Hays Code – Ben V

Under several sections of the Hays Code it describes that crime should not be displayed and that “the courts of the land should not be presented unjust”. The movie Scarface did both by portrayed gangsters committing murder, as well as showing court and government officals dining with them (In the origional script). The censorship of Scarface was just under the pretense of the Hays Code. The changes to the movie helped viewers see the government in a more positive light. The corruption takes backstage to the integrity and perserverence of the police force as well as the ability of the courts to determine actual guilt at the end. The changes also made the movie more of a political film to prevent Camonte from appearing as a hero. The editor’s room scene shows that the general public did not like what Camonte was doing, and that it was not for the publics good.

Final proposal:shristi

Research question: Are there any exceptions or inconsistencies in the Bollywood censorship? What gets censored and what doesn’t?

Intrest/Importance: This topic intrests me for my personal reasons. I have been watching Bollywood movies since I was a little girl. Bollywood movies have taught me lots of things such as variety in Indian culture. Even more importantly, the Indian language which i solely learned from watching these movies. The lifestyles, characters, musicals, dances, clothings etc. that we can see in Bollywood movies fascinates me. Another important reason i chose this topic is because Bollywood is now one of the biggest film market. Bollywood movies are shown all around the world and watched by different people of different culture or nations. It is always fun to watch Bollywood movies so i want to explore more about it.

Plan: I am going to use 4 different movies and compare the censorship done in them.   Two of the movies are undercensored and the other movies are overcensored. For the sources, I have used different website reviews, some scholarly reviews. I have also used the movies themselves to give me the idea of how censorship has played inconsistencies among these movies. I have also referred to the Bollywood Censorship Guidelines ‘The Cinematograph Act’ which was produced in 1952 and was updated in 1983 to establish my argument. Another source that i found helpful and intresting is a radio interview of slate’s editor Andy Bower’s, posted in Slate website. Slate explains what get censored in Bollywood and also some information regarding self censorship.

Introduction:Bollywood is an international flim market. The movies produced in Bollywood travel from India to Nepal, Pakistan, London, USA and many other parts of world. These movies are made in different languages, with subtitles so that the people who do not understand Indian language can still enjoy the movie. A typical Bollywood movie would have love, romance, fights, a bad guy, a good guy, a beautiful actress, social conflicts, and many musicals. Bollywood. Bollywood movies not only have enocomnic importance in India and other parts of world but also have social influence. Bollywood movies aren’t just entairtainment methods but actually have moral, cultural values in them which is also one of the reason these movies are most of the time overly censored. The censorship board in India consists of the Indian Government and different actors and other membes of movie industry. (Bower, Slate). There are many guidelines to what can be presented in the movie and what gets cut off.  Bollywood has done some unjust censorship to the materials that are based on reality and need not be censored whereas the violence remains untouched. Censorship in Bollywood is inconsistent and does not always follow the censorship rules. Moreover, the censorship board has done unjust to some movies based on reality by censoring them and uncensoring the movies with unethical and violent content.

Research Paper Proposal- Aldrin J.

Research Question and why I think it’s important

Can playing videogames be beneficial to the player for you? I think this is important because every time video games and its effects are brought up they always say the negative things about it. I think it’s important for people to know that video games also have positive effects.

Thesis statement

Ever since the video games are first brought up, people have viewed it as something dangerous, but what most people don’t know is that it could be beneficial to you.

Intro Statement

People regard videogames as a dangerous form of entertainment because of the life like violence that it shows children, but what they don’t know is there are many ways that playing games could benefit a child.

Plan

My plan is to use the information I find as supporting statement for my research paper, and support it using examples that could apply to most people.  Then show scientific studies that actually showed that videogames could have positive effects.

Research Question: What are the popular arguments for and against censoring pornography?

Interest: The pornography industry has expanded throughout the years and censorship is applied to this type of entertainment as well.

Outline:

1. Introduction
   1. Thesis
   2. What will be discussed in paper

1. Main Body
   1. How pornography effect our confidence
      1. Confidence builder, educational, shows new ways to express yourself
      2. Makes people feel below “standards”. Then people begin to devalue themselves.
   2. How pornography shapes our perception of sex
      1. Often gives people a first impression of what sex is like
      2. Some say it is simply an art form and “real sex” is much better
   3. How does it impact our children
      1. Harris Poll- what is  the greatest impact of pornography on children?

