Censorship Research

Censorship is the assassination of ideas. It causes people to be ignorant which makes them not pay any attention to the world around them. Many people see what is happening right in front of them but choose to not direct their attention, not knowing if something terrible is going on. Censorship conceals all the things that would make people have their own voice. It prevents all of the ideas that are made from people to be heard.

Censorship is a concept with several different meanings. To each individual censorship has its own meaning. Is it a violation of our rights or is it a protection for our well being? Censorship in the generic sense refers to the suppression of information, ideas, or opinions. It occurs in all forms of communication from technological media to print media. Each society, culture, or individual's belief is violated by the codes of censorship that our society instills.

Censorship dates all the way back to 443 BC in ancient Rome with the Office of Censor. In that time this was an office of great repute, the Office of Censor was charged with the shaping of the character of the people. Thus it was considered to be an honorable task, since then the connotation of the word and such an office has changed greatly. Today censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc. and suppressing “unacceptable parts” based on whoever is defining “unacceptable.” Unacceptable has been considered to be a wide range of concepts from ideas to sexually explicit content. Historically in the USSR most leaders used censorship in every form as a means of suppressing whatever or whoever was perceived as a

Censorship is the censoring of forms of media like books or TV because they are deemed immoral or inconvenient. Censorship should not be justified in any form because censorship can be harmful to society. There are numerous examples of how censorship can damage a society in the book Fahrenheit 451 and in society. In Fahrenheit 451, it is shown how censorship affects their society negatively, and in society it can be seen how censorship affects many. Censorship can harm society by leading people to be unknowledgeable, and censorship allows people to have a narrow perception of society.

Censorship is not easy to define. According to Webster’s Dictionary, to "censor" means "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable." Its central characteristic is the suppression of an idea or image because it offends or disturbs someone, or because they disagree with it. In many countries, censorship is most often directed at political ideas or criticism of the government. In the United States, censorship more often involves social issues, and in school is commonly directed at so-called "controversial" materials.

Censorship is the act of removing specific parts in movies, books, and songs because it is unacceptable to people. Khaled Hosseini’s

Censorship has existed for as long as free thought has. The earliest instance of censorship recorded in history is marked by the death of the earliest and most famous philosopher, Socrates. As Geoff Kemp recounts in his book, Censorship Moments: readings Texts in the History of Censorship and Freedom, Socrates in the ancient Roman society was viewed as “a threat to the city and its young.” Cato, a politician and statesman in ancient Greece who led the charge against Socrates “sensed in Socratic philosophy, a threat to the traditional values of the city – one based on Socrates’ claim that wisdom lay in knowing that he did not know.” (Kemp) While Socrates encouraged his followers to question the laws and customs that they took for

Censorship as defined by Wikipedia is “the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Censorship is: “The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security:” In practice this means that anything deemed offensive by certain authorities may be banned,for example: Criticism of a regime in songs.

The word censorship is from the Latin word root of censere, which means to give an opinion or expression to be judged upon. Censorship is the restriction of certain material, and due to its expression it is seen offensive to someone else. The origin of expression of censorship can be tracked back to the Roman Empire when Roman officials assessed the conduct and attitudes of other Roman citizens. The Roman government viewed that in order to have a strong government, the behavior and conduct of the peopled had to be changed according to what they thought was correct. Censorship continued to be a controversy over time. It remained a controversy over time, through many empires, the age of Enlightenment, World War II, and even today. As censorship progressed through the ages it still continues today. Today, censorship occurs at schools. It occurs in libraries, classrooms, and even in student publications. Even though censorship can occur to a certain extent at schools, students’ First Amendment rights are still protected at school. The First Amendment protects freedom of expression, speech, press, religion, and assembly. Students are allowed to express themselves freely at school as long as they do not affect the education and as long as it is not an activity supported by the school system.

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) defines censorship as: “The removal, suppression, or restricted circulation of literary, artistic, or educational materials… of images, ideas, and information…on

The censorship of books is a division of censorship that, apart from Internet censorship, receives the most publicity. Banning books is the most popular form of such censorship. Many banned books are literary classics,

Laurie Halse Anderson once said, “Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” Censorship, by definition, is suppressing people from looking at books, movies, et cetera. In Fahrenheit 451 and The Book Thief, the government forces their community and the citizens within it to censor out what they read and look at. They do this out of fear of the people turning back on them and rebelling. And sometimes people censor themselves to stay blissfully unaware of the terror that surrounds them.

Today, censorship is in place in more ways than you can imagine. As mentioned previously, movies, music, television, and more are filtered one way or another. Some people go to such lengths as illegal means of spreading materials deemed inappropriate for a certain viewing audience.

Great post! I agree with you that online is a platform where people can sure their ideas and opinions. People have the choice what to read online and what not. I think self-censorship shouldn’t be used because maybe someone will get offended. It is our First Amendment protects the rights, freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference(Hawkins, 2012). We don’t have to be politic correct all the time in order to please people, however, is our constitutional right to express our self freely.