Understanding the ethical and legal constraints with in the media sector:

Sport, music, religious, and

educational works are exempt
from classification under the
Act. Exemption may be forfeited
if the work depicts excessive
human sexual activity or acts of
force or restraint associated
with such activity, mutilation or
torture of humans or animals,
human genital organs or urinary
or excretory functions, or
techniques likely to be useful in
the perpetration of criminal acts
or illicit activity.
The Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, is the current
UK copyright law. It gives the
creators of literary, dramatic,
musical and artistic works the
right to control the ways in
which their material may be
used. The rights cover:
Broadcast and public
performance, copying, adapting,
issuing, renting and lending
copies to the public. In many
cases, the creator will also have
the right to be identified as the
author and to object to
distortions of his work.

The Video Recording Act was an act put in place in 2010 by

the British Parliament and is essentially a list of footage
deemed inappropriate. This includes the recording of human
sexual activity or acts of force or restraint associated with
such activity, mutilation or torture of humans or animals,
human genital organs or urinary or excretory functions, or
techniques likely to be useful in the perpetration of criminal
acts or illicit activity. Voiding the video recording act can
result in imprisonment.

Copy right laws are important within the film industry as

they allow artists and creators to have control on how their
work is used. This could be, for example, for the sake of
image or even due to personal beliefs. It can act as an
incentive to creators to be able to be totally expressive and
artistic, yet still receive payment for use of talents.
The main purpose of copyright laws is the economic benefits
for artists and creators; some of which may be deterred from
pursuing the arts due to lack of income.
Creators of original content are effected most by copyright
laws; it stops original works being plagiarised or used
without permission. The creators work is protected which
also means their income is not also damaged by plagiarised
work.
A number of things can happen when copyright laws are
broken, depending on the severity of the breach. For
example, on viewing platforms such as YouTube; content
using plagiarised songs or footage will be removed from the
website. Copyright infringement is punishable by a 50,000
fine or even up to 6 months imprisonment.
An example of this would be downloading films illegally off
the internet. Persons who have done this in the past have
faced imprisonment for up to 10 years

Another example of copyright infringement

is showing DVDs and charging money, this is
punishable by prison time as well as a
10,000 fine.
The Cinematograph Films Act of
1927 (17 & 18 Geo. V) was an
act of the United Kingdom
Parliament designed to
stimulate the declining British
film industry

The films act was relevant to the industry as

it stopped the domination of American films.
Over the years, the British Film Industry has grown in size
and has developed a larger presence, thus rendering the act
partially irrelevant. As the film industry is more diverse with
productions from different countries, the act is no longer
needed.
In certain aspects, the film act helped the
industry, it allowed way for the British film
industry to make the impact it has today.
However, in current times it would hinder the
forward momentum of the industry. British film companies
wouldnt be able to vertically integrate with foreign
companies which limits the production to become
minimalistic.

Importance of ethical issues

Television viewers are slowly becoming less offended by use

of bad language and blasphemy; the rules regarding certain
words and phrases has loosened up over the past 10 years.
Despite this, television broadcasting still requires a
watershed so persons under the age of 18 arent exposed to
inappropriate content. If the rules of the watershed are
broken, the programme is pulled by the broadcaster from
replays, and if it belongs to a series, the time of airing is
altered.
Equal opportunities arent always offered to those working in
film; this can be due to financial problems, prejudices within
the industry and even education. This problem is recognised
within the industry, therefore companies such as the BFI, the
BBC and the national lottery all provided the opportunity to
receive funding for short and feature films. This allows for
those who are at a disadvantage for any of the
aforementioned reasons to be able to have a chance at
working in the film industry.
Across the top 100 highest grossing films between 2012
2007; only 10.8% of speaking characters were black, 4.2%
were Hispanic, 5% were Asian and 3.6% were of mixed
ethnicities. The encouragement for diversity within film is
endeavoured by providing funding opportunities specifically
for ethnic minorities. This may encourage people to pursue a
career without the threat of a prejudice stopping them from
making a start. On the other hand, this may be deemed as
categorizing and excluding ethnic minorities from
mainstream media. The influence of mainstream media on
the general public is large; if one major Hollywood
production using a large percentage of minorities in a film, it
may cause an influx of persons from the same group used in
mainstream media. An example of this is the film
Philadelphia released in 1993, it was one of the first films
to have a major Hollywood star play a gay character. After
the release of this film, the amount of gay characters and
actors increased significantly. Another issue within the
encouragement of diversity, is the representation of actors;
disabled characters or characters belonging to the LGBT
community, arent always played by characters belonging to
the same groups. This raises the notion that disabled or

