Should the Media be Regulated?
The media today is heavily regulated. Since 1984, everything has an age rating on it, DVDs, Games and Films. The reason why this is, is to protect vulnerable people from possible negative effects of the media. This is why people ask for ID when you are buying a DVD aged 18, they usually ask if you look under 21. Before the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) started putting age ratings on film it was chaos, anyone including children could just walk into a store and buy a film with sex, violence and graphic murder in it.
Before the ratings were introduced anyone could watch any film. The editors of Evil Dead however cut a lot of the scenes out when it went into the cinema so the film didn't appear as bad towards the people who watched it. However, when it went to dvd the editors could put all the cut scenes back into it so when the children bought the dvd it was far worse than what they saw in the cinema. This was the main reason why the age rating was added to films. The only problem with this was that parents of the children who had already seen inappropriate films believe that they have acted too late and the damage was already done. This did however, prevent future cases of children buying inappropriate films.
The main issue within the media effects and standards is the portrayal of violence in films. The Hunger Games is a well known film and is known for is violent themes throughout the film. The whole theme is quite literally a bunch of children entering into an arena to kill everyone until there is one person left, one of the children was a little girl about six years old. The rating for this film from that description should make you think 18 but the rating is actually a 12. This allows children of 12 and above to see children killing each other.
There are many theories made about media and the effect it has on people. The Hypodermic theory would come into effect when young children can play Grand Theft Auto and witness many characters smoking, taking drug and fighting with anybody, this then implies that the game plants the idea that this is the way to act directly into their minds. The downside of this theory though is that the audience is considered passive and therefore just let the media influence their views but in some cases a child has already learned that this is not the way to act in real life and only act that way when playing the game.
Desensitisation is the theory that suggests children have been exposed to too much violence and therefore have been 'desensitised' to the horror of real life violence. This would come into effect with the Call of Duty game series. Each game the main character is a soldier in a war. This allows children the ability to graphically kill other characters using a range of guns, grenades and even bombs. This could potentially desensitise their views on people killing people in the streets with guns or even terrorists using bombs. Worse case scenario, it could influence them like the film natural born killers, they will become obsessed with guns and violence and could even go orotund blowing up building and going on killing sprees.
The copycat or modelling theory suggests that watching a film or television program can lead to negative behaviour. An example of this is the show Power Rangers, this show was all about the complicated and flashy kicks to take down the bad guys and children loved them. However, since children loved them the show inspired the children to be just like them so they would go about copying the kicks and hitting anyone who they are pretending to be the bad guy, this could cause serious damage to them or the other person. This could also lead them to becoming increasingly violent as they grow up. Natural Born Killers is another example of the copycat theory. In America, many young people have gone on killing sprees after watching the surreal film.
The use and gratifications theory talks about how the media effects people differently depending on their personality. This theory talks about how the media can't change peoples beliefs that they have acquired through life experiences. However, if the media is discussing something that confirms their beliefs. One man left the country to return to his home country after seeing footage of the war happening there as he believed it was his right to fight for his country and religion. If someone decided that that war was wrong and they didn't want anything to do with it then the media would not be able to change their mind on that.
PEGI is the company that adds the rating to games and decide what age the games content are appropriate. PEGI had rated the Grand Theft Auto game series as R rated but some children still managed to get a hold of them from a parent or borrowing from a friend who got it off their parents. These games created a morale panic among parents and they tried to get it banned. Parents were worried that these games would encourage their children to go around shooting innocent people. The worst game in the series was Grand theft Auto San Andreas as it allows the character to steal a plane and rein act the 9/11 terrorist attack. This caused even more outrage amongst parents as they believed it was teaching their children that it was ok to be a terrorist.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 also created a moral panic amongst parents. This game is based around the war in Afghanistan that was still happening during the games release. Parents tried to get it banned because of it's violence and because of the graphic blood and other gory images used throughout the game. Parents also thought that the game was disrespectful since it was released on remembrance day and instead of wanting to remember soldiers who gave their life for the country, all the kids wanted to do was play this violent game.
