Chapter 12 was interesting because I could so easily see the parallel between pop culture, media, and kids in general. The way life was back then is no different than it is today. People put a lot of stress on education, schools, and parenting teaching children the “right” way of doing things, and profit driven media sometimes works against all these efforts. Not surprisingly, censorship became a concern amongst many in the country. It is crazy to think about censorship in today’s media compared to the early 1900’s. The goals of censorship are constantly changing… for instance in today’s media a lot of attention is put on not advocating (or even showing on tv) cigarette smoking and excessive drinking. This is a response to the fact that it is “new” information that they are both bad for you, and television and advertisements should actively combat the issue. Back in the early 1900’s though things such as youth sexuality was an issue, where today it is almost completely embraced in television shows and media. The real question ends up being who should regulate this? government or the people?
After reading this chapter I am deffinitely a supporter of self regulation. I think today’s society has found a decent balance in censorship rules or regulations. Some promiscuity is allowed on television, but not nudity. Some foul language is spoken, but not the major curse words. And in terms of what political or ideological views are expressed on air, their is no publicly known limit. I wanted to ask, if early 1900’s America could see the level of censorship we have today, and know of our “balance” of educational and entertaining programs would they approve of it? Would they want more regulation, and if so of what sort, Government or self? With all this emphasis on censorship to protect children, and school to morally guide children, what is left for the parents themselves to do? Is this reliance on institution partially responsible for the degradation of the family structure throughout time? The last discussion question I have is, do you think more censorship would have resulted in less bullying, smoking, or more morality in school children? Because I certainly don’t. I think it would have led to more sheltered children who have more of a reason to rebel.
