lo2 workbook

BTEC Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production

Unit 7: Understanding the CreativeMedia Sector

Learning outcome 2:

Understand ethical and legal constraints within the media sector

Name: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Thomas Williams _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


Understand legal constraints in the creative media sector

Use this workbook to help you with this learning outcome. There is some guidance and further notes which you should read and then remove, replacing it with your own answers.

Are representations ever realistic?A lot of the time the representation being provided to the audience can be twisted to have a certain outcome for the audience. For an example the daily mail will only produce a certain aspect of a larger story, like the cabinet reshuffle last year, they focused on what the women were wearing and not on there skills/qualifications for the roles they were going for.

What sort of things can influence the representations that we see? Media companies can influence the representation provided, also the intended audience, current events and popular opinion can have an influence.

Find an example of representation and explain what you are seeing:

British public Negative Empifising on the number of people and the speed of the winds Its so the audience feel sad for the people without power.

(Make sure you provide a link, screen shot or description to show us what you are looking at. What group or place is this a representation of? Is this a positive or negative representation? How is this positive or negative representation created? Think about the use of language and imagery. Can you think why this representation has been created in this way?)

How many categories of word do Ofcom have? Explain each one.There are three categories that Ofcom use to classify words. Category A is a list of words that 100% cannot be used before 9pm and still come with some restrictions for the editor. The first category B in general cannot be used before 9pm but there are some exceptions. The last category B can be used before 9pm but they still have a number of restrictions including that the word must be used in the correct context.


Why does Ofcom have this list of words? Do you think there should be restrictions on when certain words can be used?The reason Ofcom has this list of words is so that it is universally known what can and can’t be said across all channels, if Ofcom didn’t have this list of words then each channel would make their own choice what is acceptable to say at certain times of the day. I believe there shouldn’t be restrictions on the words used but more info for people if a word is going to be used within that program, on the other hand I can see the benefits of he ist because it means a parent can be safe letting their child choose what they watch without the worry of swearing.

Why does the NUJ produce language guidelines? NUJ produce a language guideline so that journalists across the country can edit the way a news article is received by the general public by just changing a word or two.

Should we protect groups of people by putting in place guidelines on how we talk about them?I believe we should have guidelines on how we talk about different groups of people because it protects how they are viewed by the general public. For example when the news talks about young people in a negative manor they use words such as yobs and thugs no matter of the crime, what the problem with using words like this is that it doesn’t reflect the actual group, it instantly makes people think of a gang, which people are scared of and in turn can negatively affect the publics opinion of young people overall.

There are 3 ways in which a broadcaster can make it easier for people with a disability to access its programmes. What are they? They are Subtitling, Signing and Audio Description. All depending on the persons disability, but not all strategies are applied to every program.

Who ensures that broadcasters are making their programmes accessible? What are the consequences for broadcasters if they do not meet their accessibility requirements?Ofcom ensure that broadcasters meet there accessibility requirements. For certain channels who have a low viewer count, decide that instead of repeating the programs with a signer they will pay the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust a sum of money that reflects how much they would be required to have a signer on.

Why do we have codes of practice?


We have codes of practice so that producers can provide a program that will not offend the general public. This is done by setting limits for certain aspects of a program, these include harm and religion to name a few, these aspects are controlled because some people find harm very distressing and they control the religious content of a program because the amount of religions practiced in the UK some may disagree with the religion shown in the program.

Use one code of practice and investigate it in detail:The IGDA (International Games Developers Association) code of practice isn’t just to protect the general public from certain content within the games, but it is used to protect the staff working within this media sector. This give guidelines for essential parts of someone’s working life, like fair pay no matter what sort of contract you’re on, ensuring that they have safe, discrimination free working environment’s.

What is the Broadcasting Act and what did it do? The broadcasting act of 1990, is an act that limits the ownership of broadcasters across the country so there isn’t a monopoly effect. This meant there were a number of new channels and radio stations created.

What is the Official Secrets Act?The official secrets act is a piece of paper that people may have to sign if they are going into an environment that could have secrets which could affect national security. For example if you work on a MOD base you will have to sign an official secrets act.

Find an example of when it has been used and explain why it was used and what the outcome was.Every country has a similar act like the official secrets act. In the states they had an instance where there’s was broken by a man called Edward Snowden, he stole classified information from the NSA during work, with this information he released it to journalists who made them public. Snowden’s actions has led to Global surveillance disclosures which started in 2013. Even though his actions have made it clear really what our governments do, it has meant that he currently has a warrant out for his arrest and is having to seek asylum from another country.

