Introduction. 1960s counterculture, a broad-ranging social movement in the United States, Canada, and western Europe that rejected conventional mores and traditional authorities and whose members variously advocated peace, love, social justice, and revolution. The 1960s counterculture movement, which generally extended into the early 1970s, was an alternative approach to life that manifested itself in a variety of activities, lifestyles, and artistic expressions, including recreational drug use, communal living, political protests, and folk and rock music. The movement ranged from nonviolent "peaceniks" to revolutionaries who engaged in armed resistance. Fueled by college students, it included protests of the Vietnam War and racial injustice and struggles for women's rights and gay rights. It led to mass demonstrations, such as a 1969 antiwar protest in Washington, D.C., that drew as many as 500,000 people, and a "national teach-in on the environment" in 1970 called Earth Day, which is still commemorated annually.

Hippie lifestyle. One enduring image of the counterculture movement is that of "hippies," who were mostly white, middle-class, young Americans. Many felt alienated from their parents' lifestyles, which they viewed as too focused on material goods and consumerism. That tension drove a "generation gap" that became a hallmark of the 1960s. Hippies often let their hair grow long, and many men had facial hair. The title track of the musical Hair, first performed in 1967, captures this style with the lyrics: My hair like Jesus wore itHallelujah, I adore itHallelujah, Mary loved her son,Why don't my mother love me? Hippies wore colourful clothes and typically donned sandals. They eschewed regular jobs, many had vegetarian diets, and some engaged in "free love." Hippies often traveled the country, sometimes in Volkswagen Microbuses, dubbed "hippie buses," adorned with peace signs. One of their most famous slogans was "Make love, not war."

The movement's soundtrack. Rock music was an important part of the counterculture movement. Bands like the Grateful Dead—whose fans are known as "Deadheads"—had a strong influence on 1960s counterculture. The Beatles, the most influential band of the era, "helped make rock music a battering ram for the youth culture's assault on the mainstream," according to a New York Times article in 1975. The folk music icon Bob Dylan spoke for many alienated youth when in 1965 he sang, "I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more." Other artists and bands associated with the counterculture movement included Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane, the Velvet Underground and the Rolling Stones. A powerful counterculture song was "Almost Cut My Hair" (1970) by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. A song by the Who, "My Generation" (1965)—with its line "I hope I die before I get old"—practically became an anthem of 1960s youth. The era also produced rock musicals, including (in addition to Hair), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968), and Jesus Christ Superstar (1971).

Music festivals helped fuel the counterculture movement, most famously Woodstock, a three-day 1969 extravaganza in upstate New York that featured bands and artists such as the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana. An estimated 400,000 people attended the event. In December 1969, the Altamont festival in Livermore, California, resulted in tragedy. Organizers made the fateful decision to hire the Hells Angels, a motorcycle gang, to provide security, and one of its members fatally stabbed a Black teenager who had drawn a gun as the Rolling Stones were performing. The Associated Press reflected two decades later that this moment "shattered the dream of a utopian counterculture for the '60s generation."

Militant resistance. The 1960s counterculture was also marked by armed protest groups. The Black Panther Party, for example, a group founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in California, sought to protect Black neighbourhoods from police brutality and declared, "The time has come for Black people to arm themselves." That prompted the state to pass legislation dubbed "the Panther Bill," signed into law by Gov. Ronald Reagan, which banned the open carrying of loaded firearms. Another organization, Weatherman, later known as Weather Underground, made up of young white militants, advocated communism and the overthrow of the U.S. government through violent revolution. The group, which grew out of Students for a Democratic Society, used a 1969 position paper called "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows" as its founding statement. The group engaged in bombings into the early 1970s.

