Introduction and Initial Task
Carry out extensive research and construct a dedicated webpage, linked to Task One, that critically evaluates the key issues and debates that affect the television industry with supporting arguments and elucidated examples and consistently using subject terminology correctly.
Financial worry
Mark Sweney's article for The Guardian expresses that the UK television industry, explicitly the BBC, ITV and Sky, could be in danger of losing £1 billion to rivalry from the likes of Facebook, Netflix and YouTube. OC&C accused the misfortune for the examination of the measure of income that aggregators have taken from traditional services. With the ascent of Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube, customary telecom administrations are experiencing the change. "The report, by OC&C Strategy Consultants, argues that broadcasting could be controlled by one or two “super-aggregators” that would act as viewing gateways for consumers looking for a simple way to access a plethora of content." Says Mark Sweney. It has been said that over 20% of under 35-year-olds utilize in excess of seven distinct administrations for TV, yet 40% of the overall population express that they are befuddled by what number of choices accessible there are. Mostyn Goodwin, accomplice at OC&C states that “viewers are facing a complex web of different routes to access TV content, leading to an unsustainable level of confusion and inconvenience. This environment is giving rise to the need for a super-aggregator service that provides a universal access point to content.” Large TV organizations like Sky, BBC, Channel 4, BT and ITV are completely said to be worth £15 billion incomes every year, joined which shows it could just take a couple of years for the traditional telecom industry to fall.
Mostyn Goodwin
Traditional and digital media strategy consultant with 20 years working in media, mainly as a consultant but with a break to work in the real world for the Guardian as Group Head of Bus Dev. He now works with traditional and digital media players in the UK and internationally, together with early and latter stage investors looking into acquisitions within the media, entertainment and online worlds.
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Public Service Broadcasting issues
The BBFC has two superseding standards: to shield youngsters and powerless grown-ups from possibly destructive or generally unacceptable substance, to support kids and families pick whats directly for them and to maintain a strategic distance from what's most certainly not. BBC’s commissioning process plays a role within their television commissioning teams, channel teams for BBC One, Two, Three and Four, BBC Sport and iPlayer. Censorship (BBFC) and Watershed (OFCOM)
In order for audience members to be aware of what content they are about to watch, televisions have to make sure they give an age rating. This type of information is set by the British Board of Film Classifications. The official information all about the BBFC would state:
The essential company in charge of film guideline in the United Kingdom (UK) is the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), in charge of the across the country arrangement and control of movies showed at films just as all video works discharged on physical media inside the UK. The BBFC is obliged to direct all media discharged on VHS, DVD and blu-beam and even, in spite of the fact that to a decreased degree, certain computer games just as anything discharged on the web. Distributed grouping rules are used by the BBFC so as to guarantee that film substance is age fitting and to secure youngsters and youngsters fro seeing inadmissible or wrong content. The BBFC arrangement rules are set up through standard research with people in general, including more than 10,000 people over the UK, and are refreshed each 4-5 years.
In order for audience members to be aware of what content they are about to watch, televisions have to make sure they give an age rating. This type of information is set by the British Board of Film Classifications. The official information all about the BBFC would state:
- U - Universal
- PG - Parental Guidance
- 12A/12 - Only suitable for persons of 12 years and older.
- 15 - Only suitable for persons of 15 years and older
- 18 - Only suitable for persons of 18 years and older.
- R18 - Supplied only in licensed shops.
The essential company in charge of film guideline in the United Kingdom (UK) is the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), in charge of the across the country arrangement and control of movies showed at films just as all video works discharged on physical media inside the UK. The BBFC is obliged to direct all media discharged on VHS, DVD and blu-beam and even, in spite of the fact that to a decreased degree, certain computer games just as anything discharged on the web. Distributed grouping rules are used by the BBFC so as to guarantee that film substance is age fitting and to secure youngsters and youngsters fro seeing inadmissible or wrong content. The BBFC arrangement rules are set up through standard research with people in general, including more than 10,000 people over the UK, and are refreshed each 4-5 years.
