regulations mel

BBFC

The BBFC was set up by members of the film industry so they could self regulate there productions as they did not want the government controlling there industry and in forcing there own agendas on the media and censorship. An example of a government having a monopoly over the media industry in a country is what is currently happening in north korea see http://www.audiencescapes.org/research/north-korea-quiet-opening/quiet-opening-north-korea-804 the leader and his advisers have or at least attempt to have complete control of what the country's population can view and censor almost all western content instead opting for poor quality state produced media which is heavily bias. This is why the BBFC was created they independently control the content of productions and put age restrictions on films so the content does not corrupt young minds. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-bbfc/who-we-are.

U - Suitable for all.
PG - Parental Guidance.
12A - Cinema release suitable for 12 and over.
12 - Video release suitable for 12 years and over.
15 - Suitable for 15 years and over.
18 - Suitable for adults.
R18 - Adult work for licenses premises only.

Trailers are also given age certificates. In some cases the films producers will make there films trailer more gory than the actual film to appeal to audiences. For example the film Conan The Barbarian had a 18 rated trailer which showed scenes that weren't included in the feature which was rated only as a 15, this is because they think adult viewers will be drawn in by the grit but having the films age rating lower will make it more commercially successful. This proved to be unsuccessful as The film flopped. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/conan_the_barbarian_2011/

A case study of bbfc decision making a big decision on whether to let the controversial film "A Clock Work Orange" be shown to the public uncut this was in 1971 and the BBFC cleared it to be released as an 18 with no cuts from the plot or action but in 1973 after a supposed copycat incident KUBRICK the films director pulled it from UK circulation and it was not shown again until after his death.

ASA and CAP

The ASA is the self regulatory body of the UK advertising industry this means that it is not funded by the government although they are contracted by OFCOM but not controlled which is good because it means the government can not directly impose its agendas onto the way advertising is regulated and it means they cannot censor an ad which criticises them. The ASA is instead funded using a tax on all companies in the advertising industry this is seen as good because it means it can represent the industry while regulating it. It also means that they can handle “30,000” complaints a year without costing the taxpayer anything, disadvantages are that they could be acting in the interest of the company over the tax payer.  The ASA describes its role as to “regulate the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK" by investigating "complaints made about ads, sales promotions or direct marketing" there is a general code of “advertising practice” these are guidelines that advertisers must comply by when producing their adverts. But if the advert passes through these guidelines and is then aired and complained about the ASA will evaluate the complaints and take appropriate action whether that is to ban or slightly censor the AD so it is not insulting to the general public. The ASA is seen as good organization as they are independent from the government and it gives the general public grounds to complain and be heard if they feel an advert is misleading or offensive. 

CAP is the sister organization to the ASA so it is also independent it is responsible for checking and updating the British Code of Advertising, Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion also known as the CAP code. There have been 12 versions of the CAP code the latest was released in september 2010. It acts as a rule book for for “non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications in the United Kingdom.” This code is useful for people in the industry as it gives them rules to work from, from the outset and they not what is and isn't acceptable so they don’t go and spend loads of money creating an advert which cannot be broadcast.

An example of the asa stepping in an banning an advert is in the case of a Toyota advert from last year which depicted people driving around in Toyota singing enthusiastically to a new bruno mars song the adverts purpose was to show that the driver of a vehicle could still have fun while driving. But after it was aired the ASA received 74 complaints that the ad promoted dangerous driving because one of the actors shut her eyes while she was in control of the car. The ASA responded by banning the ad and issuing a warning to Saatchi & Saatchi the creators of the Ad and Toyota telling them to set a better example. SEE>http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/10/29/toyota-ad-banned-depicting-dangerous-driving-says-asa 

I think that the banning of this advert was a bit overzealous and unnecessary as the cars were traveling at a safe speed and the drivers eyes were only shut for a very small amount of time.   

The Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA)

The IDGA is a non profit organization that works with over 12000 game developers and is based in the USA its mission is "To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community."[1]

• Advocacy: Make change in our industry by identifying and speaking out on key issues[1]
• Networking and Community: Connecting members with their peers, both geographically and functionally[1]
• Professional Development: Promoting constant improvement of our craft[1]
• International Reach: Expanding the global community of game developers[1] 

It was founded in 1994 around the time that games like mortal Kombat where coming out and getting involved in massive controversies because of the violent nature of there game play and the industry did not feel they were getting fair representation in dealing with the legal and civil pressure.

IPSO

The ipso is another independent regulator of the printed press industry within the UK its aim is achieving high and professional standards of journalism, this means they support both the public if they feel the editors guidelines have been broken and professionals interests when they operate. The IPSO is responsible for maintaining the editors code and for dealing with any complaints regarding breaches in the editors guidelines. since they are not government regulated they are mostly impartial and act with out government bias. An example of the Ipso reacting to a complaint but choosing to reject is connected to the infamous page 3 of the sun after an article condemning the Suns page 3 used the phrase the 'ban boobs' which some said mislead readers into thinking that they were asking for page 3 to be banned where as they really wanted the sun to 'voluntarily remove the section' http://www.societyofeditors.co.uk/page-view.php?pagename=IPSO&parent_page_id=139&news_id=8263&numbertoprintfrom=1&language=%7Blanguage%7D

OFCOM

Ofcom is an organisation set up in 2002 and advises people and the government of regulations that exist. they manage broadcast communications in the UK these communications include tv radio and more their main is to stop people getting taken advantage of or offended by broadcasters. They work mainly from the 2003 communications act. they receive funding from the government in the form of grants. They also deal with complaints from the public who feel anything shown dose not comply with the ofcom standards. If the complaints are justified ofcom can pull the show and force the producers to make the needed changes before it can be re broadcast.

