What is the purpose of Censorship?

The purpose of censorship, is making sure the media doesn't offend any people or groups that may view the media. Another purpose of censorship is to preserve the 'status quo', by restricting what can be displayed through media and keeping control of media developments within society.

Examples of Censorship:

Hays Code

The Hays code (The Motion Picture Production Code), was made in 1930.
The code is based around the idea that "If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind". The code was made to prevent people using the media to effect the public and prevent any possible harm that could come from abusing the media.

There are 3 main principles that the Hays Code follows:
1) No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2) Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.

3) Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

Music Video Censorship

With music videos there are also set guide lines which must be followed when creating music videos. Although different distributors of music videos have different guidelines, there are still some common ones among them. One example is shown in the actual music itself. To make it suitable for as many people as possible, if the music involves swears, the swears will be removed either by bleeping it out or by cutting the sound for the duration of the sound. Another example of whats censored during music videos is sexual imagery. Majority of the distributors won't allow nudity within the video, or strong sexual imagery or references.

Watershed

The watershed is the term used for TV media which is displayed after a set time. This is a form of censorship as it was made so that younger members of a TV audience won't see something which isn't suitable for them, however it would be suitable for an older member of the audience. An example if this is a long running TV show known as 'My Family'. The show started out as a family friendly show, which younger members of an audience could watch, It's old air time was before the WaterShed time (9PM). However as the characters of the show the topics and subjects talked about within the show got more mature. This meant it became less suitable for the younger members and was moved into a watershed time spot.

How far do you agree with the comment that mass audiences are still passive recipients of media texts?

From what I have learned in lesson, I have found that this sounds like a very plausible and strong theory. One reason I believe this is that peoples opinions seemed to be based of what media is taken in. For example, someone brought up in an area were people are constantly against a topic, when brought up in an area that they may not oppose it, the person may still say they are against it. Another example, is what people think is attractive. This can be affected by gender and other factors, however during class when we talked about whether we thought that a female cover model was being represented as positive or negative. While males said they viewed the model as positive due to her being attractive, some of the females thought that she was being represented negatively, as if she were an object rather than a person. These different thoughts and opinions could have been brought out by what they personnally thought, however there is constantly claims similar to these opinions found throughout the media, which the class may have taken in passively, which would also again show the affect that passive media can have on a person, without them ever realising.