PSB Annual Report (2017)
According to Ofcom, 'Programmes remain popular. In 2017 half of all television viewing of broadcaster content on television sets was to a PSB channel, broadly unchanged since 20139 (see Figure 1). Satisfaction ratings are also generally high. Audiences particularly like the fact that public service broadcasters seek to ‘inform their understanding of the world’10. A large majority of audiences continue to believe that PSB news is trustworthy (Sky News is held in similar high regard). This feels particularly important at a time when there is a proliferation of online news of varying degrees of accuracy, including outright ‘fake news’. Down below is an Annual research report conducted in 2017.
ratings, Taste and Decency
When we think about television channels, the first thing that should come to mind would be ratings. This is one of the most important elements of any broadcasting network as without ratings, the general public wouldn't know if they are correctly identifying their target audience. They rely on it's shows in order to grab the attention of their audience. If this is successfully done, the ratings of the show continues to go up. Companies such as the BBC and ITC fight on in news at a ten ratings war. 'From mid-February BBC1 had recovered to beat ITV’s news on the majority of nights. A particularly news-heavy period this week, including the Selby rail crash and the foot and mouth outbreak, has seen the BBC1 take a near ten per cent lead at 10.15pm over ITV. Traditionally BBC news is the more popular choice when major news stories occur, which appears still to be the case. ITV’s new target of beating BBC1 in peak hours by seven share points is being achieved with ease. ITV is about 12 per cent higher in the ratings so far this year with a 39 per cent peak share, in part thanks to continued runs of the popular Millionaire and the hugely successful Popstars.'
Chris Hastings said how more than half of the British public believes that standards of taste and decency on television are getting worse. He found this out through a survey conducted by the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Independent Television Commission. These commissioning services conducted this research as a way of disclosing that a third of people think that the quality of programmes are deterioting. The thing is, companies such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have the ability to broadcast anything on television as long as it abides to the set rules. One of them happens to be called watershed. According to coldwell, The watershed is a period of time in which channels can broadcast programmes of an explicit nature. In the UK this time is between 9:00pm and 5:30am. In my opinion it is a very effective way of preventing inappropriate content being shown to a younger unsuitable audience. The majority of children or people who won’t want to be exposed to said content will be in bed or occupied elsewhere. Everyone who watches television knows about the watershed and knows that they might see something they don’t want to after this time. Let me give you an example below:
Geordie Shore (MTV), Watershed and Ofcom
Geordie Shores would be an good example where watershed could come to play. This MTV show happens to be a very explicit programme as it is a mashup of young people who get drunk and party every night resulting in a lot of drama. Now concidering a younger member of the audience, this would be deemed as inappropriate which is why it is shown at 10:00pm on a channel specifically designed for audience members between the ages of 16 to 30 years old. The best part about the watershed would be that if you don't want to watch it, you don't have to. Even though the content has been very successful it happens to have a very clear audience whilst being very entertaining to watch. As a result, the show is still allowed to be broadcasted on television for a very specific audience at a very specific time. Ofcom assists with what these channels regulate as it states how “Transmissions should not include anything which offends against good taste or decency or is likely to incite to crime or lead to disorder or to be offensive to public feeling.” In basic form, this means a television channel cannot broadcast a programme if it involves content which will push people into committing a crime or is offensive to the general public.'' it also says that “Licensees should take note of the guidance contained in Section 1 of the ITC Programme Code, in particular that relating to the use of bad language and bad taste in humour.” This means that if a programme contains inappropriate language or inappropriate humour then it should not be broadcast.'' As a result, both the watershed and Ofcom like to control what goes on television and whether this is appropriate for all audiences of any age or not.
representation of women and LGBTQ+
According to the research conducted by previous student Kyra Wright, 'The representation of women in the media, specifically UK television, is low and continuing to merge between its highs and lows as years pass in regards to how often they are presented accurately. This, along with the under-representation of ethnic groups, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community and the elderly, has sparked discussion within the British public as many believe that television shows should feature more accurate representations of these minority groups when it comes to television. Although this is improving, people still disagree and express their opinion on the representations that these groups gain. The most recent example comes from the actress portraying the thirteenth Doctor in the long-running, British series, Doctor Who.Traditionally, the previous Doctors have been men, with Jodie Whittaker taking over the iconic character as the first female Doctor. Fans of the show have expressed their opinion on the new Doctor by some stating "Time LORD. I repeat the Doctor is a time LORD. Not a time LADY” and "Are you f**king kidding me you've ruined Doctor Who for me and my father in law. You might as well just cancelled the show." Whilst others praised the show for it's decision to change the gender of the Doctor after decades of toying with the idea by stating.'
