The fear of punishment forces people to censor themselves. It is also more likely to make users want uncensored information because censorship itself can provide information, it can have a negative impact on people’s attitudes towards the government.
In addition, the censorship system may also reduce the credibility of the government. People that are aware of the existence of censorship may be dismissive of any information from the government.
Generally speaking, the “Anti-censorship motivation” has strong heterogeneity among different individuals. Dictatorships can actually benefit from this heterogeneity. Information is always different from person to person, in which those who are willing and able to circumvent censorship have access to information that is very different from those who are not. This kind of separation will have a negative effect on the tendency of collective action.
Efforts to discover, expose and publicise the existence of censorship are essential to reduce this heterogeneity and thereby resist censorship.
Comment:
The heterogeneity of public circumvention of censorship suggests that more work should be done to understand how censorship affects inequality and political polarisation in authoritarian settings (whether it makes people more united or more polarised).
I think that this can be considered in conjunction with the need for information, which varies not only among different information types and time periods, but also among different people. Censorship exacerbates the digital divide. Those with lower education and fewer resources will inevitably have less access to information than those with higher education and more resources, also there will be less aware of censorship and less motivation to circumvent censorship.
The public demand for political information is usually low. Downs (1957) called the general lack of interest in politics “Rational ignorance”. Even with the awareness of censorship and interests in politics, if people don’t know what they’re omitting, the need to circumvent censorship will remain relatively low.
By contrast, if censorship were also applied to entertainment, the need to circumvent censorship would increase. Hobbs & Roberts (2018) describes a “Gateway Effect “in which an individual’s desire to escape censorship for entertainment information leads to access to political information that has long been hidden.
Also, in the period of political events and significant events, People’s motivation to access blocked information will be stimulated.
“Musicology” is similar to “Classics” when it comes to the eurocentric arenas of academia. The word “Ethnomusicology” is commonly referred to as a sub-field of Musicology which nonetheless covers the majority of the world’s music.
Since I developed a strong interest in the “Marginalised Sounds” of our society, I have struggled to figure out where my standpoint should be. I believe that the change of subject will inevitably result in the breakage of meaning. Therefore, I know I would never be in a position to speak the truth because there is no such thing as accurate empathy. I can only describe what I hear and what I see, something which is guaranteed to be incorrect and biased in the first place. However, documentations are about telling stories. The important thing is: how to tell the stories convincingly.
To explore how sound and music can function as certain synbolic representations and resources that participants can mobilize in processes or dynamics of radical social context.
Sounds and music being produced, reproduced, played and used by the general public during historical backgrounds of coups or political protests. This essay will use examples from an ongoing protest in Myanmar.
How is sound used in radical events as medium of argumentation, provocation, and communication.
Examples of sonic approaches adopted(spontaneously) by the general public during the protest and how sonic expressions can possibly transcend discursive modes of communication, solidarizes people, and manifest resistance.
What is the role of sound regards to identity construction and performance.
The approaches by the power organ to regulate and discipline sound and music in the name of public well-being and social order as silence can act as a representation of social discipline and political repression.
Metaphor of sound and silence in politics and the relationship between sound and power.