15.4 Censorship and Freedom of Speech

To fully understand the issues of censorship and freedom of speech and how they apply to modern media, first explore the terms themselves. Censorship occurs with the suppression or removal of any content deemed objectionable, like a “bleeped” out word aired during a radio or television broadcast. More controversial censorship occurs at a political or religious level. Instances range from removing books from school libraries or watching a “clean” version of a movie on an airplane.

Much as media legislation can cause controversy due to First Amendment protections, critics routinely debate censorship in the media. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press (Case Summaries).” Under this definition, the term “speech” extends to a broader sense of “expression,” meaning verbal, nonverbal, visual, or symbolic expression. Historically, many individuals have cited the First Amendment when protesting FCC decisions to censor certain media products or programs. However, many people do not realize that U.S. law establishes several exceptions to free speech, including defamation, hate speech, breach of the peace, incitement to crime, sedition, and obscenity.

Classifying Material as Indecent, Obscene, or Profane

To comply with U.S. law, the FCC prohibits broadcasters from airing obscene programming. The FCC decides whether or not to define material as obscene by applying a three-prong test.

Obscene material:

1. causes the average person to have lustful or sexual thoughts;
2. depicts lawfully offensive sexual conduct; and
3. lacks literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

If the material meets all of these criteria (like hardcore pornography, for instance) then it is officially considered obscene (Federal Communications Commission). “Indecent” material, on the other hand, has some First Amendment protection.

Indecent material:

1. contains graphic sexual or excretory depictions;
2. dwells at length on depictions of sexual or excretory organs; and
3. exists simply to shock or arouse an audience.

Stations cannot broadcast indecent material between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., to decrease the likelihood of children’s exposure to it (Federal Communications Commission).

These classifications symbolize the media’s long struggle to delineate the classification of appropriate versus inappropriate material. Despite the existence of the guidelines, however, the process of categorizing materials is a long and arduous one.

The formalized process  starts with the FCC, which relies on television audiences to alert the agency of potentially controversial material that may require classification. The commission asks the public to file a complaint via letter, e-mail, fax, telephone, or the agency’s website , including the station, the community, and the date and time of the broadcast. The complaint should “contain enough detail about the material broadcast that the FCC can understand the exact words and language used (Federal Communications Commission).” Citizens may also submit tapes or transcripts of the aired material. Upon receiving a complaint, the FCC logs it in a database, which a staff member then accesses to perform an initial review. If necessary, the agency may contact either the station licensee or the individual who filed the complaint for further information.

Once the FCC has conducted a thorough investigation, it determines a final classification for the material. In the case of profane or indecent material, the agency may take further actions, including possibly fining the network or station (Federal Communications Commission). If the FCC determines the station aired obscene material, it will instead refer the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice, which has the authority to criminally prosecute the media outlet. If convicted in court, violators face criminal fines and/or imprisonment (Federal Communications Commission).

Each year, the FCC receives thousands of complaints regarding obscene, indecent, or profane programming. While the agency ultimately defines most programs cited in the complaints as appropriate, many complaints require in-depth investigation and may result in fines called notices of apparent liability (NAL) or federal investigation.

Violence and Sex: Taboos in Entertainment

Although popular memory thinks of old black-and-white movies as tame or sanitized, many early filmmakers filled their movies with sexual or violent content. Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery, for example, expressed “the appealing, deeply embedded nature of violence in the frontier experience and the American civilizing process,” and showcases “the rather spontaneous way that the attendant violence appears in the earliest developments of cinema (Film Reference).” The film ends with an image of a gunman firing a revolver directly at the camera, demonstrating that cinema’s fascination with violence persisted even 100 years ago.

Films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) notoriously featured overt portrayals of violent activities. The director of both films, D. W. Griffith, intentionally portrayed content graphically because he “believed that the portrayal of violence must be uncompromised to show its consequences for humanity (Film Reference).”

Hays Code

Although audiences responded eagerly to the new medium of film, some naysayers believed that Hollywood films and their associated hedonistic culture induced a negative moral influence. As indicated in Chapter 8 “M ovies”, this changed during the 1930s with the implementation of the Hays Code. Formally termed the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, the code became associated with the name of its author, Will Hays, the chairman of the industry’s self-regulatory Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which was founded in 1922 to “police all in-house productions (Film Reference).” Created to forestall the perceived looming governmental intervention over the industry, the Hays Code, essentially, saw Hollywood engage in self-censorship. The code displayed the motion picture industry’s commitment to the public, stating:

Motion picture producers recognize the high trust and confidence which have been placed in them by the people of the world and which have made motion pictures a universal form of entertainment…. Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily as entertainment without any explicit purposes of teaching or propaganda, they know that the motion picture within its own field of entertainment may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking (Arts Reformation).

Among other requirements, the Hays Code enacted strict guidelines on the portrayal of violence. Films could not depict crimes such as murder, theft, robbery, safecracking, and “dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc.” (Arts Reformation). The code also addressed the portrayals of sex, saying that “the sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing” (Arts Reformation).