In the UK, the LGBTQ+ community began to rise due to the amount of people complaining how under-represented it is.The industries have began to come to light especially on the BBC. The issue with this topic is that one series of shows isn't enough to please the needs for the harder-to-please members of the public as they felt the need for there to be even more awareness of the community. Connor nicely covered an issue over Collateral's representation '' of gay and lesbian characters, especially in the religious area'' and how it was praised by the public when it came to the accuracy. He said how ''Part of Linh's characterisation is that she's an illegal immigrant on an expired student visa to live in the UK as a resident. This is a common problem for the British government as more people are immigrating from other countries to start a new, better life in the UK then where they were previously struggling. The representation of Alexander's character being a lesbian, ethnically diverse illegal immigrant living with an openly gay vicar is one that hasn't been shown on British television before which is where Collateral gains its most public praise.''
Additional THEORIES
Two-Step Flow Theory
Created and developed throughout the 1940's, this theory states how audience members do not directly consume media from texts but rather through 'opinion leaders'. These icons within society filter the information from different media texts, judge them through their own personal opinions and preferences and pass them down to the followers who happen to be passive audience members. These passive audience members would follow and believe the opinions of these leaders resulting in this becoming their opinion as well.In the United Kingdom, this is more commonly found in people who tend to watch news channels and take everything that they're hearing as gospel.
Blumler & Katz: Uses and Gratifications Theory
In 1970, a theory was created which stated how there are four main reasons why audience members consume certain texts produced by the media in order to:
As a result, the Uses and Gratifications theory is important when it comes to determining which audience member applies to what specific category in television. besides the four reasons stated above, there is another four main sections to consider: Surveillance, identification, diversion and entertainment. Surveillance is where the audience gain an educational value out of the film or television programme that they have just viewed. Identification is when the audience align themselves with the main protagonist and relate to them in a way that they wish to see them make it to the end of the narrative. Diversion is when it allows the audience to escape from the reality that they live in – this is the most common gratification of the four - sometimes referred to as 'escapism'. Finally, the entertainment element is when they just view the film for pure entertainment, acting as a passive audience member as they watch the film.
- Identify
- Educate
- Entertain
- Interact
As a result, the Uses and Gratifications theory is important when it comes to determining which audience member applies to what specific category in television. besides the four reasons stated above, there is another four main sections to consider: Surveillance, identification, diversion and entertainment. Surveillance is where the audience gain an educational value out of the film or television programme that they have just viewed. Identification is when the audience align themselves with the main protagonist and relate to them in a way that they wish to see them make it to the end of the narrative. Diversion is when it allows the audience to escape from the reality that they live in – this is the most common gratification of the four - sometimes referred to as 'escapism'. Finally, the entertainment element is when they just view the film for pure entertainment, acting as a passive audience member as they watch the film.
Links used:
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/marksweney
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mostyn-goodwin-58a299
https://vanxmediaa2.weebly.com/research.html
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/103924/psb-annual-report-2017.pdfhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1424110/TV-taste-and-decency-in-decline-say-viewers.html
https://coldwellw.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/taste-and-decency/
https://hickeystudios.weebly.com/research1.html
https://kyrawrightbtecfilm.weebly.com/
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mostyn-goodwin-58a299
https://vanxmediaa2.weebly.com/research.html
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/103924/psb-annual-report-2017.pdfhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1424110/TV-taste-and-decency-in-decline-say-viewers.html
https://coldwellw.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/taste-and-decency/
https://hickeystudios.weebly.com/research1.html
https://kyrawrightbtecfilm.weebly.com/