Broadcasting Act 1990

Broadcasting Act 1990


The broadcasting act 1990 was made to change the structure of the British broadcasting, specifically British television and was described by Margret Thatcher as "the last bastion of restrictive practices". The impact of the 1990 broadcasting act was that television or radio companies other than the regulator became the broadcasters as had been the case from 1955-1964 of the Independent Television Authority. 

The broadcasting act allowed the making of another analogue terrestrial channel on television shown in the UK which had turned out to be channel 5. It was stipulated that the channel the BBC was now obliged to source at least 25% of it's output from independent production companies. 

The broadcasting Act was a good thing because it allowed for other satellite and cable channels to introduced on television for example Sky, Virgin Media etc. Therefore it let people watch better television with more channels and more shows instead of sticking to just the terrestrial channels.
The Independent Television Commission was created by the Broadcasting act 1990 to replace the television regulation functions of the independent broadcasting authority and cable authority. It became an existing ITV network. In 1990 the broadcasting act established Channel Four Television Corporation to run Channel 4, regulated by the Independent Television Commission. 

The broadcasting act 1990 has been praised and been criticised as a key enabling force for Rupert Murdoch ambitions in Britain. The system of awarding the ITV franchise was shown to be controversial since the show Thames Television was changed to Carlton Television and was said that this was because of political reasons. Margaret Thatchers management defiance of the trade unions was admired by TV-am and was taken off air and replaced with Good Morning TV. All franchises in England and Wales are now coming under the control of ITV since 2004. 

Ethical Issues

Ethical Issues


Ethics
Ethics is the moral principles that define how a person or group acts or the conductivity of an activity. 


Codes of practice
Codes of practice are a set of written regulations issued by a professional association or an official body that explains how people in a work place should behave. In terms of shows and films shown on the BBC channel they have top hold a sort of image where they don't show things such as profanity, nudity, etc at least before the watershed which would be unethical to show since during the day children watch television and if things like profanity, nudity etc are shown on television it could influence young children which would not give the BBC a good representation and they get complains from parents. 


















An example of a show where these ethical codes of practices need to be upheld is on the news and having different ethnic news reporters. 50 years ago on the news people would usually only see white news reporters on television and would never have seen a different ethnic news reporter such as black, asian, muslim etc. However nowadays it is possible to see reporters with different ethnic backgrounds since it has been a rising issue and it has now been heard people now are starting to be treated equally and fairly no matter what their race, age etc but it is still an issue but its still being worked on. 

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

The British documentary series My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is broadcasted on channel 4 and they explore the lives of several Irish travellers and they unite one of their family members in marriage. In this show the girls that are getting married and they have a specific way of dressing and acting that audiences may find unethical. For example there are girls on the show that are about 8 years old and they have a full face of make up on and they are parading around in inappropriate clothing. This could be seen unethical to some viewers because it may send out a message to other people that watch the show that the parents of those children are letting them do that on television. 

However this could be because they live different life styles to those families on the show it is seen as normal for them but for some people that are watching they may thinks it's completely unethical because they dress differently and it isn't normal to them. Also children that may watch the show may be influenced to dress like that since children are write naive and don't really know what's right and whats wrong. Also the girls that are getting married are usually still teenagers usually about the age of 16 and to their wedding they wear extremely huge and puffy wedding dresses. 

Emerging Social Concerns

An emerging social concern example is cyber bullying especially for children and teenagers. It is up to news broadcasters, newspapers etc to make people are of this especially parents because children and teenagers tend to keep this type information from their parents so that they do not worry or 'make the situation worse' but that is not what children and teenagers should be doing because it could effect them physically and emotionally. This is an ethical obligation for news broadcasters to inform their audience on what is happening so that parents are aware and can search for signs that this may be happening to their child. 



















Bibliography

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/code_of_practice.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml

Legal & Ethical Obligations

Legal & Ethical Obligations

Equal Opportunities

Equal opportunities is when people have the right to be treated fairly and equally without discrimination, especially about people's race, gender or age.  In previous decades women were paid lower wages than men for doing similar work, also there was not a lot of jobs that were offered to women as much as men and women lost their jobs just for being pregnant. 

However the things that have changed over previous decades in a work place is that more women are entering a wider range of occupations. The media may have be an important part in promoting gender equality in the working environment and also the representation of both men and women. 


An example of a case brought against a media institution is when a former BBC presenter Miriam O'Reilly won her case for age discrimination against the corporation after she was fired from Countryfile shown on BBC ONE. she was one of four females presenters all in their 40's or 50's who were fired from the show. 


Belonging to a trade union 

A trade union is an organised association of workers in a trade, group of trades or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. A trade union provides assistance and services to their members, what they do is ask persuade employers to treat their staff fairly, whether your employed or freelance. 

They bargain for better pay and better conditions for all their workers and they do this to make the employee's happier with their working conditions. The main trade union within the UK film and TV is BECTU and they have a wide range of services with 25,000 voluntary members. 

Trade unions main goal is to protect and advance the interest of its members. Trade unions often negotiate different agreements with employers on pay and conditions. Also trade unions may provide legal advice and financial advice to it's members. 

BECTU trade union's freelance branches bring together members who work on a freelance basis according to their craft or physical location. BECTU has an important role to play in connecting freelances to one another so that information of mutual benefit can be shared.

Exclusivity Agreement in the Film and TV Industry

Exclusivity Agreement in the Film and TV Industry


Exclusivity Exclusivity Agreement is the agreement that is between two or more parties to purchase goods exclusively from the specified seller in the agreement. This is an understanding that the buyer will not obtain or solicit the good that are provided by that seller while in the time period of the agreement. An example of an exclusivity agreement in the film and tv industry is that The X Factor has an exclusivity agreement to only be shown on the channel ITV and can not be shown on any other channel otherwise this could be a breach of The X Factor's exclusivity agreement with ITV.  

These exclusivity agreements are between usually between two or more companies. A benefit of exclusivity agreements are that if a seller has their hands on a product they would have the ability to sell that product for however much they wanted because that seller is the only one with that product and has the right to sell it to another company for however much they desire and if it's good enough companies would be willing to buy it. 

Confidentiality

Confidentiality agreements are a non disclosure agreement and is a legal contract between two or possibly more companies that outlines confidential material, knowledge or information that those two or more companies have wished to share with each other. Confidential agreement are similar to exclusivity agreements because companies may want to keep their agreements that they make with other companies confidential so that other companies wont take it upon themselves to compete against the buying company so they don't have to pay an excessive amount of money. 

Bibliography 

http://uk.practicallaw.com/4-107-6577

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/document/exclusivity-agreement.rl#/

http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2008/01/03/what-is-confidentiality-agreement/id=31/

http://www.darlingtons.com/blog/exclusivity-agreements-advantages-and-risks