As television grew in popularity during the mid-1900s, the strict code placed on the film industry spread to other forms of visual media. Many early sitcoms, for example, showed married couples sleeping in separate twin beds to avoid suggesting sexual relations.

By the end of the 1940s, the MPPDA had begun to relax the rigid regulations of the Hays Code. Propelled by the changing moral standards of the 1950s and 1960s, this led to a gradual reintroduction of violence and sex into mass media.

Ratings Systems

As filmmakers began pushing the boundaries of acceptable visual content, the Hollywood studio industry scrambled to create a system to ensure appropriate audiences for films. In 1968, the successor of the MPPDA, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), established the familiar film ratings system to help alert potential audiences to the type of content they could expect from a production.

Film Ratings

Although the ratings system changed slightly in its early years, by 1972 it seemed that the MPAA had settled on its ratings. These ratings consisted of G (general audiences), PG (parental guidance suggested), R (restricted to ages 17 or up unless accompanied by a parent), and X (completely restricted to ages 17 and up). The system worked until 1984, when several major battles took place over controversial material. During that year, the highly popular films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins both premiered with a PG rating. Both films—and subsequently the MPAA—received criticism for the explicit violence presented on screen, which many viewers considered too intense for the relatively mild PG rating. In response to the complaints, the MPAA introduced the PG-13 rating to indicate that parents may find some material inappropriate for children under the age of 13.

Another change came to the ratings system in 1990, with the introduction of the NC-17 rating. Carrying the same restrictions as the existing X rating, the new designation came at the behest of the film industry to distinguish mature films from pornographic ones.  Despite the arguably milder format of the rating’s name, many filmmakers find it too strict in practice; receiving an NC-17 rating often leads to a lack of promotion or distribution because numerous movie theaters and rental outlets refuse to carry films with this rating, though successful raunchy comedies and horror films sometimes release “unrated” versions in the secondary market after the theatrical release.

Television and Video Game Ratings

Regardless of these criticisms, most audience members find the rating system helpful, particularly when determining the appropriateness of content for children. The adoption of industry ratings for television programs and video games reflects the success of the film ratings system. During the 1990s, for example, the broadcasting industry introduced a voluntary rating system not unlike that used for films to accompany all TV shows. Stations display these ratings on screen during the first 15 seconds of a program and include TV-Y (all children), TV-Y7 (children ages 7 and up), TV-Y7-FV (older children—fantasy violence), TV-G (general audience), TV-PG (parental guidance suggested), TV-14 (parents strongly cautioned), and TV-MA (mature audiences only ).

Television Ratings System

Rating	Meaning	Examples of Programs
TV-Y	Appropriate for all children	Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, Dora the Explorer
TV-Y7	Designed for children ages 7 and up	SpongeBob SquarePants, Captain Planet
TV-Y7-FV	Directed toward older children; includes depictions of fantasy violence	The Powerpuff Girls, Pokémon, Avatar: The Last Airbender
TV-G	Suitable for general audiences; contains little or no violence, no strong language, and little or no sexual material	Hannah Montana, The Price Is Right, American Idol
TV-PG	Parental guidance suggested	The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne
TV-14	Parents strongly cautioned; contains suggestive dialogue, strong language, and sexual or violent situations	Saturday Night Live, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Jersey Shore
TV-MA	Mature audiences only	South Park, The Boondocks, The Shield

Source: http://www.tvguidelines.org/ratings.htm

At about the same time that television ratings appeared, the Entertainment Software Rating Board was established to provide ratings on video games. Video game ratings include EC (early childhood), E (everyone), E 10+ (ages 10 and older), T (teen), M (mature), and AO (adults only).

Video Game Ratings System

Rating	Meaning	Examples of Games
EC	Designed for early childhood, children ages 3 and older	Nickelodeon BINGO, Winnie the Pooh ABC’s, Elmo’s World
E	Suitable for everyone over the age of 6; contains minimal fantasy violence and mild language	Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Little Big Planet, Frogger, Myst
E 10+	Appropriate for ages 10 and older; may contain more violence and/or slightly suggestive themes	Dance Dance Revolution, Tales of Monkey Island, Rock Band, Scribblenauts
T	Content is appropriate for teens (ages 13 and older); may contain violence, crude humor, sexually suggestive themes, use of strong language, and/or simulated gambling	Final Fantasy XIV, The Sims 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl
M	Mature content for ages 17 and older; includes intense violence and/or sexual content	Quake, Grand Theft Auto IV, God of War, Fallout 3
AO	Adults (18+) only; contains graphic sexual content and/or prolonged violence	Playboy Mansion: Private Party, Manhunt 2

Source: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

Even with these ratings, the video game industry has long endured criticism over violence and sex in video games. One of the top-selling video game series in the world, Grand Theft Auto , allows players to solicit prostitutes or murder civilians (Media Awareness). In 2010, a report claimed that “38 percent of the female characters in video games are scantily clad, 23 percent baring breasts or cleavage, 31 percent exposing thighs, another 31 percent exposing stomachs or midriffs, and 15 percent baring their behinds (Media Awareness).”  Despite multiple lawsuits, some video game creators stand by their decisions to place graphic displays of violence and sex in their games on the grounds of freedom of speech.