Classwork Media censorship 

1. Examples of censorship happening with Disney plus. What and why?

- Disney Plus banned the movie 'Song of the South' because of the racially insensitive content that was within the child's film. The removal of this film caused controversy and is really in a "lose-lose situation" either way.  People are complaining that this is not appropriate for children, but it also leaves kids uneducated on the history and there is now nothing stopping them from repeating the same mistakes. The same thing happened with Dumbo but in this instance, it was the producers of the film who actually purposely portrayed the movie and the characters in the light of racially profiling them. The crows in the movie are the only persona in the movie where the characters appear to be 'black' or represent the way a colored person should act, simply seen as 'stupid' in the movie. 

2. Examples of censorship in other countries (include in this, notes from our China censorship studies in last year's study notes)

- Many different media sources are becoming banned in China because it is seen as offensive or to be attacking the government or people in a higher power. The movie 'Coco' was originally not going to be shown or allowed in China because it was a movie about the dead and after-life which is not allowed in their country, but after being reviewed by different critics it was allowed to be streamed after the people who judged it came away crying from how touching the movie was. Another example is when 'The shape of water' was released, China took the movie and censored it because it showed nudity. They edited a black tube dress onto the character to cover her body. 'The interview' is a classic showcase of how China went to so many lengths to have the film not even showcased in ANY country because of how much it attacked the government and their leader Kim Jong-un. They threatened the production companies and hacked their systems in order to remove the movie. 

3. Points for/against censorship as presented in this clip - should art be censored?
* if something is wrong but it is part of history, should it be cut out as to not offend people today? Where is that line in society? Who is making these decisions?

- There are different situations where censorship can be allowed where the audience as a whole body can make a judgment and agree that it can be too much. An example of this is in 'Sister street fighter' where for a brief second a poster was shown on the wall that displayed an image of a child/minor in a sexually compromising position. A point was made that kids are off-limits as they are to be protected and shouldn't be used in that type of scenery. But then who has the right to say what people can view or cant. Hiding someone's 'art' but then what is to be considered as a true art form. That scene is now taken out, but when do they put the scissors down. If they can chop that what else are they free to edit and pull apart. We are seen to be in a "Golden age of censorship", but is this stopping the younger generations from learning about the mistakes of the past and learning the importance of knowing right from wrong and being able to differentiate between the two. Instead of completely editing/destroying someone's creative vision, have disclaimers or warnings on different things so that the audience can then decide for themselves and as far as children streaming, parents need to make the call with how involved they want to be with what their child is watching. 

4. What are some issues around censorship in our modern world and how we are consuming media?

- The main point is we need to EDUCATE people and how they chose to view their media and the type of things that they are portraying to themselves and others. In this day and age, we live in a world where it is so easy to stream different videos and media sources. The availability of media is a lot easier than it used to be and is now portable amongst many devices. Parents or guardians have less control over what the people they care for are taking in. Different things are censored or banned for good reason for example violent games are often not allowed in various countries. Producers and the people making the media are considering them ass art forms and we shouldn't have the right to edit or disagree with a person's form of expression.