Understand ethical, legal, and regulatory issues associated with media products

2. Contents
1. LO4
2. Contents
3. Impact and effect on the
audience
4. Relevant issues on
representation
5. John Berger (1972)
6. Laura Mulvey ‘male gaze’ and
Diana Saco ‘female gaze’
7. Racism
8. Sexism
9. Offensive material
10. Censorship
11. Privacy and public right to know
12. Role of relevant regulatory bodies – IPSO
13. Role of relevant regulatory bodies - IPSO
14. Role of relevant regulatory bodies – IPSO
15. Role of relevant regulatory bodies - IPSO
16. Copyright © and Royalties
17. Complaints and complaint procedure
18. Complaints and complaint procedure
19. Regulatory issues – IP/Watermark
20. Regulatory issues – Data Protection Act
1998
21. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

3. With this issue of Q, they reach a wider
audience of Prince fans, they might not
usually buy Q, but because of the star
appeal of Prince this means that they
will be more inclined to buy this issue.
Using the colour purple in the logo
links to Prince’s popular songs ‘Purple
Rain’.
This effects the audience as it includes
a lot of things about Prince and
encourages new readers.
Impact and Effect on the Audience

4. Relevant issues on Representation
Stereotyping is ‘a set idea that people have about what
someone or something is like.’
In Q, this incorporates the male and female gaze, but also
tries to be less stereotypical in their articles and other
features of a magazine.
The male cover images tend to be aggressive and
stereotypically masculine, this is shown in the image of
Anthony Kiedis (lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers), the
large cut across his head revealing metal work, and then
calling the band “indestructible”.
The female cover images tend to be more revealing, like
the image of Lady Gaga, this links to the male gaze,
encouraging men to buy this issue of Q.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stereotype

5. John Berger (1972)
“Men act and women appear. Men look at women.
Women watch themselves being looked at. This
determines not only most relations between men
and women but also the relation of women to
themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is
male: the surveyed is female. Thus she turns herself
into an object of vision: a sight.”
This quote implies that women make themselves
objects for men to stare at them, this is not
accidental.

6. Laura Mulvey ‘male gaze’
and
Diana Saco ‘female gaze’
This is continues on from John Berger, and is
the showing of women from a masculine,
heterosexual way, that represents women
as sexual objects.
This is shown in the Q cover to the right,
which shows Beyoncé in a corset, the way
she is staring to the camera means that she
is aware that she is being watched and
seen.
The female gaze is the opposite of male
gaze.

7. Racism
Racism is ‘the belief that people's qualities are influenced by their race and that the
members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting
unfair treatment of members of other races’
Cosmopolitan ran an article where they showed the trends that are becoming more
fashionable. However in the majority of the images there was a dark-skinned model
with the term ‘R.I.P.’ and then a lighter skinned model with the phrase ‘Hello
Gorgeous’. The intention was the show the old and new trends with different models.
However this came across as being racist to dark skinned models. Cosmo issued an
apology claiming that this was not their intention.
https://www.fashionghana.com/site/racism-in-cosmo
politan-magazine-how-to-respond-to-the-fear-of-black-beauty/ ,
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/racism

8. Sexism
Sexism is ‘the belief that the members of one sex are less
intelligent, able, skillful, etc. than the members of the other
sex, especially that women are less able than men’
This vogue cover displays an athlete and a world model.
LeBron James is stood holding Gisele Bundchen while
bouncing a basket ball. This makes him look more powerful
than Gisele. The way that Gisele is dressed is very different
to LeBron, he is in training wear and she is in a dress and
heels. This evidences the difference in the ideas of men
and women in magazines.
https://simpleandloveable.com/racism-and-sexism-in-business-and-society
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sexism

9. Role models
Many people will look up to Miley Cyrus
as a role model due to her many years
playing the role of Miley Stewart in the
Disney Channel show, Hannah Montana.
She has since gone on to be a more
negative role model for young children.
This magazine cover shows the change
from her innocent Disney Channel era.

