Regulation of the Media.

by wiggy2012 (student)

Regulation

Regulation in the media By Melissa Pope

Regulation

Regulation is the attempt to place limits by audiences and producers, upon the content, distribution and ownership of media production. We regulate the media so the audience don’t have to see things like death on the TV or hear swearing and there are age restrictions and censorship. The audience and producer have concerns including Truthfulness, fairness, offense, taste, value’s and beliefs, freedom of expression and freedom of information

Laws that affect the media.

There are so many laws that the media have to respect all around the world, here’s just a few of them employment equality, human rights act, public order act, racist laws and libel and defamation law. Two laws that quite a lot of attention are gagging order injunctions and privacy laws. Gagging orders don’t always work and I feel that this law shouldn’t exist because unlike the privacy law this law is to protect what the person has done wrong, for example Ryan Giggs he slept with another woman and tried to hide it. With the recent hacking scandal, privacy laws and the way the media disobey them show’s how ruff the media industry can be. Not all laws are followed and not all gagging orders work.

Privacy laws

With the amount of lawsuits and court cased that involve their privacy being invaded has sky rocketed, we know this because of the amount of media content they publish. The Broadcasting Act 1981 created a Broadcasting complaints commission known as the BCC. They make sure that invasion of privacy isn’t happening and that content in the media is fair. It was then replaced in 1996 with the BSC Broadcasting standards commission. We have all seen some sort of court case in the paper to do with privacy for example The phone hacking scandal which ended News Of The World.

Statutory bodies

Statutory bodies are part of the government, and was set up by the parliament and have legal rights to take legal action against something they feel and know is wrong in the media. They also provide Britain with safer and better material.

Ofcom - Regulate the TV and radio sectors, they make sure that nothing is offensive. They make sure that people in the UK get high speed services, high quality of television and radio which appeal the a range of people. They don’t regulate the BBC, adverts, newspapers/magazines etc. They try and make sure theirs no ...

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Statutory bodies

DCMS - Department of culture, media and sport are responsible for what is shown on TV and internet. They also deal with tourism, leisure and creative industries. The DCMA have sponsored bodies which include Channel four television corporation, British broadcasting corporation and many others.

BBFC - The British boarded of Film Classification make sure that films they release in the UK are up to the standards they have and have the right certificate before it’s released. However if the film isn’t up to their standards because they are a statutory body they can always make sure they film isn’t released until it is changed. For example Human centipede 2 was sent back because it was to disturbing however with a cut of 2 minutes it was allowed the go ahead. What I find strange is that going by this quote in the BBFC annual report in 1996/97 they seem to be against the idea of violence "wondered whether Hollywood would ever 'wake up with a conscience' about teenagers and the drip drip effect of films which teach violence, glorify it and celebrate the rewards it brings". However they still let violent films being shown on TV. In a study people found out that most serial killers watched violent films before they killed.

Non-Statutory bodies

There not part of the government but they take action and in a small group discuss what is wrong with it and then take it to statutory bodies. ????

Advertising standards Authority (ASA) are an “Independent regulator of advertising” They make sure that all adverts in the UK are truthful, honest, and legal. They deal with magazines, radio, posters, leaflets and many more ways of advertising. A advert for Max factor cosmetics was taken down because the eyelashes weren’t real, when they were advertising their mascara, this means the advert was misleading. Advertising regulation started in 1961, before that in 1955 when adverts started they were controlled by formal regulation but in 1973 when radio advertising began they were controlled by statutory ... Now self regulation can remove adverts that break the rules without taking legal action.

Press complaints commission who are a voluntary regulatory body for magazines and newspapers. They have 16 sections that the newspapers must follow which include the stories being accurate , must protect children, don’t write anything that wants to be kept private, no misrepresenting people etc.

Obscene publication act - this means that they can’t show horrible things or be obscene. Many people have gone on trial for being obscene included Darryn Walker who in 2009 wrote a fictional account of kidnapping, raping and murdering the girl group Girls Aloud calling it “Girls (scream) Aloud”

Representation issues and pressure groups

Internet watch foundation is a non-governmental charitable body. It’s main objective is to get rid of violence and crime on the internet mainly images of child sexual abuse and criminal obscene adult content. They would then take things they have found to court where they confirm the content as criminal.

Media watch UK complain and campaign about offensive and harmful content in the media. Founded in 1965 by Mary Whitehouse who is a celebrity in her own right.

Intellectual property

Copyright - Copyright is something you don’t have to apply for but if you wanted to take it further you would send it to yourself and not open it with a date as this would be proof it was yours, you would do this with a song or something small.

Patent - Patent is something when you would pay money for and have to fill out lots of legal documents, you would do this for an invention like a unique design that hasn’t been created yet. Patents are made by national governments which allows the creator rights to use, manufacture or sell the product. For a patent to be approved it takes 2 to 3 years.

Design - Most of the time the designer owns the rights to the design but if they are commissioned the design belongs to them. Unregistered design rights protect shapes which are used in most designs. Designs can be subject to copyright and design rights. They could also be done in a similar way to patents

Trademarks - Trademarks can be a name, slogan, word, design, or other unique ideas. If you register in the UK, USA or Japan it means that it will only be protected in that country. You know if the trademark is registered by a symbol or abbreviation ‘TM’. For example Ben and Jerry’s is a registered trade mark and can’t be used again however there are rules when making a trademark as it can’t have obvious things like shapes as this put a limit on all future trademarks.

Regualtions Report