TV
One of the regulators of the TV (broadcast) industry is OfCom. OfCom’s job is to govern what is broadcast on TV and Radio stations across the UK to ensure that all content is in keeping with their codes, rules and guidelines. They are there to protect the viewer from inappropriate content and to take action against those who break the guidelines set. A recent investigation into TV by OfCom was with some controversy over Rita Ora on The One show as she was wearing a low-cut dress when promoting The Voice, and the BBC came under fire from over 400 viewers for the pre-watershed showing of potentially explicit content of partial nudity. The outcome of this investigation was that the BBC were forced to apologise for the plunging neck line on a pre-watershed show.
Radio
For Radio the regulator is the same as TV; OfCom. OfCom regulate what content is broadcast on the radio as well as TV and as I covered in TV is there to protect the viewer from inappropriate content, with guidelines for the broadcaster to follow as well as advice for the viewer. A recent example of OfCom getting involved within the radio industry is with the BBC Radio 1 show hosted by Nick Grimshaw in which a song with swearing was played at 7.55am. The BBC took immediate action in apologising and putting in place measures to ensure it would never happen again whilst having an internal enquiry into how it happened. Reports show that the song wasn’t properly checked before being allowed on the show. Even though this was noted by OfCom they still took it as a breach of codes and assessed it using Rule 1.14, which reads: "The most offensive language must not be broadcast... when children are particularly likely to be listening."
Film
One of the regulators for the film industry is the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), they are responsible for the classification of films for cinema, DVD and online. The BBFC is also responsible for the censoring of films and can be involved in the classification and censoring of some video games. Although the BBFC only gives advice and local authorities can make changes to their guidelines, on almost all occasions the rating from the BBFC is implemented. This regulatory body acts within the industry for every film published but an example of their actions which has caught my eye recently is for the film Paddington, in which the BBFC gave it a rating of ‘PG’, "dangerous behaviour, mild threat, mild sex references, [and] mild bad language". Which caused controversy as neither the writer nor director could understand what they were referring too. After an appeal against the rating the BBFC re-wrote their evaluation as ‘PG’, "dangerous behaviour, mild threat, innuendo, [and] infrequent mild bad language." This was said to refer to a comic sequence in which a man dressed as a woman is flirting with another man, and the language is due to a mumbled “bloody” under one of the characters breath.
Bibliography
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2904434/I-bit-appropriate-Rita-Ora-insists-cover-Voice-UK-viewer-complaints-plunging-white-trouser-suit.html
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a626049/nick-grimshaw-radio-1-show-in-breach-with-ofcom-over-foo-fighters-fk.html#~p5Ia2dUoyxXHcG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classificatio
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30105052
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification
One of the regulators of the TV (broadcast) industry is OfCom. OfCom’s job is to govern what is broadcast on TV and Radio stations across the UK to ensure that all content is in keeping with their codes, rules and guidelines. They are there to protect the viewer from inappropriate content and to take action against those who break the guidelines set. A recent investigation into TV by OfCom was with some controversy over Rita Ora on The One show as she was wearing a low-cut dress when promoting The Voice, and the BBC came under fire from over 400 viewers for the pre-watershed showing of potentially explicit content of partial nudity. The outcome of this investigation was that the BBC were forced to apologise for the plunging neck line on a pre-watershed show.
Radio
For Radio the regulator is the same as TV; OfCom. OfCom regulate what content is broadcast on the radio as well as TV and as I covered in TV is there to protect the viewer from inappropriate content, with guidelines for the broadcaster to follow as well as advice for the viewer. A recent example of OfCom getting involved within the radio industry is with the BBC Radio 1 show hosted by Nick Grimshaw in which a song with swearing was played at 7.55am. The BBC took immediate action in apologising and putting in place measures to ensure it would never happen again whilst having an internal enquiry into how it happened. Reports show that the song wasn’t properly checked before being allowed on the show. Even though this was noted by OfCom they still took it as a breach of codes and assessed it using Rule 1.14, which reads: "The most offensive language must not be broadcast... when children are particularly likely to be listening."
Film
One of the regulators for the film industry is the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), they are responsible for the classification of films for cinema, DVD and online. The BBFC is also responsible for the censoring of films and can be involved in the classification and censoring of some video games. Although the BBFC only gives advice and local authorities can make changes to their guidelines, on almost all occasions the rating from the BBFC is implemented. This regulatory body acts within the industry for every film published but an example of their actions which has caught my eye recently is for the film Paddington, in which the BBFC gave it a rating of ‘PG’, "dangerous behaviour, mild threat, mild sex references, [and] mild bad language". Which caused controversy as neither the writer nor director could understand what they were referring too. After an appeal against the rating the BBFC re-wrote their evaluation as ‘PG’, "dangerous behaviour, mild threat, innuendo, [and] infrequent mild bad language." This was said to refer to a comic sequence in which a man dressed as a woman is flirting with another man, and the language is due to a mumbled “bloody” under one of the characters breath.
Bibliography
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2904434/I-bit-appropriate-Rita-Ora-insists-cover-Voice-UK-viewer-complaints-plunging-white-trouser-suit.html
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a626049/nick-grimshaw-radio-1-show-in-breach-with-ofcom-over-foo-fighters-fk.html#~p5Ia2dUoyxXHcG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classificatio
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30105052
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Board_of_Film_Classification