The four main prompt questions within Media Regulation
- What is the nature of contemporary media regulation compared with previous practices?
- What are the arguments for and against specific reforms of contemporary media regulation?
- How effective are regulatory practices?
- What are the wider social issues relating to media regulation?
The main UK Organisations
|
Media Regulation Terminology
|
Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925)
Regular Archive Report -
"The film was rejected when first submitted in September 1926, on the grounds that films should not address issues of 'political controversy' and that Potemkin's pro-Revolutionary message was therefore unacceptable for classification." At first the film was marked as unacceptable for rating. By 1953, after Stalin's death, the film was classified as X. And finally, the film was rated as PG. This shows a level of desensitisation, as the film was gradually found more acceptable to the public, and was lowered from 'Unacceptable' to 'PG'. The film mostly focuses on a montage style, including lots of different scenes to keep the pace of the film up. Battleship Potemkin essentially depicts an escalation of events following a protest which was put down violently by authorities. Shots of people dying or being stepped on by authorities, as well as hysteria in general, make up a large amount of this films content. Because of the film's political messages, and the sensitivity of media regulation at the time, its content was quickly deemed as unfit for any audience to watch. |
The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008)
The movie was rated as 12A, however the board recommended that parents do not take children under 12 to watch the film. This confused parents, however cinemas just wanted as many people as possible to enter the cinema and watch their film. The main point of controversy regarding this movie could be seen with the pencil scene, in which Joker slams a bodyguards face into a pencil, killing him. The brutal depiction of murder was what made the 12A rating so controversial, as people feared that if children were exposed to this scene, they may (and did) copy the scene. The film is spared of much gory detail from damage done by weapons, but the film still contains widespread use of knives and firearms, which is currently a sensitive issue.
|
The Woman in Black (Watkins, 2011)
This film received a lot of scrutiny as it was deemed as a 12A rating, and many children chose to go see it due to Daniel Radcliffe's main role in the movie. Daniel Radcliffe is most famously known for his role as Harry Potter, so of course many children went to see the movie that he was starring in. However this led to lots of criticism towards the movie, as many children of a young age found the movie too shocking and terrifying for the age group. The existence of the 12A rating was mainly due to complaints of children not being able to see Spiderman 2002.
|
Media Regulation Case Study
In January 2015, Ofcom received 250 complaints about racist remarks on Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother.
•Clip/article links:
https://youtu.be/rWdOPKf9uUg
https://youtu.be/ZSnSDdd3uXc
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2906738/Ken-Morley-second-star-booted-Celebrity-Big-Brother-house.html
•Clip/article links:
https://youtu.be/rWdOPKf9uUg
https://youtu.be/ZSnSDdd3uXc
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2906738/Ken-Morley-second-star-booted-Celebrity-Big-Brother-house.html
People may have complained about Big Brother’s content, as during the conversation of Frank Bruno, Ken Morley used highly derogatory comments in a way which offends an entire community. Morley has also received various warnings beforehand, meaning that people may have been frustrated with Morley continuing to use offensive language. The article states that Morley has been known for his controversial comments, and “repeatedly clashed with his housemates”. A prior warning was given to Morley following his labelling of Alexander O’Neal as a “nice big fat n***o”.
