Assignment 7.2 - Ethical and Legal Constraints of the Television Sector - REBECCA

Research the ethical and legal constraints of the television sector

ETHICAL

TV representation of genders

Male representation
Representation of male characters across not only the television industry but across all media industries focus on these areas:

Strength - physically and intelligence
Strength has had a major impact in the representations in males across the years. Traditionally, representations of men in the television industry were manly, more masculine characters, such as Thomas Magnum from Magnum P.I. (1980 - 1989) or even in the film industry, with characters such as James Bond from the James Bond franchise. This was more common in the 1970s to the 1980s. In modern representations of male characters, they seem to be more with their feminine side, showing their emotions to other characters and keeping pride in their appearance. These characters include Chandler from Friends (1994 - 2004) who is known as the 'funny friend' in the series or Sheldon Cooper (2007 - Present) who is severely intelligent in the world of science and very little knowledge of sexual activities.
Power
Power is represented in many different ways, whether it being the 'man of the house' in a family or in the character's strength but the main and common representation in the television industry in present day would be royalty or the character's hierarchal status. These characters include Henry VIII from The Tudors (2007 - 2010) or Joffrey Baratheon (2011 - 2014) from Game of Thrones (2011 - 2016).
Sexual Attractiveness
Sexual attractiveness is probably the most key theme regarding male transformation over the years between 1970s to present day television. Past representations show that the sexual attractiveness between 1960s - 1980s of male characters include: good looks, black hair, golden-tanned coloured body, no glasses and white teeth. These examples include William Shatner from The Original Series' of Star Trek (1966 - 1969) that was shown on television and its franchise's motion pictures: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Stark Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Dick Van Dyke from The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961 - 1966). These representations have changed over the years. Present representations show that the sexual attractiveness in present day include: muscular body including a 'six-pack', no glasses, smartly dressed and white teeth. These characters now normally appear in reality television shows such as The Only Way Is Essex (2010 - Present Day) and Made In Chelsea (2011 - Present Day). These characters include Mark Wright, Spencer Matthews and Jamie Laing.  

Past representations

Dick Van Dyke

William Shatner

Present representations

Spencer Matthews

Mark Wright

Female representation
Representation of female characters across not only the television industry but across all media industries focus on these areas:

Beauty
Beauty has been the most important factor in the representations of female characters in television shows over the years. Beauty is what keeps a woman attractive to the male characters, mainly due to their facial looks and features. Between the 1970s - 1980s, according to uk.complex.com, the more good looking women were singers and were part of the music industry but there were some television stars including Ann Margaret from The Ann-Margaret Show (1968) and Erin Gray from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979 - 1981). These beauty looks involve quite frizzy hair, body-revealing tops and blonde or brunette hair. Compared to male representations being a big change from past to present, female representations have not changed much since the 1970s, with the same beauty features including revealing tops and dresses and some female characters even dressing down to their underwear. These characters include Freya Beauchamp from Witches of East End (2013 - 2014) and Emma Swan from Once Upon A Time (2011 - Present Day). Many costumes presented on women today also seem to be very revealing, which might be inappropriate for some young audiences.

Past representations

Ann Margaret

Erin Gray

Present representations

Emma Swan

Freya Beauchamp

Religious representations

Citizen Khan - (2012 - Present)

Citizen Khan is a British family sitcom, produced by the BBC and is set in Sparkhill, East Birmingham. Currently in its fourth series, Citizen Khan follows the stories of Mr Khan, a loud-mouthed community leader, portrayed by Adil Ray and his wife and two female children. His wife named Mrs Razia Khan, portrayed by Shobu Kapoor, and his two children named Shazia (played by Maya Sondhi from 2012-2014 and Krupa Plattini from 2015 - Present) and Alia (played by Bhavna Limbachia). Each story follows the 'perfect and modern ways' of an Islamic family originally from Pakistan. When the show first aired on the BBC, there were a lot of complaints, 200 to be exact, towards the show stating the programme was 'making fun out of Islamic religion', 'negative stereotypes about Asians' and 'disrespectful to the Koran, the Islamic religious text. These complaints were near to the beginning of the series and since then, viewing figures have been particularly low since 2012.    

