So my internet got REALLY slow all of a sudden and it isn't as finished as I would like. But it is late and I can't fix my internet, so bear with me. The formating is weird on mine, too, so I apologise to whoever reads this.
Thesis: Media censorship as been an issue for hundreds of years; now new media censorship is stepping into the spotlight. Ultimately, however, the responsibility of new media censorship rests on the shoulders of each individual—not on the government.
I. Introduction
A. Censorship in traditional media
1. historical background-context of issue
- Belsie , Laurent . "The Dark Side of Cyberspace."
-history up to 1994
- Communications Textbook (not in bibliography)
2. need more information
3. Clark, Charles S. "Regulating the Internet."
B. Thesis
II. Types of regulation considered in regards to new media censorship
A. Restrict the “advertising” of the site
-physical layer
B. remove objectionable content directly from the hosting ISP so that it is not “in cyberspace” anymore
-content layer
C. arrange filtering or zoning of content
-seems the most logical
-application or logical layer
- Harris, Candida, Judith Rowbotham, and Kim Stevenson. "Truth, Law and Hate in the Virtual Marketplace of Ideas: Perspectives on the Regulation of Internet Content."
D. destroy the wires connecting to the Internet
-not entirely reasonable to American minds, but practiced in other cultures.
-physical layer
E. Timofeeva, Yulia. Censorship in Cyberspace : New Regulatory Strategies in the Digital Age on the Example of Freedom of Expression.
F. Does the government punish the viewer or creator?
G. 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act
- McCabe. "Users' Perceptions of Internet Regulation - An Exploratory Study."
III. Would regulation work?
A. “That it is hard to censor the internet does not mean we should not seek to do so” (Butt)
B. “Even allowing for the extreme problems surrounding freedom of speech, internet censorship would be more or less impossible. Governments can attempt to regulate what is produced in their own country but it would be impossible to regulate material from abroad.” (Butt)
C. Butt, Matt. "Internet Censorship:Pros and Cons."
IV. If not the government, who?
A. Why not government?
- Landier, Michael . "Internet Censorship is Absurd and Unconstitutional."
-phone company analogy
B. Individual web sites and groups
- Chua, Cecil Eng Huang. "Why Do Virtual Communities Regulate Speech?."
C. Companies
D. Search Engines
E. Internet providers
- “Internet Service Providers are certainly the wrong people to decide what can and can not be placed on the internet.” (Butt)
F. Dann, Gary Elijah, and Neil Haddow. "Just Doing Business or Doing Just Business: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the Business of Censoring China’s Internet ."
V. Conclusion
A. People have many different opinions on why or why not the Internet should be regulated. However, from a purely practical standpoint, there is no institution that can properly regulate the internet. This is a job for the “every day Joe”—to regulate his own internet.
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Although each person has their own opinion on the need for Internet censorship, in the end it simply cannot be done, as the student debate website so eloquently explains. “Even allowing for the extreme problems surrounding freedom of speech, internet censorship would be more or less impossible. Governments can attempt to regulate what is produced in their own country but it would be impossible to regulate material from abroad.” (Butt) There is simply too much new media and too many now media sources to allow for government censorship.
ReplyDeleteDr. Timofeeva describes sweveral ways in which a government can attempt to censor new media. The government can restrict the "advertising" of the site and how easy it is to view the site or remove objectable content diresctly from the web site. The government could also implement filtering of the site, or in an extreme measure, that would admittedly solve all problems, is simply to disconect the internet. (Timofeeva)
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