Ken Morley is also responsible for making countless sexist remarks towards female housemates usually in a lewd or creepy manner. This kind of behaviour makes viewers and other actors on the show very uncomfortable, especially nowadays this sexist vocabulary is entirely unacceptable. One remark from Ken that really sparked an outrage was when he stated “They've got the best looking bodies. They've got the best looking a**** - what is wrong with a man looking?”. Morley’s derogatory sexualisation of women played a large role in the rise of complaints towards his behaviour on the show. A lot of the complaints from this incident came from the fact that Ken believed that he wasn't in the wrong and refused to give a sincere apology to the audience and his housemates in the show. Within the article one can see that Morley states “I don’t think it was offensive, it is an outdated expression but I didn’t want to offend anyone”. Morley’s continual lack of remorse may be a stimulus for further complaints, as viewers may have found the actor’s behaviour and attempts at apology unacceptable. |
|
Further study of racial representation
- Mind Your Language - The First Lesson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_Your_Language
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2021/09/12/%E2%80%98mind-your-language%E2%80%99
- Foreign characters are portrayed as if they have a lower intellect
- High use of racial stereotypes
- Heavy stereotypical accents
- Broken English may be done to further undermine foreign characters
- Comedic/ Possibly disrespectful representation of international conflicts
- First aired in 1977, and the cast were sensationalized for their memorable traits
- Till Death Do Us Part - Strikes and Blackouts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Till_Death_Us_Do_Part
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022009409356914
- The use of the word “c**n” would definitely have disrespected an audience
- Although its done to scrutinize racism, there is large use of derogatory language
- Minor stereotypical representation of characters
- Stereotypical portrayal of marriage relationships of the time
- The idea behind trying to make the racist character look stupid backfires and creates an icon.
- There was controversy because many people liked Garnett’s character, and undermined the actual meaning of his ridiculed character
- Love Thy Neighbor - Voodoo Business
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Thy_Neighbour_(1972_TV_series)
https://mumbrella.com.au/epitome-of-racist-sitcom-love-thy-neighbour-being-aired-on-7two-35114
- The derogatory term “n*g n*gs” may have offended an audience
- Eddie’s vocalization of his distaste for different ethnicities would’ve been very offensive
- Highly stereotypical representation of British families
- Audience laughter is always played during a racial slur (this is done to ridicule racism, but could be misinterpreted by people as finding it funny to be racist)
- Eddie is racist in normal conversation (It comes naturally for him)
- The show has faced criticism of its racial representation from both sides, with people from minority communities criticizing the ridicule of their ethnicity, and white people criticizing the depiction of their race as prejudicial and offensive.
Notes:
- The BBFC consult every 4 or 5 years.
- BBFC is British, MPA is American.
- MPA is funded by the film industry.
- BBFC is independent.
- Film’s such as High Life, deliberately push boundaries with the use of themes such as murder and violence.
- Most YouTube clips of High Life have even been taken down due to its brutality.
- Film Rating Certificates are given for the purpose of protecting the audience from potentially harmful content.
- Livingstone and Lunt’s theory: Media producers walk a fine line between being unique and challenging in their content, and protecting the audience from disturbing media.
- The Hunt was withdrawn in late 2019 due to its disturbing content, and was so vivid that even Donald Trump called out against the film’s brutality.
- The uproar against The Hunt’s brutality eventually led to the film being taken down by Universal Studios.
- Corona, the movie, uses the Corona pandemic as a means of representing the rise in Xenophobia towards profiling people as potential covid carriers.
- David Gauntlett is a main researcher of desensitisation.
- Many adults say that they are not so concerned about fictional violence, rather the presentation of real-life scenarios in which people can actually relate to. This led to people stating that there should be a tighter regulation over realist films, and a looser regulation over that of non-realist films.
- The media can have a large impact over the environment, however the environment can also control the media’s effect. Seen as some people push for the media to have less impact.
- The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) started in 1964, and is known as a self-regulating body, as multiple of it’s main governing members work in the advertising industry. They don’t look at online advertising and they don’t look at print advertising. Most regulation towards advertisement originates from complaints, rather than general monitoring. Complaints mean that ASA can specify their regulation over specific points of controversy.
- If around 50% of a vlog is filled with advertisements, then ASA states that the vlog must be declared an advertisement.
- Gender representation and other social representations are also regulated by ASA, with ASA ensuring the audience isn’t outraged by any representations or stereotypes.
- Advertisements can essentially reflect society, as they want to appeal to a contemporary audience.
- McDonalds’ dead dad advert drew large controversy due to being a very unconventional advert, focusing on a dead person for the majority of the advert, and then abruptly changing towards the kid eating a fish filet burger.
- Martin Barker
- Judith Williamson
- David Gauntlett
- Stuart Hall
- Julian Petley
- Mark Kermode
- Blumler and Katz
- Laura Mulvey
- Charles Acland