Censorship can never be justified. Do you agree?

To censor means to ‘read publications or correspondence or to watch theatrical performances and suppress in whole or in part anything considered obscene or politically unacceptable’. However, to each and every individual, the term ‘obscene’ and ‘politically unacceptable’ may mean different levels of interpretation. Thus, censorship is extremely difficult, and thus can never be justified.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Censor

There are many forms of things awaiting censorship by the government, eg. Books, TV programmes, movies, music and even advertisements. This makes censorship even harder. Take for example live performance. It may include a ‘revealing’ dance, and this might be censored by the conservative local authorities who then order them to remove that part of the show. However, to the audience, the ‘revealing’ dance might not be as open as they see it. It might just be a normal everyday thing, and they see no reason why it should n
ot be allowed.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=censor&id=276945

Moreover, even if censorship does occur to eliminate the parts deemed inappropriate by censors, the meaning of the whole idea or concept will still be there! For example, a violent movie has its most bloody and gruesome scenes removed, yet the rest of the movie is still saturated with the idea of extreme brutality and condensed with bloodshed. However, the government could not totally ban such movies which are in popular demand! Otherwise, the people will still buy VCDs and DVDs from neighbouring countries for viewing.

However, there is certainly a kind of social customs and culture in an area, and censorship can be carried out especially for the people living there. There should have somehow a similar attitude towards what is acceptable and what is not in that unique and special culture of theirs. Yet again, a cosmopolitan area like Singapore has migrants from all over the world. The Chinese are traditionally more conservative, while the Caucasians are generally more open. Thus, conflicting views may arise due to the great differncein their beliefs.

Thus, we can see the limitations to censorship, and many controversies have arisen because of the different levels of acceptance of certain sensitive areas, including politcs. There isn’t a clear-cut line drawing a difference between the morally right and wrong, and thus, censorship can never be justified.

The mass media exerts a greater influence over teenagers today than their parents. Do you agree?

Comparing the amount of time most teenagers spend with their family, and the amount of time they spend on entertainment with their friends, I believe few would disagree that parents have increasing lost control over the moral values and mindsets of their children. More often than not, the mass media forms a great part of the entertainment enjoyed by teenagers, e.g. internet, movies and television programmes. Thus, the larger amount of time teenagers spend with the mass media than with their parents makes me come to the point that the former does exerts a greater influence on teenagers today than their parents.
http://www.bc.edu/sites/genpulse/issues/media.html

Mass media is thought to be the ‘hip’ thing and many will not hesitate to follow the trends set by celebrities, depicted through TV variety shows and so on The inculcate of Western values e.g. human rights has become the cause of many disputes within a family, and evidence can be shown by the numerous cases of rebellious teenagers leaving home. Other than that, in many countries, tobacco companies have realized the great impact celebrities have on their audiences, and thus make use of their influencing power to attract more potential customers. This is very effective in changing the mindset of teenagers, despite the incalculable attempts by their parents asking them not to smoke.
http://www.tvparty.com/vaultcomcig.html

Teenagers tend to find their parents naggy, especially when they keep harping on what they should or should not do. This is especially true when they continuously mention about traditional values that people should follow, and teenagers find them nothing but country pumpkins who know nothing. In that case, teenagers have a very low possibility of listening and applying what their parents have taught them. Conversely, “values” taught to them through interesting means like movies tend to leave a great impact on the minds of teenagers and they tend to apply them in their daily lives.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/television/tv_impact_kids.cfm

However, strict parents have direct control over their children, which enables them to instill discipline in them, and not to follow mindless trends blindly. They can do so, perhaps by restricting them to the amount of media they are exposed to, e.g. no violent movies. Severe control would mean punishment if they go against the rules set by their parents. But then, this would again make teenagers today rebel even more as they hate to be restricted, and are already used to the notion of freedom. Thus, parents seem to have little control or influence on their children compared to the media.

In conclusion, I agree to a large extent that the media exerts a greater influence on most teenagers today than their parents. Thus, it would be of utmost importance that the media is imparting the correct moral values to the current generations who would be the pillars of our society in the days to come.

The media corrupts our society. Do you agree?

I cannot, but agree to a large extent that the media has slowly permeated our life and corrupted our society. The corruption I meant refers to the disregard of moral and social values the various forms of media has resulted in.

Blogging— the most fashionable way of writing journals in today’s society. Other than a channel for stressed populace to express their pent-up emotions, blog has also become a dangerous trap where bloggers may be prosecuted for their irresponsible remarks.
http://paultan.org/archives/2005/09/12/singaporean-bloggers-charged-under-sedition-act/
“SINGAPORE : For the first time in Singapore, two bloggers have been charged under the Sedition Act for making racist remarks.” The media has played a very important role in shaping the minds of the people today. The ‘freedom of speech’ on blogs has led masses to believe that they can comment on whatever things they like, and get away with it, but apparently not.

A renowned blogger, Wendy, is well known in Singapore for her sarcastic criticism of everyone and everything around her in her blog. So high is her popularity that advertisers even pay her so as to put their advertisements at her blog. Doesn’t this encourage bloggers to post as sarcastic and as mean a comment on their blogs, to attract attention so that they get paid for that?
http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/2005/02/what-celebrity-where.html


Other than blogging, catching a movie during weekends with friends has become a favourite pastime with people today. However, did you notice that the number of violent movies has increased significantly from the past till now? Reports have shown that movie violence has indeed increase violence crimes, and what does this goes to show? It simply means that the movie, which is a form of media, has resulted in the corruption of the society! Youngsters and even immature adults imitate the characters in the movies, and bring harm in our society. Movies saturated with violence are still produced despite the dire consequences they bring about, thus bringing harm and corrupting the society.
http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/moviescrime06-07-31.pdf

From the various evidence gathered, I conclude that the media has played a significant role in corrupting the society.