Thoughts on Who Knows What

I’m gonna be totally honest, this class started pretty slowly, just more of the same we’ve talked about all semester. It got more interesting though when we got into radio and eventually censorship. It’s weird to think how the radio is dying nowadays, only select people really listen to it. I can’t think of anyone who really still owns a radio other than just in emergency situations or power outages. Once upon a time cars that came with a radio or tape player were considered luxury, my 2006 Volvo station wagon was a luxury car because it had a CD player. Now all cars come with radio, CD and the nice new ones have Bluetooth so you can connect your phone since everyone for the most part has a smart phone. People don’t have a need to listen to the radio when things like Sirius XM, Spotify, Pandora and Apple and Amazon Music have their ad free versions. Come to think of it, part of why people don’t like the radio is because of those ads you can’t skip. I for one have zero patience for it and I’m willing to pay for Spotify Premium no matter what, I refuse to go back. When I’m in a rush and don’t have time to connect my phone via the FM transmitter I have for my car, I flip on Sirus XM. My car has the one of the oldest “life time warranty” Sirus XM radios there is but it still works and it’s still better then public radio. Maybe there is something to say about Carr’s theory if we’re too impatient to live with ads now… I still hate it though. To think that there was a time where radio was the main advertisement tool is astounding to me. I never really thought about it but there was only a short time in my life, maybe about half of it, that public radio was still the most popular source of music. I used to listen to Kiss 108 FM all the time and my parents hated it because they played a max 40 pop songs over and over again. Now I have Spotify Premium and drive my parents crazy with my “loud fake music” all the time.

What even happened to NART? We never talked about why those censorship “rules” ended. Actually, we sort of did because there were more channels that were more specific as opposed to the max 10 TV stations. I honestly can’t think of one popular show on today that doesn’t break at least one of those rules besides kids shows, and even they are getting more progressive. Then two new genres have come around, one are the cartoons that have complex worlds, cartoons and lore like Adventure Time that just ended or even Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. (Both amazing by the way). The other genre is adult shows/cartoons intended to be upsetting or controversial like literally anything and everything on Adult Swim. No contemporary show could be popular or interesting if it followed those guidelines. Even documentaries dramatize things to add shock value. It’s what people these days like I guess. I honestly think it’s way better this way. It means people aren’t afraid of talking about controversial topics and change can finally spring from people’s discussion and openness with it.

With that new comfort comes the problem of sponsors or advertisers dropping shows that stir up conversation. Thus is the problem that YouTube is having where everything is getting demonetized or classifications that prevent adcents. It’s really a big problem the YouTube community is facing, a lot of people can’t afford to be strictly YouTubers as a career and so have to do it as a hobby. A lot of channels are dying because of it and less content is released. It’s because of this adpocolypse, as it’s called, that censorship has become a bigger question. People have started considering what should be censored versus what needs to be discussed, it’s great actually. Too bad the money spenders will always win.

Finally, to what extent should we protect free speech? A lot of free speech is spreading false information or offensive to certain groups of people. Like the anti-abortion people who protest in North Plaza. I despise them. I’m 100% pro-choice (in reason) and it feels like they’re trying to strip women’s rights to their own bodies. Possibly worse is people who preach how homosexuals need to be “fixed” or Jewish people need to be converted. It’s actually hate speech but because it isn’t directed at one person in particular nobody can do anything about it. All we can do is mutually agree that those people are terrible, however you want to interpret that word. Yes they have a right to free speech and yes they have the right to their opinions, but should they be protected at the sake of other (in my opinion better) people? It’s infuriating, impossible and completely unfair.