In 1959, the Obscene Publications Act was first introduced to protects people from inappropriate publications in the media. This act was used to ban many publications that were considered obscene. The most popular one was D. H. Lawrence's book Lady Chatterly's Lover. Lady Chatterly's Lover is all about a scandalous love affair filled with sexual terms and references that would make the author of 50 Shades trilogy blush. The book was banned from the UK as it was considered inappropriate literature. The book was later re-published but was completely censored. This act also applies to television, it protects us from content that is likely to deprave or corrupt it's intended audience. Meaning if it showed a lot of drugs, sexually explicit material or violence.
The WarShed act was first introduced in
1994 to protect children from swearing on programs, programs could then have
swearing on shows after 9pm as that is about the time children are asleep.
Before this was introduced anything could be shown on television with bad
language or graphic violence at any time. In England they put a stop to this so
anything with swearing, sexual scenes or violence couldn’t be shown on the
television until 9pm, this means programs like South Park, which contains a
borderline obscene amount of swearing is only allowed to be shown during adult
time after 9pm. The laws in America aren’t as strict as they show these
programs at any time of the day. In America they show South Park at 3pm, which
is the usually time children finish school, in the afternoon on Fox since they
don't feel the need to ban programs until after 9pm.
The Video Recordings act was first
introduced in 1979 in the UK, this was to stop children being able to walk into
a video shop and buying inappropriate videos. In response to concerns about
violence in media which lead to the murder of James Bulger who was just a
toddler in 1993, two convicts Robert Thompson and John Veneables had been watching
and inspired by Child's Play 3 prior to the murder of Jamie Bulger which John
Veneables’ father had rented. After this Laws concerning Video Nasties were
tightened.
As well as Child’s Play there other
Video Nasties, which were films that were not suitable for people to watch such
as the Evil Dead and Natural Born Killers. These were films that children had
seen because they had no age ranting until the Video Recordings Act was brought
into effect. Parents thought that these films were the source of certain killings;
meaning young kids could have watched these films and reenacted them. The James
Bulger murder was the most famous one since the press had reported that the
killers were obsessed with Child’s Play 3. Another incident, which could have
been caused by one of these video nasties, was the Columbine Massacre. The film
The Basketball Diaries in 1995 was blamed for being the reason behind the
massacre. The Columbine Massacre was when two teenagers went on a massive
shooting at a school in 1999. 13 people were killed and more than 20 wounded. This
film was then banned from viewing and from being bought in the UK.
On the 19th of August 1987 in Hungerford
a UK unemployed man killed 16 people including his mother before committing
suicide. The press later reported that the killer was obsessed with the film
Rambo First Blood, the film was known to feature similar events to what
happened during the massacre. However, there was no evidence to support the
fact the film made him do it since he didn’t own the film or a video player. There
has never been a solid motive for why the killing happened and it remains one
of the worst massacres in the UK.
The main argument behind the banning of
the films like Rambo revolved around the Copycat effect. It is believed that
certain material is likely to invoke or uncover criminal tendencies hidden in
the viewers subconscious. Tookey argued that people who saw crash would be
encouraged to behave the way they saw in the films. The main thesis is that the
film was using car crashes to promote sexual pleasure. People believed that the
copycat effect linked major crimes to television programs or films. They point
out that this film was responsible for the Hungerford shootings since he was obsessed
with Rambo films.
Natural Born Killers was another film
that the governing bodies tried to get banned since people say that Natural
Born Killers was the trigger in the people who committed three murders. And
that it had caused desensitisation to the pain of the victims. These murders
lead to the decision for stricter legislation, which was immediately supported
by the Newson Report. However, the Newson Report was not basing their argument on
any new research. An inquiry to the House of Lords rebutted the link between
the killing and the video due to lack of evidence and the video was never fully made public.
In Conclusion I think that media in the
UK should be more regulated due to the fact it would be chaos if we didn’t.
Chaos would come in the forms of crimes, murders and negative behaviour with a
connection to films, games or any other form of media. Films like The Human
Centipede and the Saw franchise has been banned from being viewed on television
and being released onto DVD, however, it is still available to be watched
online. Saw shows graphic violence/ torture in the form of people being
beheaded by machetes people being torched alive until they die, it would be
upmost chaos if these types of films didn't have ratings on them and young children
can buy and watch them. It could encourage young children, who these films aren’t
appropriate for, getting ideas from these films and reenacting these murders on
their friends. I also think that games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of
Duty should stick with the R ratings, even though parents will buy these games
for their children. If their children are encouraged to act negatively it would
be the parents fault for buying their child and R rated game.
