Censorship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Censorship - Essay Example In my personal case, I would consider censorship to be the deliberate suppression of speech, communication, information, ideas and opinions in order to influence another person. Additionally, censorship can also be either good or bad or both, depending on the situation or what the author of an article entitled â€Å"The Ed Sullivan Show and the (Censored) Sounds of the Sixties† had termed as the contexts in which censorship occurs (Inglis 565). This article is an examination of the general and particular contexts in which censorship was imposed on the content of written and performance songs during the 1950s and the 1960s. The music industry at that time had seen the need to exercise censorship on some forms of music which they had found to be offensive to public morals such as glorification of sex, drugs, violence or political views. In particular, music industry executives were concerned with the immense popularity of rock & roll music within the younger generations and its capacity to influence these people with regards to song content such as references to blasphemy, sexual content, violence, drugs and political extremism. The period mentioned in article was one of political conservatism. Censorship is controversial because it conflicts with rights under the First Amendment which is guaranteed by the Constitution. However, censorship can change over time because a societys mores and values also change over time. This is the same case with a persons values which can change over the course of his lifetime. In other words, a person while younger may be liberal in most matters but then gradually becomes a conservative with regards to certain issues such as sex, choice of music, clothing preferences and political views. The issue of censorship is also a matter of personal opinion and this is what makes it an extremely controversial topic to discuss. A person may have different opinions