Understanding regulation of the creative media sector

Why does the creative media sector need to be regulated?

All media needs to be regulated as if it is not then it can feature content that is inappropriate for the viewers age. All media is given an age rating so that the viewers know whether it is appropriate to watch.


BBFC

The bbfc is the UK's regulator for film and videos. They provide age ratings for all the films that come out in the UK so that they are fine for people to watch across the different age ranges. They even have the power to reject certain films if it has strong sensitive material. For example the human centipede 2 was not allowed to be sold in shops because of its strong violence, blood and gore.

Ofcom

Ofcom is also another regulator like the bbfc but Ofcom regulate communication services aswell as TV and Video. Ofcom is funded by fees from the industry and operate under the communications act 2003. Top gear was being investigated by Ofcom as in one of the episodes Jeremy Clarkson uses the word 'slope' as a asian man walks over a bridge, this led to a complaint of 'casual racism'.

IPSO 

The international press standards agency was established in 2014 so its a very new organisation as ever since 1990 the Press Complaints Commission has been in charge. IPSO is a independent  regulator for newspaper and magazine companies too make sure that everything that gets printed is suitable for the readers and wont cause any harm or offence.

ASA 

The role for the asa is to regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK. They do this by investigating complaints made from people about certain advertisements. A TV ad by moneysupermarket.com featured a man walking down the street and dancing whilst wearing denim shorts and high heels, the ASA got a lot of complaints from people saying that was offensive. But the ASA did not judge the ad for being offensive and was not in breach of any codes.

Consumer choice

Consumer choice is where the public gets to choose what they want out of a company. Companies do this as its a good way of making more business as you get to hear the customers point of view. The problem with doing this is people have said that because they have been given a choice, the companies then make the products more expensive which is then hard for people too afford

Freedom of information

There have been quite a few issues with freedom of information regarding journalists leaking information just so that they could make stories. This is a issue in the media because this is information that should not be kept private but has been publicized by the media. Media censorship takes many forms in the way you get your news, some information is edited out of news to protect the public. This is sometimes an issue as the public feel they are being denied information that they feel like they should know about.