Newspapers: Regulation

 Newspaper regulation: blog tasks

Task One: Media Magazine article and questions

Read the Media Magazine article: From Local Press to National Regulator in MM56 (p55). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here. Once you've read the article, answer the following questions:

1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?

Where does he see a paper like The Mercury,

which once employed 130 journalists, in ten years

time? Perch thinks that if it is still in print, it will

be weekly, extremely expensive, and have a very

small circulation; if it is online only – the likeliest

outcome – it will be unlikely to make money,

and so would employ as few as five or six staff.

2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?

The biggest single issue is that something

illegal was going on which obviously

should not have been, and which

wasn’t dealt with by the police, and

unfortunately the resulting actions

have been disproportionate [...] Far too

many newspapers and magazines have

been caught up in a regulatory system

that they shouldn’t really be caught

up in [...] A small section of the press

was behaving in a totally unacceptable

way, but it should have been dealt with

legally. I don’t think regulation is the

answer. I know many people point to

Leveson and the fact he held a massive

inquiry, but I don’t think he looked

carefully enough at what is happening

in the regional press or in small weekly

papers. I think his form of regulation is

unacceptable, and that actually what

people really want to do is ‘tame’ the press.

3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?

The Independent Press Standards Organisation. So how does IPSO work? A newspaper has 28

days to deal with a complaint. If it hasn’t been

resolved, the complainant can then take it to the

IPSO Complaints Committee, which will decide if

the Editor’s Code of Practice has been broken. If it

has, the Committee can insist on corrections and

demand that they be placed on a particular page.

Keith sits above the Complaints Committee

on the board which decides

how the code should be

interpreted.

4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?

I think the reason for demanding that

broadcasters are balanced or neutral is

based in history and to do with the fact

that there were virtually no channels or

multiple broadcasters. And now there

are so many that if I want to choose

to listen to a right-wing or left-wing

broadcaster then I think I should be

allowed to, rather than have to listen

to supposedly ‘balanced’ broadcasters.

I understand why in regulation terms

that existed in the past, but I don’t really

understand why that exists today.

5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?

No because if there is less regulation within TV channels than they will promote their one-sided biased views and try to influence the audience to also follow them.


Task Two: Newspaper regulation exam question

Write an answer on your blog answering the following exam question:

What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? [20 marks]

 statutory regulation- Form of media policy with rules enforced by the jurisdiction of law. Guidelines for media use differ across the world.ld.

Initially from 1990 to 2014 the newspaper industry was regulated by the PCC which was a voluntary regulator run by newspapers editors themselves and technically didn't have any legal authority. This wasn"t taken as seriously by newspaper brands at all.

The events that took place from the phone hacking of a murdered schoolgirl called Milly Dowler and the closure of the News of the World led to the Leveson inquiry which was a 2000 page document which contained the horrible phone hackings of 337 victims (those who are more renowned in society and also normal everyday citizens). IPSO was introduced straight after which was a stronger regulator than the PCC and can actually order newspapers to publish apologies on their front paper. Yet this wasn't fully compliant with the Leveson inquiry due to not having government regulation. Another regulator IMPRESS was introduced which fully took in board Leveson inquiry but no major newspapers signed with them in order to avoid the heavy regulation which deemed it a pure failure.

The phone hacking scandal of Milly Dowler have given her family false hope that she was still alive due to her voice messages being opened however was ultimately left in disappointment after finding out its a bunch of reporters seeking to exploit a dead girl in order to write a top news story. These more serious (hard news) stories gain a much more larger readership and boost the profits of the newspaper companies contributing to these unethical practices conducted out by the journalists. As a result, News of the World would have to publish a public apology on their newspaper cover and heavily fined for these deeds. The Dowler family would be compensated for this horrible act and would awareness would be spread much wider to prevent cases like this happening again. This is why statutory regulation should take place.

Familiarly, newspapers purposely breach the privacy of celebrities and publish stories which they know will harm the celebrity's reputation/ career just to fish out stories which can intrigue the reader. This leads to be more people being victims to the newspaper industry. Curren and Seaten said that newspapers need to meet the needs and desires of the reader in order to maintain circulation and readership. Also due the rise of the digital world, it is much more easier to anybody to share news globally because of the low entry costs into the industry. As a result, there will be less credible sources and more false news being shared which trick readers into believing it. This is very dangerous and will harm society overall. Newspaper regulation needs to be taken place in order to filter out the false information and stop it circulating and only keep verified information out in order to prevent audiences consuming the wrong things.

However we should not have statutory regulation because this prevents the freedom of speech and a more democratic society where people can have their own views and interpret the news in different ways. Regulation of the news industry may result in gate keeping information from readers and attempting to influence the readers to only read 1 part of a story rather than the other side which influences bias.The Watergate scandal which was one of the most famous stories in newspaper industry which led the exposure of president Nixon and his resignation. This was done through investigative journalism which was done in order to expose the powerful people to highlight all their wrong doings. This may be a breach in privacy but is beneficial in society because it shows their true colours. This would not have possible if statutory regulation was taken place and the people in power would just get away with everything they do. 

In conclusion, I think there should not be newspaper regulation because newspapers are able to express anything they want and information is not gate kept. However, there was been unethical practices to put out stories but many top people in power have been caught through investigative journalism.

Aim to write an answer of around 400-500 words featuring at least three detailed paragraphs. Make sure you cover both sides of the debate. This topic could well be our 20-mark essay at the end of Paper 1, Section B so it's great preparation for the summer exams.