On an average day have you ever found yourself channel surfing while relaxing on your trusty old sofa? Also, have you ever seen a difference between network and cable television? If you have then you have made a correct assumption. The difference between the content displayed on either of these networks is absolutely astounding. A typical person could see an edited version of a show on one network and on another view the same show with content that was edited out of the first version. The main reason behind this phenomenon deals with censorship in the media. This country has set up two types of television one for example, is prime time television. Prime time television is a service provided for everyone and contains the basic channels such as NBC, CBS, and ABC. The other service deals with the cable network which is provided by either a cable or satellite provider. Due to the separation between theses two sections there is also separation in the rules governing over these stations. The group in charge of controlling what goes on air is called the FCC.
    The FCC stands for the Federal Communication Commission. Unlike prime time television cable television is not under direct control of the FCC. Cable TV is able to broadcast a variety of content, ranging from explicit language to violent car chases. On the flip side, prime time television is under a great deal of scrutiny by the FCC, if found in offense the station could be faced with thousand dollar fines.
    The great aspect of cable television comes from its ability to broadcast what society calls "risky" content. This content ranges from strong sexual content to strong violent scenes, but not all channels on this network carry risky material. Cable television carries channels like HBO, STARZ, and TBS and the content includes family material and adult dramas. The issues of censorship arose from parents concerns about children being able to view material that is unfit for their age and extremely violent. Unfortunately, because of the FCC’s loose grip on the censorship of cable television there was little that parents could do about what the stations showed. Therefore, authorities had to research other idea, along with this research came the ideas of the rating system, V-chip, and the TV Guardian.
    The rating system was part of the 1996 Telecommunication Law. This law stated that a panel consisting of parents, television programming producers, and cable operators etc. to determine television shows rating standards.  This team of members evaluates shows that wish to be broadcast on air and gives them a rating as follows:
    The law states that if this panels fails at its mission their responsibility will be turned over to the Federal Communication Commission. This rating was created to assist parents in deciding whether or not the programming is appropriate for their children.
    The V-Chip is an electronic chip which works in tune with your cable box, or VCR. This chip is an additional way of controlling what is seen by ones children. This chip reads transmitted rating codes for all programming that reaches ones television set and will automatically deny access to all programming if it is not within your settings. It also works as an on and off switch and needs the rating system to function correctly, if the program rating exceeds the set ratings, then the v-chip blocks the whole program.
    The opposite of the v-chip is the TVGuardian. This system begins working where the v-chip stops. Instead of blocking the entire television show, the system instead edits out offensive language. Also, this guardian works along with your VCR or DVD player.


    The censorship of broadcast television is centered around the values and norms of the “nuclear” family.  In the 50’s and 60’s the programs were structured for white, middle-class Americans.  The broadcasters would format their shows around what they thought their viewing audience wanted to see.  However, in the 70’s rating researchers began to separate the programs into different demographics; for instance, age, ethnicity, education and economic background.  In the 80’s, television began to include explicit sexual and violent programming in order to compete with the wide range of shows cable television brought to to the audience.  Networks began to allow partial nudity, graphic violence and coarse language.  By doing this they made themselves vulnerable to conservative advocacy groups who increased the pressure for regulation by the government. 
    One of the ways we can see censorship on what we watch now is the Television Rating System.  In 1996, the television industry came up with a rating system to give parents more information about what could potentially be on television when their children are watching.  They began to use an age based system, separating all television programs into six different categories:  TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14 and TV-M.  From there they included more information about the program by using “V” for Violence, “N” for nudity, and so on.
    While TV Ratings have become a controversy because of their ability to limit free speech (Ines, 1999), our government supports them because some shows will have a bigger impact than most, and people are already becoming disgusted by the content of those.