Why Regulate The Media?
The media now affects nearly every aspect of our lives. It influences the products we consume, via advertising; our understanding of the world via news and documentary; our leisure via film and broadcast fiction and games; our methods of communication via the internet. It is widely acknowledged that this dominance gives the media huge influence.
For example:
- The Media Effects theory has achieved widespread acceptance by society. This theory suggests that those who are exposed to violence in the media are influenced to behave in a violent manner. Although it is extremely difficult to “prove” this theory, a number of high-profile cases have been used to support the theoretical link between media and actual violence.
- Moral panics, (first identified by Cohen in the 1960s), where the repetitive reporting of incidents in the media creates a (possibly inflated) fear.
For example, the moral panic on paedophilia, following high-profile cases such as Sara Payne / Holly and Jessica etc. has had such a huge influence that it has led to changes in the law with regards to those who have contact with children. Remember when you went on a school trip and parents came to help? Now many of them have police-checks before they can do so.
Although the law only actually requires those who have unsupervised contact...