LEGAL
Broadcasting Act 1990

The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament. The aim of this act was to reform the structure of British television broadcasting. In television, the act allowed the creation of a fifth cable television channel in the Uk, which become Channel 5, which was officially launched in March 1997 and also growth of multi-channel satellite television. It stipulated that the BBC, money sourced by the government,  was to now source at least 25% of output from independent production companies. The Broadcasting Act 1990 also reformed the television system of awarding ITV franchises to not only the UK but also the Channel Islands as well surrounding the UK. In 1991 ITV auctioned their franchises and the business, Thames Television bid £32.7 million pounds to keep the ITV London franchise during weekdays and the London Independent Broadcasting bid £7.6 million pounds for during weekends, Channel Television only bid £1,000 for ITV's Channel Islands franchise, Central Independent Television bid £2,000 for ITV's East and West Midlands franchise. These are only 3 parts of the UK where ITV auctioned parts of the UK's regions, other parts include Scotland, Southern England and Northern Ireland.  

Ofcom Broadcasting Code

The Ofcom Broadcasting Code follows 10 sections regarding broadcasting television or radio. These sections include: Section One - Protecting the Under-Eighteens, Section Two - Harm and Offence, Section Three - Crime, Section Four - Religion, Section Five - Impartiality, Accuracy, Views and Opinions, Section Six - Elections and Referendums, Section Seven - Fairness, Section Eight - Privacy, Section Nine - References in Television Programming and Section Ten - Communications in Radio Programming

• The first section involves outlining the rules about scheduling content in programmes and ensuring that children under the age of 18 are protected. For example, shows that contain swearing, nudity or physical and bloody violence tend to go at a later time to ensure children not viewing this content. 
• The second section involves outlining standards for broadcast content as to provide protection for members of the public from harmful or offensive materials.
• The third section refers to material likely to encourage the rate of crime or to lead to some kind of violent disorder.
• The fourth section relates to the responsibility of broadcasters, presenters or news presenters to respect the content of religious programmes.
• The fifth section ensures that news is reported with complete accuracy and making sure the item is no where near biased.
• The sixth section covers the requirements that has to be applied at the time for elections or referendums.
• The seventh section ensures that broadcasters avoid unjust, unbiased or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in television programmes.
• The eighth section ensures that broadcasters avoid any infringement of privacy in programmes and in connection with obtaining material included in television programmes.
• The ninth section relates to broadcasters independence and control over programming between editorial content and advertising.

Prepare a case study exploring a particular ethical issue within your chosen sector.
(eg. a film being banned due to it’s representation of a certain religion)

The most common issue presented in the television industry is Race.

The Black and White Minstrel Show
This outdated musical performance show featured white people "blacking up" to perform song and dance numbers. The programme was dropped in June 1978, due to a cut in the light entertainment budget, but times have changed; it is unthinkable that a programme like this would be broadcast today. (IMDb - http://www.imdb.com/list/ls004880434/)

                                          

The Black and White Minstrel Show was a television show broadcasted by the BBC and was first aired in 1958 and finally came to an end in 1978. The programme was first a one-off special in 1957 called 'The 1957 Television Minstrels'. After this special, it became popular and was then developed in a regular 45 minute show, airing on Saturday evenings, making it a prime-time television programme. This show normally follows a sing-along format with solos and instrumentals, singing country and western songs. The Minstrels actors mainly consisted of three soloists: Dai Francis, John Boulter and Tony Mercer. In 1964, viewing figures reached 21 million people. It also became a theatrical show from 1962 to 1972 which ran 6,477 performances during this period. This show was one of the first to actually be shown in colour on BBC Two in 1967. Whilst being showed in colour in 1967, this was the same year when people suddenly started to see the portrayal of these characters as 'severely offensive' and so a petition against this show was brought out and was then recieved by the BBC. The show was then cut in 1969 due to racism and was replaced by a show called 'Music, Music, Music' which was reacted negatively by the public and was cancelled. Back in the 1960s - 1970s, this was considered normal and very popular, but if this particular show was released in present time (2000s), there would be a sudden shift in people's opinions and the show might have been cut straight away due to complaints.