very important for us were, “Has censorship gotten stricter over the years, or less of a worry” and “How have people reacted to censorship over the years”.

We found that in the past, women and society were very modest and it was very negative to speak harshly on television. Over the years, very foul words and actions have progressed to become tossed around and taken more lightly in America, such as in the popular antique television show “I Love Lucy”, the main character Lucy found out that she was expecting a baby with her husband. The television producers would not allow her to use the word “pregnant” on the screen. One of the main influences of foul language television is the channel MTV.

MTV was largely debated over because of its inappropriate music videos and shows, which were accused of Satanism by many. The article on Wikipedia also states that MTV was criticized for being too “politically correct”. Many shows and movies these days are poorly censored, mostly sitcoms. The way most people with children react to poorly censored movies and shows in negative, because they don’t want their children being exposed to that. On the other hand, majority of young adults that don’t have any children find these shows and movies amusing.

The show “Jersey Shore” which aired on MTV for 6 consecutive prosperous seasons, however, the show was protested against for a while because the town of Stanton Island, NJ thought that the show used stereotypical Italian people and that it poorly viewed Stanton Island. However, the viewer reacts to censorship depends on their age and personality. 5 5 6 6 Conclusion My partner and I have come to the conclusion that censorship has greatly changed over the years. Some features, such as more freedom, are better, but others, such as profanity, violence, and nudity, are causing society to change, and not for the better. 7 Bibliography Robicheaux, Ken. “Movie Censorship. ” Movie Censorship. Key Light Enterprises, LLC, 2007. Web. 15 Jan. 2013. <http://www. pictureshowman. com/articles_genhist_censorship. cfm>. Chicago Historical Society. “Film Censorship. ” Film Censorship. Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005. Web. 13 Jan. 2013. <http://encyclopedia. chicagohistory. org/pages/453. html>. Corliss, Richard. “Censuring the Movie Censors. ” Time. com. Time Entertainment Time Inc. , 02 Sept. 2006. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. <http://www. time. om/time/arts/article/0,8599,1531249,00. html>. Anonymous Wikipedia Editors. “Censorship. ” En. wikipedia. org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Censorship>. Anonymous Wikipedia Editors. “MTV. ” En. wikipedia. org. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. , 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/MTV>. Anonymous Wikipedia Editors. “Censorship on MTV. ” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Censorship_on_MTV>.