An example of people complaining to ofcom is in the 2015 brits when kanye west performed a heavily censored version of his new single but many viewers were still upset by the lyrics and complain ofcom did not take action in this case as of the writing of this blog. http://metro.co.uk/2015/02/26/brit-awards-2015-ofcom-receives-string-of-complaints-over-kanye-wests-n-word-laden-performance-5080559/

BAFTA

"The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image – film, television and games" BAFTA is best known for its yearly award ceremony but it also runs year round programs aimed at helping filmmakers enhance there skills for the industry and has a members board that votes on who there awards get given to.

http://guru.bafta.org/features/academy-lectures an example of the organisation providing means to help aspiring filmmakers.

CRCA

"The Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) is the trade body for UK commercial radio. It represents commercial radio to Government, the Radio Authority, copyright societies and other organisations concerned with radio." It has since been merged and become RAB. the radio advetising bureau is entirely funded by the UK commercial radio industry, its aim is to "share britains love of radio with advertisers, and to help them use the medium more effectively and creatively.' The RAB team provides help and advise for free to advertisers looking to optimise radio advertising to expand there brand. They offer advise on the effectiveness of advertising, insight on the radio industry and how to best be creative through sound alone.
A case study of RABs advice dramatically helping a brand increase there in store footfall. Audi were looking to increase interest in there new range of cabriolets they used a high frequency of messages over a short space of time to create urgency in the users mind to come in and look as the new range which intern increases footfall by 90%. RAB commended Audi in their 'Good tactical use of radio to provide urgency and a multiplier effect to maximise response.'http://www.rab.co.uk/case-studies/audi-2/

why is ownership controlled and What does a monopoly mean for the audience?

The general population would agree that to much concentrated is bad as it can make or break public figures and governments. Owner ship is controlled for many reasons one is to make sure that there is no complete bias when the news is being reported because there is only one news network only the news that the there board members want reported and that means the public are not gaining the information they need to know possibly even for there own safety.  

Organisations like the BBC are important as they are not controlled by stockholders but by the license fee payers which are the public this means when they want to report a story that is self critical or critical of a certain organisation or even the government there is no big money pushing them towards a certain viewpoint or even pushing them to drop the story. This means they can act impartially and the viewer can be pretty sure what they are hearing is from an non bias view.

This does not mean that privately owned organisations are untrustworthy there is an argument that because the privately owned media organisations like Channel 4 still rely on money from advertisers which in turn rely on people watching there adverts. This need for consistent viewership means they have to be responsible in the way they report and manage information so if the public found out the were deceiving them they would not be meeting the consumer demand and they would lose there audience and there fore there revenue.

Mass media is also key in the democratic system as political parties need a platform to be able to tell people there policies and the main body of the electorate glean most there knowledge of the political ecosystem through major news networks.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/19/observer-leader-bskyb-murdoch

Monopoly ownership in the media is when one person/organisation has a majority of the ownership in the media industry and therefore can control what the user views "As of 2012, The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the US, with News Corporation, Time Warner and Viacom ranking second, third and fourth respectively."  

News corp is owned by Rupert Murdoch who is arguably one of the most powerful people in media industry and has control over many major news network and has subsequently been caught up in various scandals as he has blatantly tried to control what the viewer sees and gets told. What this means to the consumer is that they see a news story and expect it to be true but because Murdoch has taken a certain approach to the issue they viewers get given false or bias information which could derail society. 

What is meant by taste and decency in censorship.
Taste and decency has since been renamed HARM & OFFENCE, 
This is widely thought of to be one of the most controversial areas of regulation, it comes within the bbcs obligation 'generally accepted standards so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion of offensive and harmful material" - BBC guidelines - 
In october 2008 the BBC was fined £150000 for two episodes of the russell brand show in which the comedian and chat show host Jonathan ross leave a series of voicemails to andrew sachs'. These episodes garnered thousands of complaints and were described as gratuitously offensive by ofcom these actions lead to brand and ross being suspended.
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/news/bbc-brandross-fine/

ofcom have a set of generally accepted standards- '2.1 Generally accepted standards must be applied to the contents of television and radio services so as to provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material.

2.2 Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience.(Note to Rule 2.2: News is regulated under Section Five of the Code.)

2.3 In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context (see meaning of "context" below). Such material may include, but is not limited to, offensive language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, discriminatory treatment or language (for example on the grounds of age, disability, gender, race, religion, beliefs and sexual orientation). Appropriate information should also be broadcast where it would assist in avoiding or minimising offence.'