LO2 Understanding the Creative Media Sector

Understanding ethical and legal constraints within the media sector

Why is it important to consider ethical issues when producing media?
It is very important to consider ethnical issues when it comes to making and
presenting your programme, advert or trailer. You have to be careful about
the content that you decide to include, not only can you be the judge of how
strong the content is, but also the audience and legal teams. If for instance
the BBFC, a legal team or court decide that some of the content is out of
order, or in breach of their regulations, then this could lead to further legal
terms, or deeper punishment. n e!ample for racism would be "ean "achine
#$$%. black character is playing with a tennis ball in the corridor of a prison,
and a guard comes along and says &oh look, a monkey learning new tricks'.
(his is a racist remark as black people are often wrongly referred to as
monkeys.
How is gender represented in film?
)ender is represented in most films as fair and necessary. By this I mean that
bigger, stronger characters are played by males, as that meets their
stereotype. *hilst female actors tend to play not so much a lesser role, but
they play a role with not as strong as a character, not being as dominant as a
male. *hen it comes to younger ages, girls tend to play the sweeter roles,
whilst boys normally play a stereotype role. (hey tend to be sat around or
+uite adventurous, not something in the middle. good e!ample for this
would be nchorman, throughout both of the films made the majority of the
actors are male, and when the news breaks that there will be a female
addition to the team, the men become angry. It shows this when one of the
men says &women don't belong in the newsroom'.
What is the Films Act (1985?
(he films act of %,-. got rid of the /ady 0evy system which was created in
%,.1. (he /ady 0evy system was a way of ta!ing the bo! office to help
support the British Film Industry, but when the government realised that this
wasn't going according to plan, they then bought in the Film ct in %,-.. (he
Film ct then meant that filmmakers most now find their own sources f
funding. 2owever, in #$%#, this act was dropped and Britain encouraged film
makers into the industry ta! free.
What is the !ideo "ecordings Act (198#?
LO2 Understanding the Creative Media Sector
(he 3ideo 4ecordings ct %,-5 is an ct of the 6arliament of the 7nited
8ingdom that was passed in %,-5. It states that commercial video recordings
offered for sale or for hire within the 78 must carry a classification that has
been agreed upon by an authority designated by the 2ome 9ffice. (he BBFC
was designated as the classifying authority in %,-.. Before this there was no
legali:ation as to what could and what couldn't be released on video or to
who they could be supplied to.
What would $e the conse%uences for $rea&ing copyright law?
Copyright laws are rules that are put to protect a person;s creative original
work from being duplicated without attribution to the owner. (here are
different conse+uences for breaking copyright law such monetary fines, loss
employment, loss of freedom and loss of property. Copyright law protects
copyrighted material so that only the owner has e!clusive rights to it for a
designated period of time. (his means that anyone wishing to use the
material must gain permission from the owner. (he conse+uences for
breaking copyright law include fines, sei:ure of illegal copies of work, and
imprisonment. Fines can be issued for the loss of profit by the owner or
statutory damages.