Understand ethical and legal constraints within the media sector

Representation of gender in the media

When you watch TV, male and females are shown in the same way in advertisements TV shows and films; you could call it a TV stereotype of genders and how they act, this doesn’t seem to be an issue in the TV industry as everyone does it, the effects of stereotypes on young people are an issue, small children watch stereotyped version of male and female, how they act, for example you get sexism in TV, if a kid watched that type of program then he or she will have pre thoughts on what a female or male should do, or do. This would become an issue as sexism is not socially acceptable.

Representation of religious beliefs in the media

In the media certain religious beliefs are shown as negative or positive, for example eastern religious beliefs like Islam are shown to be very negative this is because only the bad things about people who believe in this religion are broadcast on TV, when a TV producer decides to make a program on say everything bad about Islam then this would not be allowed especially if it was on the BBC as they would have to show both sides not just the negative, also constraints on the media depend on what is socially acceptable, if the mass thought it was ok to show Islam in a very negative way then it would be acceptable to put on TV.

Linguistic usages

When making a program that uses people who are speaking in a different languages for example a program about that was broadcast in the UK and had people talking in Chinese you would have to use sub titles or if it was a documentary then there would be a translator in the video, if you had sub titles you can’t put something different from what they are actually saying as this would be taking advantage of people who don’t know the language and would be unacceptable to a person who speaks that language as it would be taking away their right to freedom of speech.

Legal

Legal: content, interpretation and application of laws relating to media

The broadcast act 1990 got of Independent broadcasting authority and independent television commission and replaced them with Ofcom, it enabled franchise to take over other companies, it allowed for a fifth channel which was channel 5, the BBC was now required “to source at least 25% of output from independent production companies”  it made TV more commercialised. 

http://www.eradar.eu/2011/05/broadcasting-act-19

Official Secrets Act 1989,

This act stopped the allowance of confidential  government material to be released by employees and is seen as a criminal offence if you do, this also applies to journalist if they repeat any disclosures, it replaced section 2 1911, being prosecuted under criminal law is now put aside for information or material that the government considers harmful to national security. This means that the media wouldn’t be able to report on certain things that are covered by the act.

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0011381.html

Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments)

This act made it an offense to publish any obscene articles which will “deprave or corrupt” anyone who hears, sees and reads the article, this would include acts of rape, torture and necrophilia for example a Chinese film in 2009 was not allowed to be published in the UK as the BBFC wouldn’t give it a certificate .

Recordings Act 1984

The Video recording act was introduced to stop small companies from producing video material onto tapes that went against Obscene publications act, there were films like snuff, SS experiment, and Cannibal Holocaust, these sorts of films did not have to be certified by the BBFC until 1984 as there was no previous government legislation, now that the act was in place, which was the recording act, it made it so that any video that was to be released to the public was compulsory for it to be given a age certificate U PG 12 (1994) 15 18 R18, if any of these were sold to anyone under the certificates age it would be counted as a criminal offence.

http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/recordings_act

Race Relations Act 1976 (and later amendments),

This Act made discrimination in any way a criminal offence; this includes race, ethnicity, colour, nationality and religious. In 2000 the act was amended, it required all public institutions to “promote equality of opportunity, good relations between people of different racial groups”, this act is mostly abided by except in certain employment places that still would choose someone who is white over someone who is black, this act did not affect how people made films and portrayed characters as being racist as it was not reality.

http://www.emmainteractive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9895&Itemid=3288

Human Rights Act 1998

The human rights act 1998 gave every person everywhere no matter what colour, ethnicity, nationality, criminal or ordinary person the rights to freedom of speech, life, privacy, protection against slavery, protection of property and a few others. Human rights are universal, inalienable and indivisible.

http://www.pfc.org.uk/HumanRightsAct1998.html

Licensing Act 2003 (and later amendments);

This act replaced six independant licence regimes and joins them all up into one The Licensing Act 2003; it concentrates on 4 main points,


1. Prevention of crime and disorder
2. Promotion of public safety
3. Prevention of public nuisance
4. Protection of children from harm

• It licenses 4 different activates these are 
• The sale by retail of alcohol
• The supply of alcohol by clubs
• the provision of regulated entertainment
• the provision of late night refreshment 

http://www.northdevon.gov.uk/index/lgcl_business/lgcl_business_and_street_trading_licences/nonlgcl_licensing_act_2003.htm

A few examples of licensing with provisional entertainment are companies like PRS MCPS and PPL

PRS is a non profit making company.

Their aim is to get “fair value for copyright music in the face of changing technology and legislation”

PRS are the same company but they “collect and distribute license fees for public performance and broadcast musical works” MCPS and PRS are a collecting society because its major role is to collect royalties from music users in the worldwide, either people who have bought music from a online store like iTunes or music that is being used in public performance or broadcasting, on radio and television. Royalties for broadcast are usually charged on a yearly basis. Major companies that use PRS would be the BBC, they have to give in depth reports on the music that they use.

MCPS is a society of people who song writer, publish music and compose it, organisations go to them for a licence to play music on a radio show like radio 1 or kerrang, the royalties that they pay is then distributed back to the artists evenly and quickly. They” promote and protect the value of copyright” the mechanical part is when a artists music gets used the royalties are automaticly given to the artist.

