Sooooo.... where were we?
It's a date: the new edition of Road Kill Radio (produced by students in the radio class at ECA) will air November 27 at 6 PM on WPKN (www.wpkn.org) and will soon be posted on this site.
But what I really wanted to talk about this week is this question: To Censor or Not To Censor youth voices? When do words and ideas push the envelope (which is cool) and when do they cross the line (which is not -- as in gratuitous profanity, hate speech, etc.)? The current roster of Radio Elective students at ECA have talked a lot about this issue of late. It comes up frequently when we consider how to present edgy ideas, radio plays, music, creative writing or opinions -- the nuts and bolts of youth culture.
If students are staying within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decency guidelines and observing their community standards for speech and self-expression, should there be any topics or language which are out of bounds?
FYI: The FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/) disallows the use of the "seven deadly words" -- long live George Carlin! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words) -- on the air waves during the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM. So we "edit" them out of Road Kill Radio productions.
Who should decide the limits to creative expression and free speech? One of the missions of Youth Radio CT (and the shows hosted here) is to present students with the opportunity to decide this question for themseves.
So what is youth culture, anyway, and how can young people create and explore their world if they are always looking over their shoulders for Big Brother? I'm just sayin'...
And I'm also just askin' -- so I hope this kicks off a discussion of this question on this site (comments link below) and elsewhere.
Talk to you later,
PS -- For best results post comments as anonymous.
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5 comments:
I feel as though the censoring of the 7 words isn't a big deal. As in, I don't mind if they're censored, because I don't feel as if they are really necessary. They aren't integral to understanding a point, and if they are, there is usually a more tasteful way to get the point across.
yo yo yo whatup kids dis blog is mad nice super interesting and like totally rel rel to what we been doin up in da class. 7 censored words be jumpin out all the time when you be havin a regular conversation wit someone but when you recording a radio segment i'm all 4 keepin it classy keeping it PG you know make da broadcast 4 uurrybody like peeps of all ages n stuff. yo check this you know da FCC be trying to sensor mad tracks by Eminem back in tha day n ever since den i kinda been against em but in dis case i'm wit em you know mad heads dont needa be cursin up on da public air just fo da sake of it.
eitha way i aint complainin i aint offended by dem harsh words or nuttin cause you know i got mad street cred but i juss think rules is rules n urrbody should learn ta follow rules that aint tryna hurt nobody. aight y'all das it for me right now i gotta go watch some taxi cab confessions n fold mah laundry.
pCe
I approve of censorship only to an extent. I don't think people should go out of their way to censor themselves because sometimes being censored takes away from the message someone is trying to convey. However, parents are EXTREMELY!!!! protective of what their children watch, read, and listen to these days. In the end, it's really up to them, even if they are being really ******* stupid.
I'm personally thankful for RKR at ECA. It's a great oppritunity for me to say what I want and not what "Big Brother" wants to hear. I love any oppritunity to stick it to the man. ;)
Peace, Love, & All That Jazz
People could argue that having to bleep out a word that you say on your own show is hypocritical, but really it doesn't take away from the fact that you said it for whatever reason you though you should. It only acts as a sign of respect to the members of the audience who view certain profanity as unacceptable, which I guess is what the FCC is trying to do.
But think about it: what if you were allowed to do an uncensored show on fm radio that's available to all audiences just like disney radio (that's a thing, right?) You'd get calls and complaints and lawsuits from angry parents who try their best to control the information that reaches their seven-year-olds and have had all that effort destroyed when the kid hears Howard Stern drop the f-bomb on the car radio. I personally don't care how uptight the parent is, it just becomes an issue when you upset the audience and lose listeners in the process. Think about that whole thing with Imus in the Morning a few years ago. He made a pretty big racist slur in reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team which was made up of predominantly black players who were pretty aggressive on the court. I'm not sure if he had ever been that flagrantly racist before, but he lost most, if not all of his popularity due to that incident. The show was even cancelled that month (but was up and running again as of December that year). It just goes to show that the FCC isn't there to impede on your right of speech because they don't agree with what you're saying, they're just trying to protect you from the wrath of your audience, who will speak up and beat you to a pulp if they are offended.
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