Communication Law in the USA - Essay Example

? Communication Law Communication Law Earlier, American courts used the English rule where material was judged by the effect of isolated passages specifically on vulnerable people. Prosecution for obscenity started to occur in the 19th century in this nation. Many states adopted their first obscenity laws in 1820s till late 1830s. The first federal law on obscenity was passed in 1842. In the wake of civil war, the government was actively prosecuting obscenity and in 1873, a new strict law was developed and adopted by the congress. During that time, obscenity was defined as anything that can and or had the tendency to corrupt and debauch susceptible minds that were open to such immoral impact and to those hands the content might happen to fall. This was called the Hicklin rule. It meant that if any section of a book or other works could corrupt and or deprave the minds of any person who sees the work, the material was obscene, and no one was allowed to buy or see it (Rault, 2006). This facilitated the censorship of a wide array of materials by the government. Roth simply recapped the proposals lower courts had been trying to put across for years-the test for obscenity should be based on whether an average person, considering the prevalent community standards, the main theme of the material as a whole applies to the voyeuristic interest. This standard offers guidance in the determination of materials that should be considered obscene.it was essential to distinctly identify actual obscenity and materials that merely delve in the areas that are not traditionally bound to society’s norms and acceptability. The court started to consider the many problems that Roth had not covered. In small groups justices sought to clarify queries such as: What is the average person? What is prurient interest? What are the contemporary community standards? In 1950s and 1960s, the Supreme Court adopted a new definition and test for obscenity (Rault, 2006). This was the Roth-Memoirs test. It differed from the previous standard in that: The main theme of the material that was taken as a whole, appeals to the average prurient interest in sex of the person. Materials were taken patently offensive if they affront the contemporary standards of the community on sexual matters. It assumed a single country-wide standard was applicable in the whole country. The material has no social value at all that is, it’s utterly without any redeeming social value. Today, a miller test is used to determine obscenity. Something is considered obscene if viewed as a whole where the work: Appeals to the prurient interest to the average person applying contemporary community standards. Depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive manner, measured by the contemporary community standards Lacks serious artistic, literary, political and scientific value. In the past two decades, conformist groups have applied significant pressure on the music and arts industry. The 2 Live Crew is a good example where the band was tried for use of obscenity. For the first time apparently, the court of appeals applied the Miller test to a musical composition with instrumentals and lyrics. The case is particularly controversial as the only evidence presented was the tape recording and the case was tried by a judge with no jury. According to the court, the materials in the 2 Live Crew’s album As Nasty As They Wanna Be was officially obscene considering the community standards and it became illegal to sell or perform in any of Florida’s counties. For instance, the movie: Columbia Holocaust has been a target for censorship by animal and moral activists and has seen about five minutes cut to remove rape scenes and animal cruelty. Applying the Miller test, it is certain that the movie, especially by the community standards at the time of its release, appeals to the prurient interest of an average person. It also contains numerous scenes of high levels sexual violence. The level of artistic, scientific and literary value is still controversial, but the movie has been banned in over fifty countries. Question 3 In the society today, there is quite a lot of pressure from different sides that push us to conform to a particular ideal of beauty. This is true especially since almost everyone in our generation grew up watching Disney films, with many young girls wanting to grow up to be Cinderella and many young boys Hercules or Aladdin. Mainstream media puts images to our brains from a very young age showing us what is apt for our gender and our lives. Young girls are taught that the key to happiness is becoming beautiful, fashionable and to find a prince to save you. Young boys are taught that so as to be successful, they’d need a good-looking masculine body and even be manipulative at some cases. Disney is one of the most influential worldwide media conglomerate that has a huge impact on international cultures as it owns much of the world media. This tends to promote a western culture, based on views of few individuals, for their corporate interests. Based on the images of race, gender, age and sexual orientation, the films generally depict that: A woman’s looks are more important than her intelligence Women are helpless and require protection or need to be saved Women are likely to marry since they are domestic Overweight women are unpleasant, unmarried and ugly Although men in Disney movies are not often thought about, they also play a role. They also depict that men have to be skilled, tough, covered with hair and suave. Evil male characters are mostly overweight and ugly, with no female companion and overly independent. Images of beauty that we see while growing up play a great role in shaping who we become. It’s important to consider stereotypes and gender roles embedded to children’s lives by the media to help make their lives better in averting issues with self-esteem, and triumph over their childhood as original individuals, not what the society wants them to be. The image representation of female in the media has been a centre of concern for a long time now. Studies show that there fewer females in most forms of media than male and those present, are often portrayed in stereotypic ways. For instance in print commercials, picture used tend to depict an imbalance and most of them indicate male dominance. They have continually fostered gender stereotypes by sending relatively negative signals in terms of gender. The language used, more often fantasies though metaphors are used, tend to attract customers to purchase the item, not regarding how the picture or language can have an impact on gender. Most posters used display masculinity to depict men as strong, tough or fighters. This reflects that a men are always stronger than women. A black woman is represented as less beautiful compared to a white woman. They are also portrayed as housewives, uncreative, underdeveloped and irresponsible mothers opposed to the depictions of white women as models, beautiful, creative and independent. This is evident with white women greatly involved in advertising valuable products. Reference Rault, G. A. (2006). Constitutional Law - The 1966 Obscenity Cases. Louisiana Law Review, 100-109. Read More