• 30% distorts boys expectations about women and sex
• 25% kids are encouraged to have sex at an earlier age
• 7% distorts girls body images
• 6% kids are more likely to watch porn as adults
• 2% helps kids understand sex better
• 9% say it has no impacts at all

1. How does it effect our relationships
   1. Not cheatingà so encourages devotion
   2. Revives relationships- “adds spice”
   3. How does it effect the way we think about women
      1. Degrades women into sex objects (Daitchman)
      2. Helps women gain independence- as they leave abusive relationships and reestablish  with the money earn in the pornography industry (Daitchman)
   4. Does pornography foster violence
      1. A 10% increase in net access yields a 7.3% decrease in reported rapes (Slate)

III.  Arguments for & against censorship

1. Against Censorship
   1. Judge Sara Barker- “”To deny free speech in order to engineer social change in the name of accomplishing a greater good for one sector of our society erodes the freedoms of all and … threatens tyranny and injustice for those subjected to the rule of such laws.” (Introduction to Pornography: Opposing Viewpoints)
   2. Feminist and author- Leanne Katz, writes that anti-pornography laws will result in “the demonizing, eventually, of art and information and entertainment. Restrictions on sexually related materials invariably affect all those other things.”
   3. The National Research Council’s Panel on Understanding and Preventing Violence concluded, in a 1993 survey of laboratory studies, that “demonstrated empirical links between pornography and sex crimes in general are weak or absent.” (ACLU article)

                   4. There’s no persuasive evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to sexually explicit material and crimes like rape or sexual abuse, or between viewing violence and committing violent crimes.  (LA Times)

1. For Censorship
   1. Pornography is a harmless expression of human sexuality. It depicts human behavior and that neither the act of sex nor the act of viewing sex is immoral. (Introduction to Pornography: Opposing Viewpoints)
   2. After all, if you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you have also to believe that no one was ever improved by a book. (Dr. Kristol)
   3. “if you care for the quality of life in our American democracy, then you have to be for censorship.” (Dr. Kristol)
   4. Obscenity is not “within the area of constitutionally protected speech or press.” The Court noted that the First Amendment was not intended to protect every utterance or form of expression, such as materials that were “utterly without redeeming social importance.” (Roth v. United States)

16-Research Paper Proposal and Post

A complete draft of your final research paper proposal and annotated bibliography due in print form at the beginning of class on April 30th.  You will exchange papers in class and use an editing sheet to comment on each others’ drafts.  A revised version of your proposal (3-4 pages typed with section headings) is due at the beginning of class on May 5th.  During class on May 5th, you will make a brief presentation of your question, your plan for answering it, why you think the paper would be interesting and/or important, and what the most interesting and/or useful source you found was.  Before class that day you should also have posted your question, plan and statement of interest/importance to the class blog.  Use the New Post link in the blue area at the top of the page. Remember to check paper proposal (under Assignments) and your name (under People) in the category boxes to the right of the posting area and title your post Research Paper Proposal and include your first name and last initial.   

Your final research paper proposal will have to include:  1)    a research question and short statement of why this question is interesting and/or important; 2)   a thesis; 3)  an introduction and statement of what you will argue/the position you will take; 4)  a plan for how you would use your sources in developing and supporting your argument; and 5)  an annotated works cited list (in MLA, APA or Chicago) with at least three peer reviewed scholarly articles or material located with a library database (like old newspaper reviews), three books, and three other sources of your choosing.   Under each Works Cited item you will include a brief account of what they say, how you will use them, their reliability, and the perspective from which they are written.  To see the proper format for citing articles you find in online databases (provided by the library or other services) see: 
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_s2.html#31 for MLA and 
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_s2.html#20 for APA. 

Your bibliography should include a detailed account of the reliability of the sources you found and their usefulness in answering your research question (what they say specifically and how you will use them).  Also include an account of how you found your sources (library database, LOC subject heading, search engine, etc.).  Include at least three books (specific chapters or sections), three web pages or other soureces, and three articles from refereed journals (or other items you found with the library databases).  Follow Diana Hacker’s model for MLA citations (unless you have been trained in another format in a course in your major).  Put your annotations in a paragraph under each citation entry.

Prince- Baha A

Prince believes that a film should not be censored because of its content.  He thinks that how a film is shot, and the sound is what might need to be censored. Prince believes sound has a big part in the apperance of violence. He believes that if the film Scareface would have changed its theme on a little less violent then it would’ve passed the ceasonorship board.  Prince believes that Scareface shouldn’t have shown a lot of weapons.

