Regulation of the Media Sector

Regulatory and professional bodies:

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)are a group of people that classify film and games to make sure they are suitable for a type of audience like making sure theres no swearing in kids films. The BBFC either rate films U, 12, 15 or 18 so people know which type of audience they are suitable for.

British Video Association a video home entertainment organisation established in 1980.

Film Distributors Association  is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK

Video Standards Council (VSC) was established to oversee and develop the code of practice designed to promote high standard in the video industry

Television, Radio and Telecommunications Office for Communication (Ofcom) they make sure that everything shown to the public is okay to be shown to the public and also have guidelines for the producers on how to handle certain situations like racism in programmes

Trading Standards Central is the professional association which represents trading standards professionals in the UK and overseas.

Trading Standards Nets

Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the self-regulatory organisation (SRO) of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. Its role is to "regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) MEF is the global community for mobile content and commerce

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA) TIGA is the trade association representing the UK's games industry which intend to make the UK the best for video games industry

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)  The British Academy of Film and Television Arts supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image, by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public.

Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA)

 The Commercial Radio Companies Association is the trade body for commercial radio companies in the United Kingdom. It is a voluntary, non profit making body, incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, and was formed by the first radio companies when Independent Radio began in 1973.

The International Visual Communication Association (IVCA) is a non-profit academic association founded in 1950. The Association maintains an active membership of more than 4,300 individuals in 70 countries, approximately two-thirds of whom are academic scholars, professors, and graduate students. Other members are in government, the media, communication technology, business law, medicine and other professions

Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards

British Web Design and Marketing Association The UK Web Design Association was established in 2001 to encourage and promote industry standards within the British web design and new media sector.

British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA) Support and promote the British digital industry they also share knowledge and best practice and reward great work and encourage the next generation.

I agree with these rules because it makes people know what they should and shouldn't watch and gives protection to parents for what their kids watch.

Regulatory issues:

Ownership Ofcom are a example of ownership in media as they make all the rules and regulations
Monopoly is when one company owns everything
Access is when a certain amount of the population need to access something.
Consumer choice is when consumers have a choice of what they want and not bombarded with the same thing and they can choose something different
Freedom of information
Censorship is when stuff is censored from public
Taste and decency

Ethical and Legal constraints within the media sector

Ethical

social issues and sensitivities, eg representation of gender, representation of religious beliefs, linguistic usages, accessibility; professional body codes of practice, eg BBC producers’ guidelines, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) accessibility standards

Legal
People who work in the creative and media industries have alot of rules and regulitions that they must abide by. Some of the legal issues are listed below;

Broadcasting Act 1990 (and later amendments) is a british law which replaced  the independant television commission and radio authority e.g broadcast that makes smoking good but doesn't list the bad effects is a break of this law

Official Secrets Act 1989 which stopped made film people giving to much information about secrets to the public e.g national secreats broadcast to the public would be a breach of this

Obscene Publications Act 1959 (and later amendments) which created a new law for publishing obscene material e.g nude stuff on a childrens show

Films Act 1985 made further provision with financing to films and connected purposes

Video Recordings Act 1984 which made video recordings for sale or hire carry a classification by the home office e.g selling a film without a classification

Race Relations Act 1976 (and later amendments) which stopped dicrimination against different races e.g not giving someone a job because of their colour

Human Rights Act 1998 was made to make sure everyone is treated fairly like every human being has the right to be free e.g being used as a slave and not being free

Licensing Act 2003 (and later amendments) to make sure licenced premises don't show non licenced stuff and breach the copyright rules like pubs showing sport from sky sports but with a foreign satelitte reciever, this breaches the british privacy law but not the european ;

privacy law so personal information is dealt with sensitivly and protect peoples privacy e.g peoples personal life being put in the paper

copyright and intellectual property law gives people the right to which their products is sold e.g someone using a song for their own profiet without the writers permission would be a breach of this

libel law was made to make sure no hatred is exposed to a person that injures their reputation e.g Wayne Rooney's sex life being released in the paper

A major breach of these law was the privacy law which News Of The World breached. Employers of NOTW hacked phones of many celebrities including Prince William to listen in on phone conversations like Prince Williams arrangements which he investigated into and found out they NOTW were hacking into voicemails and using code names for payments to cover up there tracks. This later forced the worlds longest and greatest newspaper to stop and apoligies were made to everyone involved in the scandel and police procautions were taken to the employes involved.

I thought this scandel made me think about how it would effect me, I wouldn't like all my private life known to the public and posted in newspapers.

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are a group of people that classify film and games to make sure they are suitable for a type of audience like making sure theres no swearing in kids films.

OFCOM (Office Of Communications) they make sure that everything shown to the public is okay to be shown to the public and also have guidelines for the producers on how to handle certain situations like racism in programmes

Code of practice
All members of the press have a duty to maintain a high professional standard which includes preamable and public expectations below. It is a set of writers rules which explain how people working in a paticular profession should behave.For example one of the codes is the press must not identify victims of sexual assualt or publish material likely to contribute to such identificatin unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.

Representation
Representation in media refers to place, people and cultures which are represented in different parts of the media.
Stereotypes of different people are represented in different ways on tv shows. On family guy which talks about a american family it makes men look like the dumb ones and women look like the smart one and in films black ameircans are made to look like gangsters.