10. Offensive material
There is no offensive material within Q magazine, as they have to
comply with IPSO’s regulations of what magazines are allowed to
include in the magazine.
However there is a lot of objectification of women in the
magazine, this becomes part of the male gaze. Objectification
and the male gaze can be offensive to some people in particular
women.

11. Censorship
One example of censorship is when Adele swears collecting her
“Global Success Award”, the speech was censored as the
producers are allowed to alter/supress parts that could be seen
as offensive. The way this was censored was through an on-air
apology from the hosts of the Brit Awards.

12. Privacy and public right to know
Privacy Right to Know
The British Royal family has a strict amount of
privacy surrounding their lives. This is to
comply with the Royal protocol. The press have
to be considerate of their lives and respect
their own privacy.
Celebrities give the public the right to know
when they pose for pictures on the red carpet.
This then becomes available for all members of
public to see the latest image of the celebrity
and what they are wearing and look like.

13. Role of Relevant Regulatory Bodies - IPSO
https://www.ipso.co.uk/what-we-do/

14. Role of Relevant Regulatory Bodies – IPSO
Editors’ Code of Practice
Accuracy
• The information published must not be inaccurate or misleading, anything that is published being inaccurate, must
be corrected quickly, opinion and fact must be clearly distinguished. This means that Q magazine must be certain
that all information published is accurate and reliably sourced.
Privacy
• Every person is entitled to respect of their own private life, if intrusions occur, they must be able to justify this, not
to photograph individuals without consent where there is an expectation of privacy. Q magazine’s journalists must
not invade peoples private life when collecting information.
Harassment
• Journalists must not continue to harass individuals, especially when asked to stop. this is important for Q’s
journalists as they are usually talking to celebrities and harassing them can lead to bad press for the magazine.
Intrusion into grief or shock
• Approaching these issues must be done with sympathy of the individual and handled sensitively. This is very
important as Q often writes articles on the death of a musician like Prince. Any interviews of relating to this must be
handled in the most respectful ways.
Reporting Suicide
• There should not be any excessive detail of method used. This is able to relate to Q magazine as some musicians do
complete suicide and the details of this should not be published to be available to the public. Also this may distress
family and friends of the deceased.
Children
• They should be allowed to live without unnecessary intrusion of their school lives, the fame of their
parents/guardian is not justification of the publication of the child's life, under 16 year olds must not be
interviewed or photographed without an appropriate adults consent. Q’s interviewees often have children. This
means that they must not interview the child without consent.
https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/

15. Role of Relevant Regulatory Bodies – IPSO
Editors’ Code of Practice
Children in sex cases
• Must not identify children, whether witnesses or victims, under 16 or use the word “incest”, the adult may
be identified. This is not relevant to Q’s usual journalism.
Hospitals
• Journalists must have permission from the hospital or similar institutions. This is not relevant to Q’s usual
journalism.
Reporting of Crime
• Relative or friends of convicted or accused of crime must not be identified without consent unless they are
relevant to the story, under 18 year olds involved in the crime should not be made more vulnerable, avoid
naming children unless name is already in public domain without consent of them or an appropriate adult.
This is not relevant to Q’s usual journalism.
Clandestine devices and subterfuge
• Must not gather information found with hidden cameras, clandestine devices, intercepting phone calls,
messages, emails, or other digitally held information without consent. This is not relevant to Q’s usual
journalism.
Victims of sexual assault
• Must not publish information leading to the identification of a victim. This could be relevant to Q magazine,
but they must be absolutely certain that there is no details that can lead people to know who the victim is.
Discrimination
• Avoid prejudicial reference to an individual's, race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation
or to any illness or disability, this must be avoided unless relevant to the story. Q can not publish any details
that can be seen as harmful to the person involved.
https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/

