Professional Practice Within the Media

In this assignment I will be studying the ways bodies regulate the media. Media regulation is the regulation of the media, such as enforcing rules and regulations and how they deal with the breakers of these rules.

The Press Complaints Commission is an independent organization which deals with the complaints from the public about content in magazines or newspapers. As and Independent body it has no government funding and the government has no influence in its affairs. The Press Complaints Commission was put together for two reasons. One being the right for the public to know information which should be printed by the press for public interest reasons. The second reason being to protect the individual from misrepresentation, discrimination, harassing or intrusion of privacy in by the media.

The Commission has a panel of 17 people who make the decisions, to stop bias decisions being made only 7 of the 17 people on the panel are involved in with the press industry this keeps decision making unbiased as possible and with such a mixed panel they can offer a wider opinion on cases.

One of the problems in the press is inaccurate reporting, the PCC has to deal with this on a regular basis. The first code in the PCC is accuracy. The press must not publish misleading, inaccurate information or edited distorted pictures. The editor of the press in question must make sure that none of this happens. If a complaint is made against someone they will receive a period of time to reply to any inaccuracies. An Example of the code is Barry Khanan of Lancashire; he complained that an article in the Sun inaccurately reported that his niece, Alicia Riaz, had made a telephone call to her friend on the night that she, her three sisters and her mother (Barry's sister) lost their lives in a fire in their home. As no phone calls were actually made, and the sun printed the article on something they were told by Alicia's friend the PCC ruled in favour of Barry Khanan and the issue was resolved with the following apology printed by the sun.

'We would like to make clear no phone calls were made from the house where five members of Barry and June Khanan's family were killed in a fire as we reported on November 2 2006. This information was provided in good faith and acted on at the time by the police. We apologise to Barry and June Khanan and their family for the distress caused.'(Source: /www.pcc.org.uk)

OFCOM is a regulatory Body that regulates for the UK communications industries, it deals with television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services. They perform the six following specific duties:

1. Ensuring the optimal use of the electro-magnetic spectrum

2. Ensuring that a wide range of electronic communications services - including high speed data services - is available throughout the UK

3. Ensuring a wide range of TV and radio services of high quality and wide appeal

4. Maintaining plurality in the provision of broadcasting

5. Applying adequate protection for audiences against offensive or harmful material

6. Applying adequate protection for audiences against unfairness or the infringement of privacy

(Source: www.ofcom.org.uk)

An example of their work involves the breakfast TV show GMTV. GMTV was investigated for its alleged phone in scam. They have daily competitions where viewers can call in and win something. It was claimed that they didn't close their premium-rate phone lines until long after a winner for the competition was chosen, making a large amount of money from the phone calls that were coming in after the competition had been closed. Although the issue has not yet been resolved, OFCOM is currently investigating into premium rate phone in competitions as it has it has received over 20 complaints about different cases. (Source: www.ofcom.org.uk )

One of the leaders of media regulation is the Advertising Standards Authority or the ASA. This independent body set up by advertisers to police the rules put down in the advertising codes. They make sure all adverts on television, radio, in print or on the internet are suitable for the audiences that will be viewing them. They can stop misleading, harmful and offensive advertising. The ASA enforce the Advertising codes be investigating any complaints made against any adverts, sales promotions or direct marketing, anyone can complain and most complaints are made through their website www.asa.org.uk. Once a complaint has been received by he ASA they will launch an investigation into it. They also monitor adverts themselves to spot any problems.

The ASA has to deal with a large amount of breaks of the code on weekly bases, receiving a large amount of complaints everyday. A while ago they received a complaint about a television advert for a children's sweet Maoam (a Haribo product) the advert featured two builders on a building site, one of the builders has a Maoam bar, he clumsily drops it in a vat of cement, without thinking he jumps into the vat of cement to retrieve the Maoam, in the process getting stuck in the cement. 2 people complained that this could encourage young children to play on building sites with cement. They investigated the two complaints and checked the advert wasn't actually breaking any of the advertising codes of practice; it turned out the advert wasn't in breach of any rules so the complaint wasn't upheld. This is a prime example of the workings of the Advertising Standards Authority they looked into a complaint and came to a conclusion on whether or not to uphold the complaint. (Source: www.asa.org.uk )

The British Board of Film Classification or the BBFC is the body which classifies age ratings to films in the U.K; it has been classifying films since 1912. Any film you see which has been released to cinema, DVD or video has been viewed and been given a classification by the BBFC. Examples of classifications they have given include recent cinema releases such as 300 (15), Spiderman 3 (12) and DVD releases such as Blood Diamond (15) and Kung fu Hustle (15).

The BBC Charter, TV code and the BBC guidelines all recognise editorial independence, they encourage self regulation. These govern what television channels can broadcast and what times these programmes are suitable to be broadcasted. Some programmes are only suitable to be broadcasted after the 9.00pm 'watershed' this would be because they contents scenes of a violent nature, nudity or have strong language. The same rules apply for televised advertisements.