Is censorship a way to control a mass audience

Is censorship a way to control a mass audience?

Censorship is the practice of officially examining the media and suppressing unacceptable parts.

In the 1920’s, I believe that censorship was a way to control a mass audience because of the Hay’s code which was put in place. The Hay’s code censored films so they weren’t allowed to show things such as: a woman’s leg above the knee, saying God, Lord or Christ in an offensive or rude way and showing scenes of actual child birth. However, I think that some things such as not showing leg above the knee was a but silly and harsh not to show as today we see much more than that, but in the 1920’s it was just as bad as us seeing complete nudity today.

Censorship now comes in many forms and one of them is watershed, which is not showing violence, sex ect before 9pm. The reason watershed was introduced was so young children up to the age of 15 didnt see certain things, as they presumed children would be asleep by this time. However, ‘presuming’ children would be asleep isn’t good enough as most 10-15 year olds go to sleep after9pm. When children do see programs or films after 9pm and witness certain things, this might encourage imitation as if they see things like it on television, they might assume it is acceptable to do.

Music and music videos played over the radio and television also have censorship as images and or bad language get edited out , or in some cases they will only be played after 9pm. Personally, i don’t think there is much point in bleeping bad language as the audience will most likely to guess what is supposed to be said. On internet websites such as youtube, nothing is censored and so young children are able to see and hear music such as “talk dirty to me” and miley cyrus’ song called wrecking ball where she is shown nude in the video. As a passive audience we have become so desensitised that we don’t really give it a second thought if we hear or see things that we know is not morally correct. This is because things like this have been exploited so much that we have become used to seeing it. to conclude, I do think that censorship is a way to control a mass audience, but only if it is seriously improved as it is not strong or strict enough.