16. Financial journalism
• Journalists must not use, for their own profit, financial information they receive in advance of its general
publication, nor should they pass such information to others. This means that Q’s journalists can not accept
financial gain to give information out before an official publication.
Confidential sources
• Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information. Q must keep those who have
given information to them confidential and not allow others to know.
Witness payments in criminal trials
• No payments or offer can be made to witnesses once court proceedings are active. This is not relevant to Q’s usual
journalism.
Payments to criminals
• Payments offered on information seeking to glorify or glamorise crime must not be made. This is not relevant to
Q’s usual journalism.
The Public Interest
• Detecting or exposing crime, or the threat of crime, or serious impropriety.
• Protecting public health or safety.
• Protecting the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.
• Disclosing a person or organisation’s failure or likely failure to comply with any obligation to which they are subject.
• Disclosing a miscarriage of justice.
• Raising or contributing to a matter of public debate, including serious cases of impropriety, unethical conduct or
incompetence concerning the public.
• Disclosing concealment, or likely concealment, of any of the above.
Role of Relevant Regulatory Bodies – IPSO
Editors’ Code of Practice
https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/

17. “the legal right to control the production and selling of a book, play, film,
photograph, or piece of music”
Copyright is a automatic legal right that protects pieces of work for a certain
amount of years. In Q, this could be the images in the magazine, the written
words of the articles, the design and strapline of the magazine.
A royalty payment is made by someone in order to gain the right for ongoing
use of that copyrighted work. They are usually an agreed percentage of the
gross revenue created after the copyrighted work is used. this would be the
payment to the people included in the magazine, as well as the writers as this
is their intellectual property.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/copyright
https://www.gov.uk/copyright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royalty_payment
Copyright © and Royalties

18. On Q’s website there is a link to allow complaints to be made, this leads to
Bauer Legal which is the legal team for Bauer Media Group. Here it explains
what is required for the complaint to be taken further.
The complaint must be made in writing by either email or post, it must
include copy of the article or link to webpage, written explanation of concerns
with reference to Editors’ Code, and any other documents to help with the
complaint must be attached.
Complaints made to Bauer Legal are free and must be acknowledged by
Bauer Legal within 5 working days, if Bauer Legal does not respond within 28
days, the complaint can be taken to IPSO.
If there are multiple of the same complaints they may respond to all at once.
https://www.bauerlegal.co.uk/editorial-complaints-policy-2017-08-03/
Complaints and complaint procedure

19. https://www.bauerlegal.co.uk/edi
torial-complaints-policy-2017-08-
03/
Complaints and complaint procedure

20. IP is Intellectual Property and protected by law, this includes
copyright. It gives the creators the rights to the property of their
creation, and creates economic incentive for creators as they
profit from their creation when they sell it to another owner.
Digital watermarking is a way to indicate who the creation is
owned by and can track any copyright infringements. It is hidden
within the product when the creation is digitally produced.
On Q’s images and graphics, there is no watermarking on them,
this means that they can easily be copied and passed off as
someone else's work.
https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24927/digital-watermarking
Regulatory Issues – IP/Watermark

21. Q has to follow the data protection principles, this makes sure that sensitive
information of their staff, clients, interviewees and other personnel, is
– used fairly, lawfully and transparently
– used for specified, explicit purposes
– used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary
– accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
– kept for no longer than is necessary
– handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against
unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage
This means that all data collected from their clients through subscription
application, cannot be used for anything that the customer has not agreed to,
and can only be used when is necessary, it also means that Q must remove
their data if they stop their subscription to the magazine.
They must never give any personal data to any other organisation or
personnel unless agreed by the customer.
https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/UK-Data-Protection-Act-1998-DPA-1998
Regulatory Issues – Data Protection Act 1998

22. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
ASA is the independent regulator of advertising through the
Advertising Codes, written by the Committees of Advertising
Practice (CAP).
They try to help advertisers and broadcasters to follow the rules
to protect their consumers.
They can ban advertisements, this can be expensive in economic
and brand image. An advertisers reputation can be destroyed if
they ignore the rules. Sometimes advertisers can be referred to
Trading Standards or Ofcom, if they do not follow the rules.