Media industries - mini assignment two

Asa
Advertising Standards Authority
They regulate the following -

-Magazine and newspaper advertisements
-Radio and TV commercials (not programmes or programme sponsorship)
-Television Shopping Channels
-Posters on legitimate poster sites (not fly posters)
-Leaflets and brochures
-Cinema commercials
-Direct mail (advertising sent through the post and addressed to you personally)
-Door drops and circulars (advertising posted through the letter box without your name on)
-Advertisements on the Internet, including banner and display ads and paid-for (sponsored) search (not claims on companies’ own websites)
-Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads
-Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes
-Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear.

They are self-regulatory, this means that the industry has voluntarily established and paid for its own regulation.

The Codes contain wide-ranging rules designed to ensure that advertising does not mislead, harm or offend. Ads must also be socially responsible and prepared in line with the principles of fair competition. These broad principles apply regardless of the product being advertised.
In addition, the Codes contain specific rules for certain products and marketing techniques. These include rules for alcoholic drinks, health and beauty claims, children, medicines, financial products, environmental claims, gambling, direct marketing and prize promotions. These rules add an extra layer of consumer protection on top of consumer protection law and aim to ensure that UK advertising is responsible.

NUJ
National union of journalists
The NUJ is the voice for journalists and journalism. They are a campaigning organisation seeking to improve the pay and conditions of members and work to protect and promote media freedom, professionalism and ethical standards in all media.
They have a code of conduct that all members have to follow which include -

-At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed
-Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair
-Does her/his utmost to correct harmful inaccuracies
-Differentiates between fact and opinion
-Obtains material by honest, straightforward and open means, with the exception of investigations that are both overwhelmingly in the public interest and which involve evidence that cannot be obtained by straightforward means
-Does nothing to intrude into anybody’s private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest
-Protects the identity of sources who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the course of her/his work
-Resists threats or any other inducements to influence, distort or suppress information
-Takes no unfair personal advantage of information gained in the course of her/his duties before the information is public knowledge
-Produces no material likely to lead to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s age, gender, race, colour, creed, legal status, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation
-Does not by way of statement, voice or appearance endorse by advertisement any commercial product or service save for the promotion of her/his own work or of the medium by which she/he is employed
-Avoids plagiarism.

PCC
Press complaints commisions
The PCC is an independent self-regulatory body which deals with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines (and their websites). Thy keep industry standards high by training journalists and editors, and work pro-actively behind the scenes to prevent harassment and media intrusion. They can also provide pre-publication advice to journalists and the public.
The codes for this company are not legally enforced and are more of a guideline but are expected to be followed.
Some examples of codes are:

-Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.
-Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information.
-Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before entering non-public areas of hospitals or similar institutions to pursue enquiries.

Three other codes that i think would be relevant to magazine publishing would be:
-Journalists must not harrass or intimidate individuals.
-Journalists must not break the law in order to get a story.
-Journalists should respect everyones privacy.

Legal & Ethical Restrictions
Civil Law deals with the rights and duties of one individual to another. One of the main areas of civil law that applies to consumers is the law of Contract. The law will determine whether a promise is legally enforceable and what its legal consequences are.
Criminal Law is concerned with establishing social order and protecting the community as a whole. It gives us a set of rules for peaceful, safe and orderly living. People that break these laws can be prosecuted and if found guilty they could be fined or sent to prison, or both.
So the difference is that the criminal law is more about punishing people for commiting crimes and making sure they dont 're-offend' where as civil law is more about dealing with individuals rights!

Health and safety
I would make the following health and safety checks before a photo shoot:
-Make sure there is nothing laying around that can be tripped on (wires, cables, bags etc)
-Lighting is kept to a minimum temperature, and is not too bright for the subject
-The subject is breifed on all safety regulations and knows where exits are incase of fire
-Act in a respectable mature way, so that accidents wont happen!

Copyright
Copyright is the setof exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. These rights can be licensed, transferred and/or assigned. Copyright lasts for a certain time period after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to a wide range of works that are substantive and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work.

Libel law
Defamation is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).
In common law jurisdictions, slander refers to a malicious, false and defamatory spoken statement or report, while libel refers to any other form of communication such as written words or images. Most jurisdictions allow legal actions, civil and/or criminal, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism. Related to defamation is public disclosure of private facts, which arises where one person reveals information that is not of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. Unlike libel, truth is not a defense for invasion of privacy.

Data protection
The Data Protection Act gives you the right to know what information is held about you, and sets out rules to make sure that this information is handled properly.
The Act works in two ways. Firstly, it states that anyone who processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which make sure that personal information is:
-Fairly and lawfully processed
-Processed for limited purposes
-Adequate, relevant and not excessive
-Accurate and up to date
-Not kept for longer than is necessary
-Processed in line with your rights
-Secure
-Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection
The second area covered by the Act provides individuals with important rights, including the right to find out what personal information is held on computer and most paper records.
Should an individual or organisation feel they're being denied access to personal information they're entitled to, or feel their information has not been handled according to the eight principles, they can contact the Information Commissioner's Office for help. Complaints are usually dealt with informally, but if this isn't possible, enforcement action can be taken.

Ethics
Paparazzi- Celebritys often complain that they are not given enough privacy and that paparazzi can do extreme things in order to get a photo of them. However without them the celebrities would not be in the public eye atall hence their career failing and not being able to earn money. So the paparazzi and celebritys do infact need each other to survive!