NationStates Jolt Archive

Well, I haven't seen anything like this. It's my first effort at an issue. I'd appreciate feedback.

Title: Pirate Radio: Citizens Say "Aye"

Description: The citizens of @@NAME@@ are abandoning traditional radio stations for illegal “pirate” broadcasters. Each side is arguing over the limits of public freedom of speech.

Validity: All nations (I think)

Option:
[option]@@RANDOMNAME@@, a pirate broadcaster with a parrot on one shoulder, wants the government to listen to the people. “My station, New @@NAME@@ FM, deserves to be on the airwaves as much as the status quo - and the audience agrees with me. We should stop this government interference and legalise totally independent radio. Who cares if the transmitters wreck the landscape? Our freedom is at stake!”
[effect]independent radio is growing at an extraordinary rate
[stats]personal freedom increases, environment decreases

[option]”Rubbish! These pirates are a threat to national security!” claims General @@RANDOMNAME@@, electronics expert and director of MegaMediaCorp. “They just pop up overnight on military, ambulance and police frequencies. Forget ‘freedom of speech’ - silencing these kids should be your highest priority. Well, that, and some compensation to the legal stations that were affected.”
[effect]illegal radio stations are burned to the ground
[stats]personal freedom decreases, safety increases, Law and Order spending increases, Commerce spending increases

[option]“Can’t we reach a compromise?” asks Minister for Communications @@RANDOMNAME@@. “Sure, let’s stop pirates who mess around where they don’t belong. But we should give licenses to the most popular stations - it’ll be a shot to the arm for our economy. And if it forces broadcasters to start “dumbing down”, then so be it.”
[effect]radio licenses are given to profitable but mind-numbing stations
[stats]economy increases, intelligence decreases

[option]Your PR guru @@RANDOMNAME@@ suggests, “Maybe we could allow stations to go on the air, if they let us write the stories for their news bulletins. Say about five minutes of propaganda- I mean, ‘official news’ each hour. Come to think of it, we should do something similar for every television station, newspaper, and Internet site in @@NAME@@.”
[effect]all news must contain reams of government propaganda
[stats]political freedoms decrease greatly, government size increases

That’s it. Any ideas?

My (obviously biased) reaction. Great idea btw!

[...] Who cares if the transmitters wreck the landscape? [...]

Hmm, why is this a result because of independant radio?

[option]Your PR guru @@RANDOMNAME@@ suggests, “Maybe we could allow stations to go on the air, if they let us write the stories for their news bulletins. Say about five minutes of propaganda- I mean, ‘official news’ each hour. Come to think of it, we should do something similar for every television station, newspaper, and Internet site in @@NAME@@.”
[effect]all news must contain reams of government propaganda
[stats]political freedoms decrease greatly, government size increases

I'd call it ''minister of information'' ;) also, doesn't this decrease intelligence?

i like it though i saw another pirate radio one but by all means send it in i like it though if you chose to send it in it won't get looked at for a l o n g time but send it in it's good

Although I'm not a big fan of heavy government regulations, I think you'd find that a likely result of having no regulations on radio (or TV) stations is that the airwaves will be choked with conflicting signals. You mention something similar with the military/health/whatever frequencies, but I think the effects would be a lot more pronounced than just that.

The most likely beneficiaries of this, I think, would be various businesses lacking in morality. You'd have the normal radio stations struggling to be heard under a wave of advertising. Think of the amount of spam some people recieve in their email inboxes, only in terms of radio waves. Not to mention various people in their homes with a transmitter strong enough to reach a decent distance in whatever city they live in.

In short, it would be extremely chaotic.

My thoughts on the matter, feel free to incorporate my suggestions or not as you see fit.

[quote="Katten med Hatten"] You'd have the normal radio stations struggling to be heard under a wave of advertising... In short, it would be extremely chaotic.
[quote]

Yeah, as a SW listener myself I know what you mean. Plenty of stations all battling for attention. My logic is, being liberal on the Snooker Streaker issue won't make all your citizens bare all ("YES IT WILL!"). So getting rid of regulation won't make everyone set up a radio station. The sheer rate of expansion is what I was thinking of in the environment thing. Maybe it should boost your Information Technology sector too.

"Minister for Information"? Funny. Maybe it should be Minister for Truth. And I don't think it would decrease intelligence, maybe happiness.

Actually, I might submit it.

double