Should the media ever be censored?
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe what censorship is and explain its positives and negatives.
Key learning points
- Sometimes media is censored due to potentially causing offence, sensitive content, or harmful content.
- Inconvenience censorship also happens where certain information might need to be restricted.
- Censorship can also happen to support democracy and uphold democratic values.
- There are global differences in censorship, for example, China has very strict censorship.
Keywords
Censorship - the control of information or ideas within a society
Media - television, radio, printed and new media which can reach a large number of people
Inconvenient - causing difficulty, trouble, or discomfort, often by disrupting plans or making things less easy
Common misconception
Censorship is always bad (this might be linked to students' understanding of free press and human rights).
Censorship sometimes needs to happen to reduce offence, upset and harm.
Teacher tip
Provide pupils with a side-by-side comparison of a real news headline and its censored version from a country with heavy media control.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Depiction or discussion of sexual violence
Depiction or discussion of serious crime
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is misinformation?
Q2.What is disinformation?
Q3.What is malinformation?
Q4.Rules or laws to control or guide behaviour for society's benefit is called ...
Q5.Free press is when the media isn't controlled by the ...
Q6.Which statement is true?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Information that could offend people is classed as what?
Q2.Information that, if released, could cause upset and emotional harm is known as what?
Q3.A search engine blocking extremist content is an example of what?
Q4.The media's right to publish must be balanced against what individual right?
Q5.Which is an example of self-regulatory guidelines that media follow?
Q6.Which country has very different censorship rules when compared to the UK?
To help you plan your 10 citizenship lesson on: Should the media ever be censored?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 citizenship lesson on: Should the media ever be censored?, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 citizenship lessons from the How does the media hold those in power to account? unit, dive into the full secondary citizenship curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.