Representation of gender

Representation of religious
beliefs

LGBT actors arent accepted within the film

sector.
Non fictional films or fictional films both rely
on a story; which occasionally relies on the
controversy of political issues. When the
films are based on true stories, or is a
fictional story in a real place and time, it
may raise issues regarding exploitation of stories and the
people who experienced them. It may be considered
unethical to change large amounts of the story or the
characters to boost the entertainment factor. When dealing
with political issues within films; content might be influenced
by biased opinions. This would be unethical as it would make
the audiences opinions be manipulated unfairly.
The topic of representation in the film industry is
controversial; it is debated whether women have proper
representation or are merely placed in films as tokens.
This means that they are merely placed in films so the topic
of sexism isnt raised. The difference in age between male
and female actors is normally large; many disputes that this
is because female characters are more sexualised than
males. For example, Wonderwoman and other female super
heroes have costumes which are a lot more revealing than
males.
Within the film sector, it is said that women are represented
as the weaker gender. This is presented in the films with the
concept damsel in distress this portrays the idea that
women are somewhat incompetent and dependant on male
characters to save them. An example of this is the James
Bond franchise, the films are infamous for bond girls. The
bond girls are placed into the film as love interests, and are
usually highly dependent on the lead character. Over the
years, the roles of women within the bond franchise has
developed to be more female orientated; Bond now serves
under a woman, this branches out into having more diversity
within the film.
Another example of the representation being unequal is the
characters in the Twilight saga. The Twilight saga is a science
fiction film, revolving heavily around a love triangle. This
film has been criticized for having a weak and heavily
dependent female character; the character Bella is shown
to enter a catatonic state when the male lead leaves. This
implies heavily that without the man in her life, she is
unable to look after herself, or cope with everyday life.
A religious programme is a programme which deals with
matters of religion as the main content, or as a significant
part of the programme. Ofcom make sure that religious
programmes do not involve any improper exploitation of any
susceptibilities of the audience for such programmes. This
is so that the public is not offended by misinformation or
manipulated by any false information given to them, it also
makes sure that opinions shared about religion are not
biased. This means that people are not influenced by biased
idealisms from films that claim to be factual, such as
documentaries.
An example of a film that contains a significant portion
focusing on religion is the film The Life of Brian although it
is a work of fiction; the film addresses real life issues about
religion. The films satirical nature has been accused many
times for being blasphemous and racist. With modern
day regulation, the film may not be allowed to be shown in

How should men and women be

represented?

Does your chosen industry

represent people fairly?

1.

certain platforms.
In film; male and female characters should
be treated equally in order for proper
representation. This means that if possible,
there should be an equal amount of roles for
both men and women. This also means that
the damsel in distress ideology should be
banished from films, to help achieve diversity within the
characters. Womens representation as a social inferior to
men also stems from the ideology that most characters end
goal is love. This means that most female characters are
only viewed as love interests for the male protagonist. This
can be eliminated by allowing characters other end goals
other than love, settling down and getting married.
In the film industry it is slowly breaking the stereotypes on
screen and starting to represent people fairly; for example,
there is now a larger acceptance of women in film industry
jobs. The film industry has a long way to go in trying to
remove the stereotypes and hurdles that minorities have in
the film industry, but has made a large step forward in the
past 4 years. Also in the film industry there has been a
major shift in dynamic; women are represented as role
models rather than being placed merely for the purpose of
sexualisation. Another issue that addresses the
disadvantages in the film industry is the wage gap between
men and women. In 2013 the highest paid female actor,
Angelina Jolie, made the same amount of money as the
lowest paid male actors. This may be interpreted as unfair,
as women work the same amount of hours but make
significantly less money. It may also be claimed that this is
because the industry is male dominated, meaning they have
more chance of successfully negotiating with producers and
directors. Certain films have been criticised for having
tokens this means that certain actors are only included in
films to tick boxes. This is an unfair representation as
these roles are usually heavily stereotyped.

Explain what the following bodies do and why they are important (choose the ones related to your
media sector only)

Do not just cut and paste their about us page please read it and put it into your own words.
Add links to their pages
Distinction grade learners will find cases

The British Board of Film Classification has say on

the classification of which audiences can view
what content, this means the viewing age of films.
They can award film certifications, informing the
consumer if the video/video game contains sex,
violence, drug use ETC.

