Section 6- Be able to evaluate legal, ethical and regulatory issues associated with media products

Legal, ethical and regulatory issues

5 films with violent content:

• Django Unchained- rated 18- contains strong bloody violence- In one scene, a fight to the death occurs between two slaves, including a brief suggestion of an eye being gouged and arms being broken, ending with a man being killed with a hammer. 
  The film also contains some strong language and racist language, reflecting the period in which the film is set.

• Green Street hooligans- rated 18- Contains very strong language and strong violence
• The Dark Knight- rated 12A
• Fight Club- rated 18
• Deadpool- rated 15

The media effects debate- The academic and social debate as to whether media has a negative impact on its audience members. The many academic viewpoints and theories regarding the effects of media on audiences can be divided into two main arguments; passive audience theory and active audience theory.

Passive Audience- A collection of academic viewpoints that stress that the audience are unable to reject media messages and are subject to negative effects from the media they consume.

Hypodermic Syringe model- 

Cultivation theory-

Desensitisation- The idea that prolonged exposure to violent images numbs the effect of them. The more you become accustomed to violent images, the less likely they are to have an impact on the audience.

2. Moral Panic- When the media creates fear in the population over an issue that appears to threaten or harm normal social order.

Examples where media products have been blamed for causing problems in society-

• Killer Clowns from the Purge.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/19/creepy-clown-craze-has-left-their-real-counterparts-short-of-wor/

• Call of Duty linked to four teenagers deaths

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10857984/Call-of-Duty-linked-to-four-teenage-deaths-coroner-warns.html

• The Simpsons predicted US Ebola outbreak in 1997
  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2786966/How-The-Simpsons-predicted-US-Ebola-outbreak-1997-Episode-shows-Marge-offering-sick-Bart-children-s-book-Curious-George-Ebola-Virus.html

Do Video Games make people violent?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33960075


Active Audience- The argument that media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved, often subconsciously, in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts.

Uses and Gratifications-

Reception Theory-


Legal and Regulatory issues

1. Media Regulators- The control or guidance of media content by governments and other bodies. This means media production and consumption are monitored. What do the following organisations do? what are the codes and classifications they have set out?

1. BBFC- The BBFC is the UK's regulator of film and video, providing age ratings such as U, PG and 12A. They are a designated body so have legal powers to rate, and sometimes cut or even reject works. They also age rate some online material.
2. IPSO- The Independent Press Standards Organisation is the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. They hold newspapers and magazines to account for their actions, protect individual rights, uphold high standards of journalism and help to maintain freedom of expression for the press.
3. ASA- The Advertising Standards Authority is the self regulatory organisation 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" by investigating "complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing", and deciding whether such advertising complies with its advertising standards codes.
4. Ofcom- Ofcom is the UK's communications regulator. They regulate the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms and mobiles, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate.
5. PEGI- Pan European Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions on buying computer games with logos on games' boxes.

Censorship- When speech, public communication or other content is considered objectionable or harmful by regulators and is then cut or edited from media products.

Classification- The decision made about the suitability of a media text for a particular age range after content has been viewed by regulators. The classification will be in the form of an age certificate (film and video games) warning signs (music, video games or broadcast time, tv, film). 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/13/bbfc-rewrite-horror-rules-woman-black-complaint-gore-sexualisation

User-generated content: Content created by non- professionals who then distribute their work online.