Why are censor bleeps so loud?
Why is the censor bleep (or beep) commonly implemented the way it is. Usually on the radio or TV (at least in the United States) if a word is used which is deemed to be undesirable for whatever reason it is disguised by a very loud and shrill bleeping noise.
The effect of this bleep seems be the opposite of the desired effect: it calls out that whatever was censored (which was quite obviously censored) was "bad" and the people who are supposedly being protected from this censorship are immediately alerted to the idea that something about that sentence was bad.
My question is two fold:
Why is the bleep still so common when just removing the audio is a much more subtle censoring?
- Because someone who does not know they are watching something that is censored is much more effectively censored, no?
When the bleep is used, why is it often so much louder than surrounding dialogue?
- The silence bleep is much more pleasant to experience for the people who can fill in the blank on their own.