Their policies and areas of interest

• Copyright
• Collective rights management
• Digital networks, enforcement and consumer education
• Small businesses 
• data and data tools 
• http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

 

PPL

PPL is a music licensing company very similar to MCPS and PRS, it is a collective society that gives all of its profits and royalties go to their members who would be famous music artists new artists performers and so on. PPL licences music to hundreds and thousands of companies all over the world, these can range from night clubs to universities. PPL licence music to TV and Radio Broadcasting, stations and channals like heart, channel 4, absolute radio and sky.  PPL ar able to collect their members royalties from all over the world as they have agreements with many other companies like PPL.

http://www.ppluk.com/About-Us/What-We-Do/

Privacy law

The privacy law applied to media, stops the broadcast or show of private information on TV or radio, information like, home addresses, personal phone numbers, if they happen to be in the background of a film then the producer would have to ask them if they minded being in the video and if they do their face can be blurred out.

Copyright and intellectual property law

Intellectual Property also known as IP is something created by the mind, this could be musical, design, artistic, visual, phrases brands and other such things, any of these things can be copyright protected, for example a brand logo from a company like Universal would be copyright protected, if another company used a logo that was very similar or the same to promote their product then that would be breaking copyright laws that protects intellectual property like a logo or trade mark.

 

Media company’s assets are very important to them these are thing like, phrases, theme tunes, trademarks, all these would be copyright protected, a company like the BBC which has very well known assets like it logo, if a company like ITV was to copy the style and base their logo on the bbc’s then it would be subject to copyright laws.

 

Libel law

Libel law stops people writing their own opinion about say the BBC and then saying that its fact when its actually just an opinion, If someone went against Libel law then they would be saying an opinion but stating it as fact say in a newspaper or news broadcast something that would harm the reputation of a company as many people would hear this so called fact that is actually an opinion and then they might choose not to buy from that company their watch their programs.

Films Act 1985

The films act 1985 got rid of and dissolved many companies; these include the British fund agency which ended the eady levy system from 1951. It got rid of the cinematograph council and the National film finance Corporation the assets when to the new British screen finance limited. it brought back certain points from films act 1960 – 1980 also points from the finance act 1992 and 1994, these were then amended in “1997 by finance acts 1997 no. And 1992 no.2 and 1990”

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1051523/

Ethics

Taste – cant show something like 9/11 on tv

Could offend ertain races or cultures

No water shed for radio

Opinions of violence change over time

Media producers always benefit from doing some work on the ethical presentation ofmatters in relationships to regulatory bodies  andcdes of conduct.

Ethics -  the moral principle that define how a person acts.

Ethical isies that affect tv producers.

Trust

Impartiality

Truth

Privacy

Serving the public interest

And many more

Ethical standards that guide the bbc

ethical organization?

BBC exist to serve the public interest

Censorship or Sensitivity?

Recent news reports have criticised the BBC for both censoring Jimmy Savile from the archive, over his removal from Desert Island Discs, and for being insufficiently sensitive to his victims by not erasing a Savile look-a-like from an episode of The Tweenies

1. Producers in the BBC have to take into consideration views from both sides of an issue or argument when 

writing a report or making a TV program that could contain topical issues.  They have to think about guidelines that will determine how they show or represent the subject for example “the distinction between matters grounded in fact and those which are a matter of opinion” “how topical the subject is”

 “Whether the subjects are matters of intense debate or importance in a particular nation, region or discrete area likely to comprise at least a significant part of the audience”

http://sajif.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/bbc-ethical-guidelines-2/

2. How does the BBC balance access (in the public interest) with privacy?

They make sure that they follow their privacy guidelines when giving access to information or video content. For example if the bbc was going to publish a story about a crime a MP committed they would have to follow the guidelines for public interest.

•   Exposing or detecting crime
• Exposing significantly anti-social behavior
• Exposing corruption or injustice
• Disclosing significant incompetence or negligence
• Protecting people's health and safety
• Preventing people from being misled by some statement or action of an individual or organization
• Disclosing information that assists people to better comprehend or make decisions on matters of public importance.

The BBC does occasionally bend the rules, only when it is called for, for example when the BBC’s watchdog program investigated a care home, they used a hidden camera and the people in the video didn’t know it was there, this is an infringement of their policy and guidelines, in this case it was allowed “disclosing significant incompetence or negligence. If you compare this to the news of the world they broke privacy laws constantly by phone hacking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-privacy-introduction/

1.  3. Does the editorial guidelines / charter state that producers should be objective or subjective? Why is impartiality & balance important to producers? Why shouldn’t producers be biased?

The guidelines say that producers should be objective and only use facts, never be biased, always make sure the audience can see the difference between a discussion that uses facts and one that uses opinions. When the researcher is asked to find out about a subject they have to find both sides of an argument and not wright their own opinion, only wright facts.

Impartially and balance makes sure that both sides of a story are seen or heard, the public will want to hear more than one side of a story, they will want to know facts of each side and not opinions, in section 3 from the BBC editorial it states that they must not mislead its audience knowingly.

Producers in the bbc have to be objective as its in the bbc’s interest to broadcast none biased factual information  to the public, if they didn’t they would not be as respected as they are.

4. Explain the role that accuracy has in producing programmes at the BBC.

When they produce any program they have to be 100% accurate with their information to do this they check through their info from the source at least five times before using it, if they don’t have the entire story they say “we will have more in the next few minutes” or they will say that its not 100% correct and has yet to be verified. If their program is not accurate then it would not be allowed to be broadcast to the public as it would break everything they respected for.

5. Does accuracy relate to truth & trust?

Yes it does, this is because the bbc would not trust a source if was not accurate and truthful, If the BBC broadcast something that wasn’t the truth then they would lose the public’s trust. If the BBC trusted the source then it probably would be accurate but in the case that it wasn’t they wouldn’t be breaking section 3 of the guidelines which says “you must not knowingly mislead the public”