Should we have an Official Secrets Act?


Yes we should have an official secrets act, it protects the national security of the country by not allowing opposing countries or organisations access to it. This in turn means we can use our secrets against these oppositions and not the other way around.

What is the Obscene Publications 1959 and what is its definition of obscenity?The obscene publication act is in force to protect people from things like violent sexual acts, mutilation, publications created with the intention of corruption etc. The act came about in 1959 but was intended for only literature, but in 1977 the act was made to cover film as well.

Give an example of a recent case involving the act (1990 onwards). What happened, who was involved and what was the outcome?In 2012 there was a trial of Michael Peacock, who was arrested for selling pornographic dvd’s which the police thought would deprave or corrupt the viewer which breaks the Obscene Publications Act 1959. Michael was found not guilty because the jury who were shown several hours of footage did not find the footage at all depraving or corrupting. In light of this case the police have had to look at what they classify as obscenity, and in a modern world where things like pornography are more widely viewed it is very hard to put guidelines on what is and what isn’t.

What is the Video Recordings Act? Why was the Video Recordings Act introduced?Created to regulate the growing home video market. This meant all films have to now go through the BBFC so that there wouldn’t be another case of video nasties where obscene films were released to the general public by small production companies during the time when it was optional for them to be submitted to the BBFC.

What were some of the films that were prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecution?Ss expirmental campCannibal holocaustSnuffThe driller killer

What is the equality act?


The equality act is there to protect people in all ways, especially in the work place. The equality act is used so that people don’t get discriminated for things like there race, sex or even their sexual preference.

What are the 9 protected characteristics?Race, sexual preference, age, gender, disability, gender reassignment, marrage and cival partnership and religion or belief.

Can you find an example of a case involving the equality act? What happened and what was the outcome?A recent case involving the quality act was with a woman who won a disability discrimination case again Starbucks after being accused of falsifying documents. This women was a supervisor of a Starbucks store and part of her job was to enter the temperatures of fridges and water coolers, she made a mistake on one entry because of her dyslexia which meant she was discriminated against and had to take her employer to a work tribunal. There hasn’t been much of an outcome yet but hopefully it will open an employer’s eyes to the help they may need to provide.

What protects people from journalists invading their privacy?The editor’s code of practice includes a privacy section, explaining how everyone is entitled to there privacy. The NUJ also have a code of conduct for the same situation, unless the editor can justify that it is in the public’s interest to publish. There isn’t any exact laws relating to privacy in the UK, but some laws can relate to it, being the Privacy and the Human rights act of 1998 and The Data Protection Act 1998.

Find a privacy case and explain who was involved, what happened and what the outcome was.An example of a privacy case is Prince of Wales v Associated Newspapers Ltd. This case was brought to high court after the mail on Sunday published an extract of the prince’s diary where he commented negatively on the change of power in Hong Kong from the UK to China, which did not put the prince in the best light. The outcome to this trail is that the paper was no longer allowed to publish anything else from the prince’s diary.

What areas does the Copyright and Intellectual Property law cover?The areas that are covered are Patents, Trade Marks, Designs and Copyrights. This covers anything from a song to a piece of artwork. The law in the UK that covers copyrights is The Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

Why is copyright important to the creative media sector?Copyright is very important to the creative media sector because it protects people’s


artistic work from being profited by anyone but themselves. An example of when this has been used in court is in the lawsuit between Apple and Microsoft. Apple claimed Microsoft stole aspects of their graphical user interface when they released windows 2.0, but they had already licenced 179 of the 189 infringements to Microsoft for the release of windows 1.0, the court found that the last 10 copyright issues couldn’t in fact be copyrighted because there wouldn’t be any other way to express that idea.

What is libel? What must you be able to prove to win a libel case?Libel is the act of writing something untrue and damaging to a persons reputation. To win a libel case you must prove that the statement is untrue and that the person who wrote it did not do adequate research.

Find an example (not the one you were given in the lecture) of a libel case.An example of a libel case would be the case, Keith-Smith v Williams. In this case Tracy Williams posted false claims that Michael Keith Smith was a sexual offender and racist bigot, these claims were posted on a yahoo discussion group with over 100 members. Tracey was found guilty and ordered to pay £10,000 plus legal costs to Michael because these coments were public to the whole world.

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