Behavioral Regulation
Behavioral regulation: Controls on the
content of media.
Supporters of behavior regulation:
- If left to the market, corporate media will produce low-cost,
profitable content, which limits choices.
- Want government involvement in helping parents, teachers
raise healthy children.
- Do not want unlimited exposure to inappropriate content.
- Points to ratings, which favor certain audiences, as a failure
of free-market to produce diverse and interesting to many media.
- Believe media should serve the public interest, and thus
argue that unregulated content (gratuitous violence, bias news) does not serve
the public.
Opponents of behavior regulation:
- Freedom of speech must not be hindered at any cost.
Obscenity vs. Indecency
- Obscene: if something is deemed obscene, it has no
First Amendment protection, and is considered utterly without redeeming social
importance.
- Indecent speech is protected under First Amendment.
Essentially holds that something may not be appropriate for all viewers (particularly
children), at all times, but is not utterly without redeeming social importance.