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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Communication
  5. Censorship

Communication

Begin your research on communication, mass media, and related fields using the best indexes, databases, and reference works selected by the subject librarian.
  • Introduction
  • Finding books
  • Finding journal articles & titles
  • Research & methodology
  • Speech
  • Persuasion
    • Media literacy
  • Advertising
    • Political advertising
  • Censorship
  • Communication and politics
    • Political satire
  • Health Communication
  • Communication and science
  • Communication and religion
  • Visual communication
  • Mass media
  • Media criticism
  • Mass media industry
  • Women & media
  • Social media
  • Fake news
  • Internet resources
  • Future of media
  • Managing citations
  • Scholarly communication This link opens in a new window

Subject Librarian

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Lucinda M. Hall
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Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

A definition of Censorship

1. Any regime or context in which the content of what is publicly expressed, exhibited, published, broadcast, or otherwise distributed is regulated or in which the circulation of information is controlled. The official grounds for such control at a national level are variously political (e.g. national security), moral (e.g. likelihood of causing offence or moral harm, especially in relation to issues of obscenity), social (e.g. whether violent content might have harmful effects on behaviour), or religious (e.g. blasphemy, heresy). Some rulings may be merely to avoid embarrassment (especially for governments). In countries where there is internet censorship, the magnitude of filtering varies greatly, from selective to pervasive: blocking access is a standard control mechanism. See also content filtering; regulation.

2. A system of regulation for vetting, editing, and prohibiting particular forms of public expression, presided over by a censor: an official given a mandate by a governmental, legislative, or commercial body to review specific kinds of material according to pre-defined criteria. Criteria relating to public attitudes—notably on issues of ‘taste and decency’—can quickly become out-of-step.

3. The practice and process of suppressing the expression of some point of view, or any particular instance of this. This may involve the partial or total suppression of any utterance or text, or of the entire output of an individual or organization on a limited or permanent basis. See also no-platforming.

4. Self-censorship is self-regulation by an individual author or publisher, or by ‘the industry’. Media industries frequently remind their members that if they do not regulate themselves they will be regulated by the state. Self-censorship on the individual level includes the internal regulation of what one decides to express publicly, often attributable to conformism.

5. In Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the suppression of unconscious desires that is reflected in the oblique symbolism of dreams: see displacement.

 

Chandler, D., & Munday, R. (2020). "Censorship." In A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 Feb. 2022

Finding Library resources

  • In the Library's collections
  • Introductory reading(s)
  • Selected book titles
  • Finding journals & articles
  • Other library resource(s)

Resources on Censorship can be found throughout the collection. Check the online catalog for more details.

Useful subject headings with which to search the online catalog:

  • censorship
  • Cover Art Censored books: critical viewpoints by Nicholas J. Karolides; Lee Burress; John M. Kean, eds.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PS 65 .C46 C46 2001
    ISBN: 9780810840386
  • Cover art Censorship: a world encyclopedia by Derek Jones, ed.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry Ref. Z 658 .W675 C38 2001 v.1-4
    ISBN: 9781579581350
    This work provides a wide-ranging view of censorship, spanning ancient Egypt to present times and covering art, literature, music, newspapers and broadcasting, and the visual arts, among many other topics. In addition, the work provides country surveys and discussions of major controversies for specific movies, books, and television shows. ...
  • Cover Art Censorship in America by Mary E. Hull
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9781576070574
    Presenting an overview of information control in America, this volume discusses why some works of art and literature are controversial, and examines the arguments of both those who advocate unlimited free speech and those who would impose some limits. Censorship in America discusses why many objects of art, literature, and popular culture are considered controversial, and examines the arguments of both sides. It explores the current wave of censorship in the form of political correctness and covers groundbreaking litigation and proposed legislation.
  • Cover Art Censorship in research from International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences by James D. Wright, ed.
    • On Campus or VPN
    • E-Book
    Call Number: eBook
    ISBN: 9780080970875
    Publication Date: 2nd ed.
    Censorship involves the suppression of communication that may be valuable or harmful to the censor, the individual or group censored, or the intended recipient of the communication. ...
  • Cover Art Censorship, Inc.: the corporate threat to free speech in the United States by Lawrence Soley
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry JC 591 .S65 2002
    ISBN: 9781583670668
    The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is a landmark in the defense of free speech against government interference and suppression. In this book we come to see how it also acts as a smokescreen behind which a more dangerous and insidious threat to free speech can operate. Soley shows how as corporate power has grown and come to influence the issues on which ordinary Americans should be able to speak out, so new strategies have developed to restrict free speech on issues in which corporations and property-owners have an interest. Censorship, Inc. is a comprehensive examination of the vast array of corporate practices which restrict free speech in the United States today in fields as diverse as advertising and the media, the workplace, community life, and the environment. ...
  • Cover Art The fight over digital rights: the politics of copyright and technology by Bill D. Herman
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry KF 3024 .E44 H47 2013
    ISBN: 9781107015975
    In the political fight over copyright, Internet advocacy has reshaped the playing field. This was shown in the 2012 'SOPA blackout', when the largest online protest in history stopped two copyright bills in their tracks. This protest was the culmination of an intellectual and political evolution more than a decade in the making. This book examines the debate over digital copyright, from the late 1980s through early 2012, and the new tools of political communication involved in the advocacy around the issue. ...
  • Cover Art Forbidden words: taboo and the censoring of language by Keith Allan; Kate Burridge
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry P 305.18 .T33 A43 2006
    ISBN: 9780521819602
    Many words and expressions are viewed as 'taboo', such as those used to describe sex, our bodies and their functions, and those used to insult other people. This book provides a fascinating insight into taboo language and its role in everyday life. It looks at the ways we use language to be polite or impolite, politically correct or offensive, depending on whether we are 'sweet-talking', 'straight-talking' or being deliberately rude. Using a range of colourful examples, it shows how we use language playfully and figuratively in order to swear, to insult, and also to be politically correct, and what our motivations are for doing so. ...
  • Cover Art Free speech for me--but not for thee: how the American left and right relentlessly censor each other by Nat Hentoff
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry KF 4772 .H46 1992
    ISBN: 9780060190064
    An eye-opening look at the clash between censorship and free speech that shows how both the right and the left try to suppress the opinions of those who disagree with them, by journalist Nat Hentoff--widely recognized as one of the foremost lay authorities on civil rights and liberties.

