This document provides an overview of various ethical and legal constraints within the UK media sector. It discusses representation and accuracy in media, regulations around language and content from Ofcom and other bodies, guidelines for accessibility and inclusion, and laws around privacy, copyright, libel and official secrets. Key acts and cases are referenced, such as the Broadcasting Act, Video Recordings Act, and privacy cases involving the press and royals. The document serves as a study guide for understanding different rules and considerations that shape media in the UK.

1. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
Unit 7: Understanding the Creative
Media Sector
Learning outcome 2:
Understand ethical and legal constraints
within the media sector
Name: Jack Sullivan_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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2. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
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?
Representations could be constructed for a positive purpose to give a positive
impression by putting forward all the positive elements. Representations can also be
created to give out a negative impression, leaving out anything positive.
What sort of things can influence the representations that we see?
The way things are shown in the news or in newspapers. People believe most things
they read as they are told it is truthful when some of it isn’t true.
Find an example of representation and explain what you are seeing:
This Article shows people being upset about trump victory in 2016. About 90 percent
of newspapers across the country had an expected image of trump stood at a podium,
some people have complained that they don’t want to see this image.
How many categories of word do Ofcom have? Explain each one.
Category A not before the watershed (9pm)
Bad language must be bleeped or sound dipped so the word is blocked.
Category B: Generally, not before 9pm
Category C: Offensive language must not be broadcasted before 9pm unless it is
justified by which context it is in. Frequent use of bad language must be avoided
before 9pm.
Why does Ofcom have this list of words? Do you think there should be
restrictions on when certain words can be used?

3. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
The reason Ofcom have this list of words is the protect people who are aged under 18
years old.
I do think that there should be restrictions on certain words and when they can be
used on television as some films and programmes are meant for adults only.
Why does the NUJ produce language guidelines?
They produce language guidelines for media workers as they work under pressure
and on deadlines to create, edit and publish their work so they do not need long
guidelines.
Should we protect groups of people by putting in place guidelines on how we
talk about them?
We should protect groups of people by putting guidelines in place. The different types
of words people use can show how they feel about them.
There are 3 ways in which a broadcaster can make it easier for people with a
disability to access its programmes. What are they?
Subtitling – dialogue displayed at the bottom of the screen
Signed television programmes – incorporating sign language
Audio Description – use of visual images
Who ensures that broadcasters are making their programmes accessible? What
are the consequences for broadcasters if they do not meet their accessibility
requirements?
Ofcom ensures that broadcasters are making their programmes accessible. All the
different television and radio broadcasts in the UK are licensed by Ofcom. Viewers
can submit complaints to Ofcom who will do their own investigations to see if they are
wrong or not.
Why do we have codes of practice?

4. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
We have codes of practice to use as a guideline to give people a good idea of what
they can do or can’t do.
Use one code of practice and investigate it in detail:
The IPSO is the editors guideline for anything print based like newspaper or
magazines, if anyone has a problem with a newspaper, magazine or even a reporter
they would go to IPSO and complain then IPSO would deal with the company who
make the print based someone is complaining about.
What is the Broadcasting Act and what did it do?
The broadcasting act came about in the 1990 and is a creative regulative body
that allowed the creation of channel five and encouraged people to own more of
the media and they say that people can’t own more than 20% of a broadcasting
company.
What is the Official Secrets Act?
The official secrets act is a law that says you cannot release secrets and information
out to anyone.
Find an example of when it has been used and explain why it was used and
what the outcome was.
An example of this act is in 2011 when the metropolitan police attempted to use the
act to get the guardian to reveal their sources for the phone hacking scandal. They
were unsuccessful from gaining he wanted information from the journalists.

5. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
Should we have an Official Secrets Act?
I think we should have an official secrets act because it keeps information safe, some
information is put up by the government to protect the public and if too many people
knew the secrets it could put the public in danger.
What is the Obscene Publications 1959 and what is its definition of obscenity?
The obscene Publications to protect people from films where obscene acts are shown,
before the acts it was mainly print but it adapted to 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?
On the 6th
January 2012 Michael Peacock had a business of selling mail order
business pornography, an undercover police officer approached him seeking videos of
water sports, he was found not guilty because the footage wasn’t corrupting the
audience.
What is the Video Recordings Act? Why was the Video Recordings Act
introduced?
The Video Recordings Act was made in 1984 it was made to show and watch the
growing home video market, from 1985 they had the submit the film for rating. The
Video Recordings Act was then updated in 2010
What were some of the films that were prosecuted by the Director of Public
Prosecution?
Ss experimental camp
Cannibal holocaust
Snuff
The driller killer
What is the equality act?

6. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
The equality act is designed to identify and eliminate discrimination, sexual
harassment and victimisation. The reason the equality act was made is for people to
be aware of it and not do the bad things.
What are the 9 protected characteristics?
Race, sexual preference, age, gender, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and
civil 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 chain of pubs refused to allow some travellers because they were viewed as a
stereotype and thought they might steal or misbehave, the travellers ended up taking
the pub chain to court and won for about £3500.
What protects people from journalists invading their privacy?
There are different privacy laws to protect journalists from invading people’s privacy.
Find a privacy case and explain who was involved, what happened and what the
outcome was.
Prince of Wales v Associated Newspapers Ltd. This case was brought to high court
after the Sunday mail posted an image 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 paper is no longer allowed to post anything from
the prince’s diary.

7. BTEC ExtendedDiplomainCreativeMediaProduction
What areas does the Copyright and Intellectual Propertylaw cover?
Books (fiction and non-fiction)
Films
Sound recordings
Newspaper and journal articles
Dramatic works
Photographs
Computer Programmes
Why is copyright important to the creative media sector?
Copyright is important because it makes sure peoples work is safe and no one can
steal the original work and claims it for their own.
What is libel? What must you be able to prove to win a libel case?
Libel is a false statement that can be damaging to a person’s reputation.
Find an example (not the one you were given in the lecture) of a libel case.
Robin Williams body double was cheating charities under Robin Williams’ name and
this caused serious damage to the actual Robin Williams’ reputation. So, he
successfully sued his body double and made him stop what he was doing.