We are all affected by media censorship. It doesn�t matter what we watch, listen to, or read, it has all gone through some form of censorship; it is the reality of our daily lives. But where is the line that limits what is appropriate and what is not, where are the standards, what really is censorship? The Houghton Mifflin Canadian Dictionary of the English Language (a copy f which is available in our very own CTS lab) defines the term censor as �an authorized examiner of literature, play or other material who may prohibit what he considers morally or otherwise objectionable�, and goes on to define censorship as �the act or process of censoring.� In essence this means that when something is censored it is up to the complete discretion of one person to determine what is expectable and what is not. If one goes solely by the literal definition of censorship, then one person should be censoring all forms of media, using their own moral standards. However in this day and age this is just not practical. One person could never censor all the forms of media, it�s purely impossible, and so the work is spread around. The classic example of this is the newspaper editor. It is up to this editor to not only fix grammatical and spelling errors in a piece but to decide if the piece itself will be offensive to anyone, and to then edit that piece to eliminate the questionable content without losing the original meaning of the piece. But is that really what happens when we submit our work to the people we trust to edit them. It is indeed a bond of trust when one pours their heart and soul into their work, then gives it to someone to pick apart. You trust that person to be as gentle as possible and to not destroy your original idea. For this piece to come to you it has gone through at least three different editors, and rigorous rounds of revising, yet I can only hope that my original purpose is conveyed to you the reader. What is this purpose I speak of? It is my intent to educate you, the reader, on the meaning of censorship, on the actual application of censorship and to encourage you to question the censorship that you are experiencing in your day-to-day life. Censorship in itself is not a bad thing; in fact it can often be a good thing. By censoring certain military information from our papers, we insure national security. By removing the names of juvenile offenders we help to insure that once reformed they will not face undue discrimination because of their past. We often use censorship to attempt to raise our children as moral, well-behaved individuals but not allowing them to hear swearing and view violent films. But do we know for sure we�re doing the right thing? Who are we to say what is objectionable and what is not? It�s true that some things are flat out offensive to nearly everyone, such as racist comments, but there are other things that could be considered offensive to some, but perfectly acceptable to others. For instance references to homosexuality are considered offensive to some, but are a perfectly acceptable topic of conversation to others. It all depends on your personal beliefs. And that is were the flaw in censorship lies. Without guidelines, everything and anything can be considered offensive. Thus guidelines that are agreed upon prior to the creation of the work to be edited are necessary, unfortunately this seems to be something grossly overlooked. Many places, such as our own Carroll Voice do not have predetermined guidelines for what is expectable. Now of course there will have to be some room for movement around the rules. Some things get missed when the rules are created, or something changes, but rules and guidelines are at the very least a start. Then there is the issue of personal censorship. Just because you don�t want to read, hear or see something doesn�t mean that everyone share your personal beliefs. If you don�t want to read it, then don�t. It�s almost that simple. Yes there are things you find offensive to the core of your being, in which case it is your responsibility it speak out, just be sure not to become hypocritical. Censorship is treacherous subject, because it is all relevant to the audience, the times and to the beliefs of the institution that is doing the publishing. But people need to come to realize that not everything different is bad or threatening. There are so many things I could write about but ironically I am censoring myself. I know that you may not share my opinions and I do not want to offend you, but I don�t need these other example and statements to get my message across. Watch, read, listen, THINK. Ultimately we have to face the issues that we may not see in film, and hear in music or watch on television. Nobody censors what we see on the streets (aside from a few laws abut public nudity) and eventually you will have to deal with these things, so whether the are introduced to you through the censored mass media or through a street corner conversation, always remember to think about what you are watching. Think about what may have been taken out, added in, or altered, and I encourage you to start with this piece. Write feedback, send e-mails about it, talk to people about how you hated it, or loved it, write a counter article, do something, anything but sit ideally by. Think.