M2

 M2- legal and ethical issues 

 

Legal issues 

 Ofcom 

Ofcom is the regulator and competition authority for UK communications industries. Ofcom regulates the tv and radio sectors., fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services. Ofcom allows people to make complaints about TV, radio, mobile broadband or anything seen on a video sharing platform. Ocom cannot however handle individual disputes with service providers, advertising on TV radio or the internet, newspapers or what people write or post on the internet. Ofcom has certain policies over protecting under 18s, crime and abuse as well as the watershed. Some of the ways that Ofcom protects under 18s is by the use of drugs and alcohol. Ofcom states that drugs or alcohol must not be featured in shows made for children and must be avoided unless necessary as well as must not be condoned or encouraged under any circumstances. As well as this, Ofcom has strict regulations over how crime and abuse are portrayed as well as how hate speech is used. Ofcom states that hate speech must not be included in television in a way that is justified or seen as good. Crime must not be encouraged as well and should not be justified. 

BBFC 

The BBFC is an independent, non-profit, non-government board who classify films Tv and music videos. The job of the BBFC is to assign age ratings for TV, films and music videos so that people of certain ages can be protected from forms of content. The BBFC has power to request scenes in content to be cut out or edited as well as offer advice to parents about TV film or music videos. The brief I have been given says that my music video must abide to the 12A age rating meaning graphic scenes of sex and violence will not be shown, however the films will be more graphic than the PG and U-rated film classification that children under 12 have previously been able to watch. The BBFC state nudity is allowed but will be brief and discreet if shown in a sexual context. My music video has complied with the rules and regulations of a 12A by avoiding including any scenes of graphic violence that have copious amounts of gore. This was difficult to do since this subverted the conventions of my genre meaning I changed the plot to match. 

Ethical issues 

Stuart halls representation theory 

Stuart halls representation theory argues that a media text is not a true representation of events, people, places or theories. Stuart halls representation theory applies to my music video because the way I portray the concept and theme of robbery it will never be truly accurate. The way I will represent this theme is by having the ending of the narrative to be ambiguous therefore we don’t know if the robbers fail or get away with it. However, the representation of robbers in my music video may be overly positive due to the ambiguous ending. To be more in line with the legal and ethical issues it would be better to show them failing. In my music video I will abide to the stereotypes of a robber to make the characters easily identifiable by having them dressed in all black with balaclavas which is very stereotypical. As well as this I will somewhat break the stereotypes by having them use a typically “normal” car that is common on the road which breaks the stereotype of robbers typically using fast cars to escape 

 

Laura Mulvey 

Laura Mulvey’s theory refers to the way women are objectified by the camera lens and suggests they are a spectacle. Mulvey wrote that women are characterised by their "to be looked at ness”. My music video will likely contain no female characters, is coincidental that there are no female characters in my music video as male actors were easier to find for the video.