Regulatory and professional bodies within the Creative Media Sector

Emily Aldred

Task 3 Understand the Regulation of the Media Sector

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)The British Board of Film Classificationwas founded in 1912 and is a non-governmental organization funded by the film industry. They are also responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the UK. They have requirements to classify videos, DVD’s and other items such as video games under the Video Recordings Act of 2010 to keep them age restricted. They are mostly known for the censorship of films to keep them age restricted because you would’t want a 12yr old watching a film that is aimed at 18yr olds that contains violence, sexual references and provocative language.

PEGIPan European Game Information is a European video game

consent that gives age restrictions to video games. This age restriction informs the buyer of a game of the content of the game such as violence and or sexual references. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, (ISFE) and came into use in April 2003. This company is now used in more than thirty countries. It is also a self-regulatory, composed of 5 different age categories and 8 content descriptors that advise the buyer of the content. This age rating is not an indication of difficulty or skill required to play the game, only to advise the buyer of the content. During July 2012, Pegi became the sole system for age classification in the UK.

Film Distributors Association

Film Distributors' Association is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK  cinema audiences. Originally established in London in 1915, FDA liaises and works with many individuals, companies and organizations. FDA's Council, or board, comprising a senior representative of each member company, normally meets six times a year and considers only matters of generic interest to film distributors.

Video Standards Council (VSC)

The Video Standards Council was established in 1989 and fulfills two roles of setting a standard body for video game industries and practicing a code designed to ensure that both industries show a duty of care in their products with customers and the public in general, top provide its retailers members and staff with training and courses in dealing with age restrictions on DVD’s and video games. They also act as an administrator for the PEGI system of age rating in the UK, therefore using its role of Games Rating Authority. (GRA).

Office for Communication (Ofcom)Office Communications is the government-approved regulatory system and also the competition for the broadcasting telecommunications and postal industries of the united states. It has a statutory duty to protect the public and viewers of program's of harmful or offensive material that could be broadcasted by any media outlet. The main areas of Ofcom are licensing, research, codes and policies, complaints, competition and protecting the radio spectrum form abuse. The regulator was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002 and received its full authority from the Communications Act of 2003.

Trading Standards Central

Trading Standards Central is a local authority in the UK which enforce authority when a small or larger department of any kind breech laws such as the environmental health, health and safety, licensing and so on. They take action against a company when these laws are defied in a lawful or unethical way. They attempt to redeem the company by offering advice and or taking formal enforcement. Some legislations include protecting the consumer from unfair trading regulations of 2008, the consumer protection act of 1987, the consumer credit act of 1974, the food safety act of 1990 and the price marking order of 2004. People most commonly know the Trading Standards by involvement of counterfeit good such as the sale of alcohol, tobacco or anything legal to buy over 18, sold to a minor.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is a voluntary regulatory

body for the British printed newspapers and magazines. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines, it also had no legal powers over the printable media, all the newspapers and magazines voluntarily contribute to the cost, and the adhere of the rulings of the commission to the making of this industry. They deal with complaints made by the audience with issues that they have regarding something that bothers them from a newspaper or a magazine, but cannon take legal action, only offer advice to the company being complained about.

Advertising Standards Authority(ASA).

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are a self regulatory organization of the advertising industry within the UK. The ASA are also a non statutory organization and therefore can’t interpret or enforce any legal action or laws. It has a code of advertising practice which broadly reflects legislation in many instances. The ASA are no funded by the British Government, but only by the advertising industry. Its main role is to regulate the content of advertisements, sales and promotions in the direct marketing in the UK by investigations complaints made about “ads, sales promotions or direct marketing”. They then decide whether the company is breaching the laws of the advertising standards codes and if so, take verbal action.

Ford Ka ‘Evil Twin’ Banned Advert

• Ford released two adverts in 2006, advertising the SportsKa, which both got banned due to controversy. The first advert shows a pigeon flying across over the SportsKa car, and the car’s bonnet fly’s up, hitting the pigeon and therefore killing it and sending it flying to the ground. The second advert showed the sunroof of a SportsKa opening, and a cat jumping up on the roof of the car, and peeping its head through the sunroof. The sunroof then closes, therefore beheading the cat and the body falls off the car. These two adverts got banned due to promoting animal cruelty and due to the amount of complaints from the public. The ASA took action against Ford and the RSPCA joined forces with the ASA as animal cruelty.

About the media response• what was controversial about the products/incident

The main conversional thing about this advert was the animal cruelty. Which was the most complained thing about the advert as both adverts showed a cat or a pigeon dying. It was black humour which was not accepted by the public and people took offence. It also gave Ford a bad image from these adverts.

• who was involved in the controversies (media producer/organisation and regulatory body)Ford denied the ad was anything to do with them, and later blamed their ad agency for a ‘mistake’ that allowed the ad, that was ‘not meant for public consumption,’ to escape onto the net.

• what the outcomes wereFord still continued to deny the advert was related to their product. The News were quick to report about it.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1458475/Decapitated-cat-video-backfires-on-Ford.html

The ASA released new rulings in June 2014 about advertising.

• http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings.aspx

http://www.beforeiforget.co.uk/2005/shockvertising/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLIkjWFNAKI

http://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers.aspx

http://www.videostandards.org.uk/VSC/

http://www.pegi.info/en/index/

http://www.pcc.org.uk