Censorship Survey

I decided to take a survey in my weight training class that would ask some simple questions about controversial music. First, "Do you think that it should be allowed for people to censor the music of popular artists?" Of the ten people i surveyed, only 3 of them said that it shouldn't be allowed to censor profanity, the others thought that since you could choose which version of the music you would buy, it doesn't make much of a difference whether it's censored or not. The other question that i asked was, "Should television networks be allowed to censor the music that they play on their shows?" It is my personal oppinion that networks should be allowed to do whatever they want. They are a business and they want to do what they can so that they can make money. Of the people that i asked, all of them agreed that it is up to the network as to what they want to show. Although some of them dissagreed that it would be offensive to see explicit lyrics displayed on tv. Unfortunately, we have little control over what is censored and what isn't, so basically we just have to deal with it.

Learning Summary

Since i have begun studying and blogging about censorship, i have realized that it is an extremely broad topic, and there isn't usually a correct answer about what should be done with it. I learned that people all over the world have been frustrated by censorship, or remain oblivious to it. I personally feel that censorship is setting the world back by only delaying people from recieving information that they will inevitably become aware of, if they desire. The problem with censorship is that it cannot be stopped for more reasons than one. Mainly, the people that do the censoring are the ones that are usually in power. Also, many people don't care, or aren't educated enough for it to make a difference in their lives whether something is censored or not. I wonder if censorship will ever go away, and if it does, will the world be a better place?

Censorship in the Military

Screening and censoring the mail that soldiers send home is an age-old strategy used by most militaries around the world. The problem is that often times the government will edit or confiscate letters they feel pose a threat to the security of the war. The military should not be able to screen mail because the odds of one of the letters reaching enemy hands, and also containing useful information are too slim. It isn't fair to the soldiers, the families, or the American public because it denies them much desired information about a war that we are supposed to be supportive of.
Now that we are entering a new era where numerous messages are sent home to families over the internet, we have to decide whether or not those messages should be screened also. In truth these messages pose more of a threat because they are posted on the internet where insurgents can possibly get their hands on them and use them to disrupt the war effort. It is messages like these that should therefore be screened and possibly censored.
The reality is that the internet is not a very safe place to be putting important information that you don't want to be shared. Recently the army has adjusted a lot of the rules concerning how you can post things on the internet. The military believes that by reading enough of the e-mails or blogs that soldiers post, they may be able to construct an idea of what the military is doing. Therfore they fell that it is necessary to censor what soldiers post on the internet.