The Media Regulatory Aspects Essay Research Paper

The Media: Regulatory Aspects Essay, Research Paper ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS THE MEDIA: REGULATORY ASPECTS OF THE PRESS, TELEVISION AND ADVERTISING INDUSTRY. The role of the media goes much further than simply providing information about events and issues; media also play a formative role in society they are largely responsible for forming the concepts, belief systems and even the language which citizens use to make sense of, and to interpret the world in which they live In other words, media play a major role in forming our cultural identity. Industry self-regulation in advertising and media Self-regulation is a principle founded on the liberal ideology of non-intervention by governments in private enterprises. Self-regulation is invariably cast in a rhetoric of

assurances that the industry will be socially responsible and dedicated to safeguarding public interests. For many years, the advertising industry had practiced and promoted voluntary self-regulation. Most advertisers, their agencies and the media recognise the importance of maintaining consumer trust and confidence, therefore the rational for them to do so is not because it profits the industry that this be done, but rather because this benefits the citizen through better administration, systems, accountability and outcome. Advertisers also see self-regulation as a way to limit government interference, which they believe, results in more stringent and troublesome regulations. However, self-regulation is not simply the absence of regulation. Firstly, there is self-regulation

where the operators and other interested parties in the media sector agree among themselves on certain behavioural rules. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 places the obligation of determining and developing appropriate industry and community sector codes upon the broadcasting industry. The essential aim is often to obviate the need for government action. Secondly, there is self-regulation that fits in with a legal framework or has a basis laid down in law. In this case, public authorities generally lay down a set of objectives, and some general behavioural rules to be achieved, but leave it up to the operators and other interested parties to establish, implement and sometimes monitor the more detailed rules whereby these objectives are achieved. The media constitutes an

important self-regulatory mechanism in the advertising industry. Most media maintain some form of advertising review process and, except for political ads, may reject any they regard as objectionable. However, one of the fundamental needs of any self-regulatory system is that there be some umpire of oversee and ensure the industry s compliance with its obligations to public interest. Codes of Practice governing Australian Media Organisations One of the main self-regulatory bodies is the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA). The ABA are an independent federal statutory authority responsible for the regulation of free-to-air radio and television, pay TV, digital broadcasting and Internet content in Australia. In terms of content regulation, the ABA assists the different sectors

of the television, radio and Internet industries to develop codes of practice relating to content and handles complaints by members of the public, community groups or other advertisers about advertising, which they regard as misleading or offensive. The ABA also develops and administers program standards on Australian content and children\’s programs on commercial television and conducts research into community attitudes on programming matters. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 is a regulatory regime, which sets out a consultative role for the ABA with respect to the way program and advertisement content on, commercial radio, commercial television and children\’s television are regulated. It allows various broadcasting industry sectors to set their own programming