Sanitising mass entertainment
A company based in Salt Lake City, Utah is offering (for a monthly fee), DIY censorware called ClearPlay, to provide media "filtering options in areas where there are general public sensitivities like graphic violence, strong language and sexually explicit content".
Some societies are increasingly obsessed with controlling the content of cultural artefacts, to the extent that they are now capable of making money from technology that caters to predjudice, ignorance, fanaticism, and possibly even plain stupidity. Such technology, for instance, would edit movies to conform to a corporation's vision of a movie, instead of allowing audiences to see, and evaluate, "what writers wrote, what actors said and what directors envisioned".
There are three main filter categories for ClearPlay: "violence, explicit scenes and nudity, and language"; and 14 sub-categories: "moderate violence, graphic violence, disturbing images, sensual content, crude sensual content, nudity, explicit sexual situations, vain reference to deity, crude language and humour, ethnic and social slurs, cursing, and strong profanity".
Filters like these may suffice to make a mockery, a 21st century mummery, of most important films of the last 50 years. Effectively such "services" remove or diminish the ability of creators to ensure their work is presented as intended - thereby basically eliminating the value of individual creativity.
Item posted by AutoEditor at 12:58 pm ::