Although you may not realize it, media censorship happens to your news on a regular basis. While news stories are often simply edited for length, in many cases subjective choices are being made about whether to keep some information from becoming public. Sometimes these decisions are made to safeguard a person's privacy, other times to protect media outlets from corporate or political fallout, and yet other times for concerns of national security. Censorship is the alteration or suppression of speech, writing, photographs, or other forms of information based on the opinion that such material is subversive, obscene, pornographic, politically unacceptable, or otherwise harmful to the public welfare. Both governments and private institutions may carry out censorship for claimed reasons such as national security, to prevent hate speech, to protect children and other protected groups, to restrict political or religious opinion, or to prevent libel or slander. The history of censorship dates back to 399 BC, when Greek philosopher, Socrates, after fighting off attempts by the Greek government to censor his teachings and opinions, was executed by drinking hemlock for attempting to corrupt young Athenians. More recently, censorship in the form of book burnings was conducted by the military dictatorship of Chile led by General Augusto Pinochet in the aftermath of the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat. In ordering the books burned, Pinochet hoped to prevent the spread of information that conflicted with his campaign to "extirpate the Marxist cancer" of the previous regime. In 1766, Sweden became the first country to enacted the official first law banning censorship. While many modern countries have laws against censorship, none of these laws are ironclad and are often challenged as unconstitutional attempts to restrict certain rights, such as the freedoms of speech and expression. For example, the censorship of photographs deemed to be pornographic is often challenged by persons who consider the images to be an acceptable form of artistic expression. There are no laws preventing authors, publishers, or other information creators from self-censoring their own works.

Journalists make difficult choices every day about what to share and what to hold back. Not only that, but they often experience pressure from outside forces to suppress information. It's important for the public to be informed about the choices those who deliver the news face, and why they might decide to keep certain information private or not. Here are five of the most common reasons for censorship in the media. Advancing [Corporate Interests] Media companies are supposed to serve the public interest. Sometimes that's at odds with the conglomerate owners who control traditional media voices. Such was the case when The New York Times reported that executives from MSNBC owner General Electric and Fox News Channel owner News Corporation decided it wasn't in their corporate interests to allow on-air hosts Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly to trade on-air attacks. While the jabs seemed mostly personal, there was news that came out of them. The Times reported that O'Reilly uncovered that General Electric was doing business in Iran. Although legal, GE later said it had stopped. A cease-fire between the hosts probably wouldn't have produced that information, which was newsworthy despite the apparent motivation for getting it. In another example, cable TV giant Comcast faced a unique charge of censorship. Shortly after the Federal Communications Commission approved its takeover of NBC Universal, Comcast hired FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who had voted for the merger. While some had already publicly denounced the move as a conflict of interest, a single tweet is what unleashed Comcast's wrath. A worker at a summer film camp for teenage girls questioned the hiring through Twitter and Comcast responded by yanking $18,000 in funding for the camp. The company later apologized and offered to restore its contribution. Camp officials say they want to be able to speak freely without being hushed by corporations.

Critics often lambast media for having a political bias. While viewpoints on the op-ed pages are clear, the link between politics and censorship is harder to spot. The ABC news program "Nightline" once devoted its broadcast to reading the names of more than 700 U.S. servicemen and women killed in Iraq. What appeared to be a solemn tribute to military sacrifice was interpreted as a politically motivated, anti-war stunt by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which didn't allow the program to be seen on the seven ABC stations it owned. Ironically, a media watchdog group called out Sinclair itself for labeling 100 members of Congress "censorship advocates" when they raised concerns to the FCC about Sinclair's plans to air the film, "Stolen Honor." That production was blasted for being propaganda against then-presidential candidate John Kerry. Sinclair responded by saying it wanted to air the documentary after the major networks refused to show it. In the end, bowing to pressure on several fronts, the company aired a revised version that only included parts of the film. Communist countries that once stopped the free flow of information may have largely disappeared, but even in America, censorship issues keep some news from reaching you. With the explosion of citizen journalism and internet platforms, the truth may have an easier way of getting out. But, as we have seen, these platforms have brought their own challenges in the era of "fake news."