The controversial questionWho should hold the press accountable?!?#!#

To what extent should the pressbe regulated?

In the UK = no strictcontrol over the Press.

There is a Voluntary code of conduct which the press are asked to follow: The editors code.

Managed by the PressComplaints Commission,

• independent body- self regulation. They deal with complaints made about a breach of code.

• self regulated = no actual laws in place• all papers abide by the editors code of

conduct.• nature of this does impose constraints on the

extent of the P.C.C’s authority over the press, highlighting the vital question ….

Are the PCC an effective form of regulation Or Are they a toothless lap dog???

The latest scoop just “ridiculous” after this will be held in courts and taken foJudged publically.AIn time this will delvRyan Giggs who haInline with this the neThe footballer will be take further. Several other newspapers reported the incidient

How the pcc workIn order to evaluate the pcc’s effectiveness it is necessary to depict how they function The most common resolution to a complaint is mediation, where correction to material or a public apology may be required; this may also involve the deletion of online material.

PCC Effectivewww.pcceffective?.com THE WORLD’S FAVOURITE NEWSPAPER - Since 1879

If the paper in question fails to comply then the complaint may be upheld in a public ruling. This is the most severe consequence directed by the pcc. It forces the newspaper or magazine to publish the rulings with prominence.

In 2008 1420 rulings were issued. Substantial figures validates ruling system (The pcc History, 2011)

• The actual commission =3 classes;• The chairman who is appointed by the

newspaper and magazine publishing industry. “But it must not be disregarded that The Chairman must not be engaged, connected or interested in the business of publishing newspapers, periodicals or magazines”. The PCC (About the Commission, 2010)

• Public members • Press members.

• This variation of press and public offers an attempt to keep the panel unbiased.

Who they protect and Why???

A vital role of the pcc acts in protecting the vulnerable

• This was The case for A woman who complained to the Press Complaints Commission that the newspaper had raised a breach of Clause 6 and was concerned that her children could be identified from the report; this was resolved when the PCC negotiated the removal of the article from the newspaper's website. The pcc (cases 2009)

NOT ALL CASES RESOLVED!The Pcc do not resolve all cases. A complaint will not be upheld if the commission feel sufficient action has been taken to rectify the error or if the code is not breached. In these particular cases the only option available to the victim of the press, is to proceed to court; a costly and time consuming procedure with no guaranteed outcome. In these cases the material may be too damaging for a financial agreement between the two parties.

CELEBRITY NEWS AND GOSSIP WORLD EXCLUSIVES

THE

PCC Ineffective

NEWS

Case Study A resolved incident A resolved incident involved the Madeline foundation pursuing a complaint against the sun who had distributed leaflets calling them selves the Madeline foundation and insinuating conspiracies about the disappearance of the child.

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Whilst an apology was printed, a lack of justice remained from a small resolution to a damaging publication.

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•In the case of the McCann’s the pcc deemed ineffective at the time of the press coverage in the case regarding their missing toddler. As at times the pcc failed to act over inaccurate and damaging news coverage.

Whilst there are cases of the pcc achieving, in regulating the press, there appears to also be some cases when the pcc have lacked tooth and control over the press in national news.

Overall it appears that at times the pcc have been unable to control the press due to them working cohesively to combine agenda driven writing, an inevitable trait of the press .Whilst a lack of control has been apparent it is a dated theory to view the consumers of the press as passive and unable to offer their own personal form of self regulation and opinion on what they consume.

• “Self regulation is typically viewed as a systematic process of human behaviour” (Carver and Scheier, 1982), this concept deems self regulation as innate and inevitable however Boekaerts (2000) et al noted that “self regulatory skills are of little value if a person cannot be motivated to use them”, but as the consumers of media are no longer seen as a hypodermic model and do not passively absorb information without process, it must not be disregarded that they selectively receive information according to their demand.

It is this which dictates what and how they consume media and essentially drives taste. The pcc does rely upon this in times of mass news which is due to being an independent body

• However it is important to note this as a feature of a modern viewer and goes far beyond laws or controls, with new Media this selection is made far more accessible.

• a recent example of the twitter uproar of super injunctions is a prime example of consumer extracting desired information regardless of laws on regulation.

• In terms of individual cases and statistics, the pcc have prevailed to bring boundaries to the press, free from government regulation or legislation. It is this, which isolates the pcc as unique and offers a sense of freedom for publishing, somewhat granting it more respect, by dealing with consumer complaint as opposed to a set legal framework. This freedom has enabled the public to discover scandals or political issues such as the recent mps expenses scandal.

Chris Frost (2007) stated:“ Despite the tendency for national newspapers to be more interested in the activities of soap characters than they are in activities at the Palace of Westminster, people still look to the media to keep them informed of daily news events”

For this reason it is vital for the press to be separate from the government and create its own consensus for publishing, in a way which will still protect the vulnerable and inform the public.

THE PCC DEEM AN EFFECTIVE FORM OF REGULATION IN THIS MODERN AGE OF THE PRESS.

Frost, C. (2007) Journalism ethics and regulation. Second edn. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited

The Press Complaints Commission (2011) About the pcc. Available at:http://www.pcc.org.uk/about/index.html (Accessed: 1 May 2011)

PCC (2010) About the Commission. Available at: http://www.pcc.org.uk/about/whoswho/members.html (Accessed: 28 April 2011)

The Press Complaints Commission (2009) cases resolved. Available at:http://www.pcc.org.uk/case/resolved.html (Accessed 27 April 2011)

Carver, C.S & Scheier, M.F (1982)Control Theory: A useful conceptual framework for personality – social, clinical and health psychology. Psychology Bulletin, 92, 111-135

Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. and Moshe, Z. (2000) Academic press. Self regulation