MIGRAIN: Industries - Regulation

Like most industries, the media is regulated - overseen by government to make sure the market is fair and the content appropriate for the audience.

Regulation is an important aspect of the industries key concept. How much influence should governments have over the ownership and consumption of media products? How powerful is the media? Key media theorists for this area are:

David Hesmondhalgh: the Cultural Industries
James Curran and Jean Seaton: Power Without Responsibility
Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt: Media Regulation

Two key terms for regulation:

Statutory regulation is when the regulator is backed by law (government legislation) and the regulator has real power. Example: Ofcom.

Voluntary regulation is when the industry regulates itself and governments are not involved. The newspaper and videogames industries are good examples.

Different media industries are regulated in different ways and by different organisations. For example:

Broadcasting (including the BBC): Ofcom
Newspapers: IPSO 
Film: BBFC
Videogames: PEGI

Regulating the internet

One of the major challenges facing governments and regulators is the fact so much of the cultural industries is now on the internet – and the internet is global.

The global nature of the internet means it is difficult for one government to regulate – and tech giants like Google or Amazon are now more powerful than individual countries.

This BBC Newsnight feature explores the challenge of regulating the internet:





Media regulation: blog tasks

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 128: Contemporary Media Regulation. Our Media Factsheet archive can be found at M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

1) What is regulation and why do media industries need to be regulated?

2) What is OFCOM responsible for?

3) Look at the section on the OFCOM broadcasting code. Which do you think are the three most important sections of the broadcasting code and why?

4) Do you agree with OFCOM that Channel 4 was wrong to broadcast 'Wolverine' at 6.55pm on a Sunday evening? Why?

5) List five of the sections in the old Press Complaints Commission's Code of Practice. 

6) Why was the Press Complaints Commission criticised?

7) What was the Leveson enquiry and why was it set up?

8) What was the PCC replaced with in 2014?

9) What is your opinion on press regulation? Is a free press an important part of living in a democracy or should newspapers face statutory regulation like TV and radio?

10) Why is the internet so difficult to regulate?

Complete this for homework - due next week.