From Censorship to Policy: Rethinking Media Content Regulation and Classification

Abstract

Debates about media content regulation have tended to be dominated by pro-censorship and anti-censorship arguments. This paper argues for a shift in understanding towards a more policy-oriented and empirical approach, which recognises that the field has been characterised not so much by the ‘prohibition model’, but by complex and multifaceted techniques of institutional governance, and less by censorship than by restriction and classification. This has implications for the value of empirical research into the relationship between media representations and audiences. The recent ABA Report on content issues with on-line services is considered in order to show how regulation and classification issues are continuing to be important in the on-line environment, although they are likely to take different forms to the regulation of traditional media of print, film and television.