Johnson’s blog:shristi

personlly, since i have never really been fascinated by the video games, I did not enjoy Johnson as much as i enjoyed Minow’s reading.

Johnson’s main argument is that video games do not do any sort of harm to the children; they rather help and nurture the children’s mind. Johnson argued that video games are produced in a way that the game player can not only be entertained but also learn to use his brain more. The modern programs and games are structured in such a way that they make the audience or the players’ think and calculate which can help them to be more smarter. Johnson establishes the connection between the entertainment, fun part of the video games with the brain science to make his claim more strong. “”If you create a system where rewards are both clearly defined and achieved by exploring an environment, you’ll find human brains drawn to those systems, even if they’re made up of virtual characters and simulated sidewalks. It’s not the subject matter of these games that attracts – if that were the case, you’d never see twenty-somethings following absurd rescue-the-princess storylines like the best selling Zelda  series on the Nintendo  platform. It’s the reward system that draws those players in, and keeps their famously short attention spans locked on the screen. No other form of entertainment offers that cocktail of reward and exploration”. (Johnson, 2005). Video games’ maker make the video games in such a manner that they excite the neuro transmitters of the player, giving him more excitement and making him more sharp.  Overall, Johnson claims that video games are produced to entertain the children as well as utilise their brain capacity which makes them more smarter and technical. Even though Johnson makes a very strong claim and provides scientific evidences, I am still going to disagree with him because he does not consider the negatives aspects of the video games. In my opinion, video games will do no harm only if it is used in a proper manner depending on the time used as well as the content of the video games. Video Games that constitute of explicit and violent materials can play with the NT of the player’s brain and can alter his way of perceiving other things.  Also if the game player is playing the game too much, that can not only harm his brain transmitters but will also make him socially less valuable as he gets addicted to the games…

Prince on Violence- Emily M

I think Prince’s ideas about violence were somewhat relevant and applicable to the 1932 film Scarface. I thought the eleven don’ts and twenty-five be carefuls thing was interesting and applicable. One thing I noticed was that violence didn’t seem like as big of a risk portraying as sexual content did, however, violence in the films often times leads to death and sexual content is more natural and I would think, less offensive. One thing mentioned was that they began to judge films with Catholic principle, so this is were I began to see why sexual content is more censored than violence. The bible has all types of violent stories and violence is very prominent, however, sexual acts are highly discouraged and scourned upon so using Catholic principles as a model could have been why they were more nervous about incest and sexual relationships than murder. In Musketeers of Pig Alley, I also noticed that the relationship between the musician and the little lady was limited in expression to hugs and embraces, they did not kiss. However, there was a whole gang war in the alley. I think it’s really weird that movie censors showed more murder than acts of intimacy.  

I think Prince was right when he talked about how visual and audio effects influence the intensity of violent scenes. When there is a cloud of smoke hanging over where all the action is taking place, as was the case in Musketeers of Pig Alley, it is less frightening than in the 1983 Scarface and even 1932 Scarface where there were more details and it was very blatantly portrayed. Also, there was not much portrayal of suffering when the violent acts took place. When people were gunned down it was quick and mostly quiet, which was preferred by the code. Also mentioned is the portrayal of criminality and disrespect of the clergy. There was criminality and disrespect towards the clergy in Scarface 1932 but it was mostly subtle and implied than bluntly portrayed. I think violence was definitely portrayed throughout the 1932 Scarface, but not to the extent where it became too difficult to watch or incredible offensive.

Prince – Aliyah G

Prince thinks the content on the film should not be a reason it has to be censored. Instead he wants censoring to be based on the way scenes were shot,  sound, and editing. These elements are what determines the level of violence to be seen by the public. Themes expressed in the film can be changed rather than alter the specific scenes inorder to pass the censorship barriers.  Prince thinks if the film Scarface changed its theme to something more subtle rather than focusing on gun laundering and violence. These minor changes would of ultimately allowed the film to be viewed much more uncesored.

Prince – Aldrin J.

Prince believe that a film should not just be censored based on the content of the film, but on other things as well, like how the scene was shot, sound, and editing. He believes that these things are what gives the violence that extra kick. He thinks that in order to make a film pass the censorship process is to alter the films theme rather than alter the specific scenes.  He thinks that if the film Scarface changed its theme to something more like able rather than focusing on gun laundering and violence , it would have passed the censorship board a lot easier.