Channel 4 BENEFITS STREET
Channel 4 recently aired the provoking five part TV documentary series Benefits Street, it follows the lives of selected residents of James Turner Street in Birmingham. The debate mainly centres around the question, is the show an accurate representation of people on benefits? The show makers love film productions claim that it is a non biased and well balanced documentary however critics from all sides and classes have refuted this claim. I will be using this as a catalyst to show ethical and legal constraints on the media and also the regulation of television and how complaints are handled in the UK.
Ethical Constraints
Media in general is responsible for a large part of how most of us view the world, TV, Music, Magazines, Radio and Books are all ways that we shape opinions about things we don't have first hand experience with. It is for this reason that stereotypes are dangerous, if the only exposure we as a society get to a community of people shows them in a negative way we will apply that to our own experiences and judge real people like that. It can also trigger confirmation bias’s in the consumers of media making them fit there personal experiences around the views shown on the television or other mediums.
In relation to Channel 4 and Benefits street this is one of the accusations that it is designed to do this and make us as viewers look down on the people in lower working class situations. The danger with this is that is that it puts pressure on the government to give further benefit cuts which could hurt people who really do desperately need the help.
Another ethical issue with the program is protection of the children involved in the show as some students are allegedly being harassed by protesters on the way to school. It has been reported that many of children have simply stopped showing up to school altogether out of fear. The Reverend Steven Chalke has appeared on various debates about the situation and has been very outspoken about the effect the program has had for the children of the community. On the BBC’s ‘The Big Questions’ he revealed he’d written a letter to OffCom about the episode of benefits street that night asking for it not to be shown as it contained information about the young people in the community the episode however was still aired.
Channel 4 has received 820 complaints for the show while Ofcom confirms a further 945 directly to them this means they are only 20 complaints short of being the most complained about TV show of all time (Big Brother currently holds the not so coveted honour for racist comments made by a housemate). Despite the complaints it has received however no preventative measures have been taken against the show and it will air in its entirety.
CHANNEL 4
Channel 4 began broadcasting on the 2nd of November 1982, in 1993 it went from being the Channel Four Television Company to being the Channel Four Television Corporation and shifted to a more mainstream audience.
Structure,Ownership and Careers:
“Channel 4 is a publicly owned corporation whose board is appointed by OFCOM, in agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.”Channel 4 has a careers section of its website where it offers a series of different job opportunities for people seeking jobs in all aspects of the company.
FIVE YEAR PLAN
In 5 years I would like to be studying at Bournemouth University working towards a degree in either Television Production or Media Production. Bournemouth is the best University in the country for media, this is one of the key reasons I want to go there. To achieve this I need to get a DDM on my current course.
CNN
CNN is an american based news company owned by Turner Broadcasting Company it was launched in 1980 and created by Ted Turner. He is the current owner of the company and has a net worth of over $2 billion.
CNN received many complaints and scorn from viewers of its coverage of the Steubenville rape case as it seemed to show the rapists in a positive and sympathetic light.
The case consisted of two young men who raped a passed out drunk girl and put pictures of her in compromising positions online. A large amount of the outrage for this was expressed online many feminist blogs wrote posts about it and Laci Green runner of Sex+ made a Vlog about the way the media had handled the case.
As part of the way the case was presented by the media people widely sympathised with the rapists and the victim even received death threats as a result. The reporter said "These two young men -- who had such promising futures, star football players, very good students -- literally watched as they believed their life fell apart.” later the anchor asked about the “lasting impact” this would have for the boys convicted or rape. This story raises the question of wether CNN’s report was ethical? It’s wording and lack of sympathy towards the victim is certainly a factor in the death threats and the general victim blaming that the girl received.
UNIT 7
