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Unit 7 Task 2

The document discusses several legal and ethical constraints that people working in the media sector need to be aware of. Legally, there are acts like the Broadcasting Act of 1990 and Race Relations Act of 1976 that prevent discrimination and restrict media ownership. Intellectual property laws also protect creative works through copyright. Ethically, the media needs to avoid offensive stereotypes regarding topics like gender and religion to prevent insulting or upsetting audiences. Legal consequences for non-compliance can include fines, channel takedowns, or copyright strikes, while unethical portrayals risk viewer backlash.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
135 views3 pages

Unit 7 Task 2

The document discusses several legal and ethical constraints that people working in the media sector need to be aware of. Legally, there are acts like the Broadcasting Act of 1990 and Race Relations Act of 1976 that prevent discrimination and restrict media ownership. Intellectual property laws also protect creative works through copyright. Ethically, the media needs to avoid offensive stereotypes regarding topics like gender and religion to prevent insulting or upsetting audiences. Legal consequences for non-compliance can include fines, channel takedowns, or copyright strikes, while unethical portrayals risk viewer backlash.

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Legal and Ethical Constraints People Working in the Media Sector

Need to be Aware of

Legal Constraints:

 For example a well-known legal constraint act is the Broadcasting Act 1990. It was this act that

also did a lot of work and set up a lot of laws behind the scenes also. The act made it illegal for

newspaper companies to own more than 20% of any television companies. This also applied to

cross-ownership between organisations such as radio stations and TV stations. This was also the

act that introduced Channel 5, which was set up as a channel with had structure meaning that

specific programs could be shown at the same time, on the same day, every week.

 Although there are also acts such as the Race regulations act of 1976 states that it is illegal to

treat a person unpleasantly and unfairly based simply on their race, whether this is the colour of

their skin, their ethnic origin, their nationality etc. It helped create race equality and made

discrimination and victimization illegal throughout the UK.

 Also making positive discrimination illegal also, positive discrimination is when a person may be

given better roles or opportunities simply based on the colour of their skin or their ethnic race.

 This act means that it is important for the media to not portray different ethnic groups differently

due to their appearance or race. Whether this be stereotyping or simply actively discriminating.

It can only be allowed in certain circumstances, for example, films may be allowed to portray

these views if they are focusing on a historical topic. This can be seen in Quentin Tarantino’s film

‘Django Unchained’ wherein which he is displayed as a slave due to the time period.

 There are also intellectual property laws to take into consideration when the media produces

programs and movies to be shown on Television. These laws help protect music, different forms

of media e.g. Images, videos etc., and any other creative property. These intellectual property

laws include copyright, trade rights and patent laws each of which protecting creative property

with a number of laws. The copyright can help protect property whilst Trademarks help to

protect companies from having content stolen e.g. If a company wished to use the slogan
 “I’m loving it” they wouldn’t be able to because McDonald’s would have the rights

and would have trademarked the slogan.

 Similarly, the media can come under fire from these laws if they use video footage,

photos, pictures, music etc. without the permission from the copyright owners. This means that

they cannot use a company’s slogan or logo without having permission from the company.

Copyright and intellectual property laws can have serious effects on media creators that don’t

follow the guidelines. E.g. Videos may be taken down, shows may be cut from the air, the

company may be fined huge amounts of money and in extreme circumstances, and channels or

media companies may be taken down completely. This is the case of YouTube due to the fact

that YouTube channels will be removed and taken down if they violate copyright regulations

three times.

Ethical Constraints:

There are a number of ethical constraints and rules in the media industry that it is highly important
that members of the sector both understand and know them. These rules and constraints aid in the
prevention of people and viewers taking offence to sensitive content. This involves content based
around the topics of Discrimination, offensive stereotypes, privacy and any other issue of which
aren't enforced by the law. Two of these constraints include:

● Gender can often be a topic which doesn't get much thought by the media when it comes to
restraints. This may involve films or programs portraying women as the cleaners and the
people that cook in the household. However unsurprisingly many people find this insulting
and unpleasant. Gender issues have definitely become less apparent in the modern era of
media, but if you look back not too far in the past it is very noticeable as it was a different
time when people felt differently about these topics.
● Religious Beliefs is certainly a topic that is important to stick to the regulations and
constraints. This is due to it being very easy for the media to unintentionally insult a religion
whether it is Christianity, Buddhism etc. Also insulting a person's religion is deeply
disrespectful to their entire culture of millions of people. This can be difficult for news
broadcasters who are focusing on topics that may include religious extremists who often are
seen and heard about on the news.
Source: https://lmvalentinemedia.wordpress.com/creative-media-sector/ethical-and-legal-
constraints-in-the-media/

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