Film Distributors Association, The film distributers

association is an organisation for film distributors
in the UK. It was established over a hundred years
ago, in London in 1915 The film industry is a fastmoving, highly competitive business/ industry; UK
film distributors alone spend around 300 million a
year by bringing new releases to the public market
also publicising the films to the target audiences.
The film distributers association is very marketing
based and handles the business of launching and
films to the consumers. This association is also in
charge of the release of DVDs and other
merchandise from films. The film distributors
association works alongside many individual
companies and organisations in the film industry.
This means that members of FDA meet up with
film distributors in order to discuss the best ways
to tackle the current trends and markets.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
(BAFTA) was formed to support, promote and
develop the art forms of the moving image film,
television and video games by identifying and
rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and
benefiting the public. Its assembly is supposed to
inspire potential creators by rewarding efforts and
recognising great achievements. BAFTA receives
no government funding; so acts as charity in order
to support the arts.

In 2002, the film The

Amazing Spider was
deemed as a 12 by the
BBFC. This however was
argued and pressured to
change by cinema chains
and the distributors. The
BBFC then changed the viewing age to
12A which meant the film can be viewed
with the accompaniment of an Adult.
In 2012 the two highest distributions of
film were The Lego Movie which was
distributed by Warner and earned 34,
330, 874.00 for its distribution of the film,
the second highest distributed film was
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five
Armies which was distributed by Warner
and earning 33, 503, 962.00.

An example of BAFTA encouraging

careers, is the rising star award. In
2015, Jack OConnell won this award. The
award gave OConnell exposure as a
promising actor, which landed him several
offers for roles. Encouragements from
BAFTA such as these have the potential to
give actors a kick start to their careers.

Consumer choice

Consumer choice is all about audiences having access to different information, across different
media platforms. This is where consumers have the freedom to form opinions and become
informed through their own choices of media outlets. The problem regulatory bodies have with
this is the mass ownerships of different media platforms by one major corporation. This means
that consumers may be influenced by the idealism of the company. Regulatory bodies need to
assure that consumers have access to non-biased information, so they are free to make their
own decisions regarding certain topics and problems. An
example of this is the Sun Newspaper; the paper is a
large and avid supporter of the conservative party,
which was shown during the 2015 election; where the
labour party was largely inculpated with biased media
being produced. Such as article depicting the labour
leader Ed Miliband as a kitten killer and using pictures
with the main aim to humiliate him. Another example is

the film Dr Seusss: The Lorax. This film has come under criticism for being
liberal bias and that the film is promoting a biased view on deforestation.
Even though that opinion is wrong, the regulatory bodies would have to
investigate the issue.

Freedom of information

The freedom of information act is an act of parliament that creates a public right to access
information contained by public authorities. This means the public have right to request any
information held by the regulatory bodies. The Freedom of Information Act was passed in
December 2000; the act says that the public can have access to information held by public
authorities. This means that these public authorities must publish particular information about
their activities upon request. The BFI is not subject to freedom of information requests-as they
are privately owned, despite this, they choose to answer public requests following freedom of
information rules. This means that the public can write to the BFI and ask for information that
hasnt previously been published. Between April 2011 and March 2014, the BFI received 116
freedom of information requests. Out of 116, 88% of were answered and the information was
provided; of these requests 5% were declined as they were considered personal information
and 3% were declined as it was deemed sensitive. The most common topics for requests to the
BFI were about the UK film council, footage, film funding and Doctor Who. The BFI, along with
the BBFC and Creative Skillset which are also private companies or charities. Some film related
public bodies that are subject to the freedom of information act include: Film London, the BBC,
Creative England, among others.

Censorship

Before films are released to the general public; they have to be monitored to ensure the
content is appropriate and to decide a viewing age. After a viewing age has been decided, films
can be edited and parts can be removed in order to fit within their target audience. An example
of this is The Hunger Games. The original copy of the film contained violent scenes which
raised the age rating on the film to 15. This eliminated a large part of the target audience, so
the scenes were removed until the movie was rated 12A.

Taste and decency

The taste and decency guidelines place emphasis on the 9 oclock watershed and what is
suitable to be shown at that time. The main concerns are sex, violence and bad language. The
guidelines also cover stereotypes especially in comedy and challenging programming to
include more diversity. This means that films with bad language or strong sex or violence will
not be shown until after 9 oclock, which is the watershed. There are controversial beliefs that
films should be decent and made in good taste. For example, Gaspar Noes film Love is
controversial as people have said that it has been made in poor taste as the actors actually
have sex during the sex scenes rather than acting as in the majority of films. Noe defends his
film saying that, to him, it seems most natural. It is argued that this filmed is borderline
pornographic; which is said to lack taste and decency.

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