William Young Question Media Studies

To What Extent Is The Regulation Of The Press Important To An Ordinary Consumer?

The regulation of the press is a very important aspect for the everyday consumer. It affects what things can be found across the various mediums of media, such as Newspapers, Television, Radio and The Internet. These various forms of media allow anyone to find out a story that has happened anywhere in the world – and regulations decide what should, and what should not, be allowed to be published. The problem is that, in my opinion, the regulations are not as important to an everyday consumer as they should be.

There are various codes of practice out which highlight what should and shouldn’t be allowed to be published. These can be found in the form of the Editors Code of Practice. There are various codes, such as Accuracy (Must not publish inaccurate or distorted information), Privacy (Must justify intrusions into any individual’s private life) and many others – 16 in all. The problem is that a lot of newspapers breach this code in order to publish stories that get people reading and/or viewing their products. For example, when Cumbria was gripped during the tragedy of the Derrick Bird shootings, which claimed the lives of 13 people, including the perpetrator. As this news story continued to unfold in front of the countries eyes, the various media companies broke various codes. They broke the Privacy code by interfering with the lives of many of the victims’ families, as well as the funerals of those murdered. Councillor David Moore, who was in Copeland at the time of the shootings,, when asked about his opinion on the media’s effects on the days, said “I felt our day had been hijacked. They’d hoodwinked people into believing they had a moral right to tell this story, that their concerns came first.” They also broke various other codes such as the Accuracy codes, for example, newspapers such as the Daily Express published stories about the private lives of the family of Derrick Bird, under the headline “Family Feud Fed His Hate”. This was found very shortly after to be a completely made up story, which resulted in the Daily Express getting a fine and forced to give compensation to those who were affected by the story. These two examples show that the regulations are not important enough, as the various corporations around the world still continue to breach those same regulations time and time again.

The regulations in question also go onto an international stage. One major news story of the past few months has been the publishing of photographs of two members of the Royal Family, those being Prince Harry and Kate Middleton. These two unrelated incidents both came to light when the photos were published in foreign newspapers and magazines – Harry’s nude photos were first seen in America , and Kate Middleton’s were published firstly in France. The major point within all of this was the fact that both of these photos were taken in private locations – were the Editor’s Code of Practice says that they should not have been allowed unless the people within the photo are justified. The British Tabloids refused to publish the photos, knowing after what happened during the News International Phone Hacking Scandal and the dissolving of The News Of The World, that the consequences would be huge. Only one newspaper published the Harry photos, that paper being The Sun, which was already considered a very controversial newspaper to begin with, and was also at the time, under major scrutiny due to the reopening of the files of the Hillsborough Disaster, which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool fans during an FA Cup Semi-Final. The Sun’s influence in the public opinion of what happened back in 1989 with their headline ‘The Truth’ bringing about made-

William Young Question Media Studies

up stories which attempted to switch the blame away from the poor policing and onto those fans who were killed or injured.