You can use an index such as Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) to find articles or use the search box at the top of the page.

  • Issue cover art Index on censorship by Writers & Scholars International
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic journal
    Index on Censorship is the only magazine devoted to protecting and promoting free expression. International in outlook, outspoken in comment, publishing some of the world’s finest writers, Index exposes stories that are suppressed, publishes banned writing, initiates debate and gives breadth to news that has often been dumbed down in the world’s media. ...
  • Resource logo Communication & mass media complete (CMMC) by Ebsco
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    This is the main article index for the field of Communications and Mass Media.
  • Resource logo Business source complete by EBSCO Publishing
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    This index searches a variety of scholarly and popular business publications including the Business of Media.
  • Resource logo The web of science citation databases by ISI (Institute for Scientific Information)
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    The online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
  • Resource logo Censorship from Oxford Bibliographies Online - Communicatione by Betty Houchin Winfield
    • On Campus or VPN
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    ISBN: 9780199756841
    In a very large body of censorship scholarship spanning centuries, communication scholars point out that every civilization since antiquity has attempted to stop disagreeable expression. This bibliographic essay, focusing primarily on the United States, demonstrates that censorship can be institutional, individual, and by practice, a way to restrict or expunge objectionable material, information, or expression. Societies, as well as major institutions of the state, family, and church and their representatives, suppress expression thought to be dangerous, harmful, immoral, sensitive, or inconvenient. ...
  • Cover Art Censored 2017: the top censored stories and media analysis of 2015-2016 by Mickey Huff; Andy Lee Roth, eds.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 4888 .P6 H84 2016
    ISBN: 9781609807153
    Every year since 1976, Project Censored, America's oldest news-monitoring group, has produced a Top 25 list of underreported new stories and a book, Censored. They are dedicated to the stories that should be top features on the nightly news but are missing because of media bias and self-censorship. ...
  • Cover Art Censored 2020: through the looking glass: the top censored stories and media analysis of 2018-19 by Mickey Huff; Andy Lee Roth, eds.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 4888 .P6 C4458 2019
    ISBN: 9781609809607
    In the midst of Trump's attacks on the media, comes this look at the rigorous, independent reporting of the year's most under-reported news stories. While the country's president displays a brazen disregard for the First Amendment and routinely demonizes the press as "the enemy of the people," Censored 2020 looks beyond Donald Trump's dizzying contempt for the truth to clarify the corporate media's complicity in misinforming the American public--while also providing a clear vision of a better future, based on rigorous, trustworthy independent reporting that presents a fuller picture of truth. ...

Internet resource(s)

  • 21st century censorship from the Columbia Journalism Review
    • Link
    ... Yet they obscure evidence that governments are having as much success as the internet in disrupting independent media and determining the information that reaches society. ...
  • Censorship from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
    • Link
    Censorship, the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are "offensive," happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others. Censorship can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups. Censorship by the government is unconstitutional. ...
  • National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)
    • Link
    NCAC’s mission is to promote freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and oppose censorship in all its forms.

Keeping up with the journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Communication? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

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  • Last Updated: Jun 25, 2025 4:41 PM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/communications
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