Ethical
obligations are less likely to be required by law than contractual and
employment legislation though they can be equally important as if a TV or film
company does not behave ethically, there could be financial and legal
repercussions. In my media classes, we have already looked at:
Codes of practice
A code of practice sets out how employees of a company may act.
Though it is not legally binding, the purpose is to stop employees behaving in
unethical ways, ensuring the creator of a piece of content behaves according to
ethical standards. For example the BBC has a commissioning code of practice
that sets out the principles by which they should abide when commissioning work
from independent production companies. ‘The intention of
the Code is to ensure that relations between the BBC and independent producers
are conducted on a fair and transparent basis.’ The
code includes guidelines for dealing with independent production companies and
covers issues such as payment, editorial control and rights over the
programmes. This ensures that the BBC has a good working relationship and
behaves in an ethical manner with producers.
Policies and procedures
TV and film companies will also have a number of
policies and procedures in place to maintain and encourage ethical practice.
These can relate to business conduct, recruitment, employment and records
management. They are often informed by legislation such as health and safety
and equal opportunities laws. One of the most interesting policies is the BBC’s
on advertising. It states that advertising is not allowed in order to keep the
channel free from commercial pressures. This means they can truly serve the
public without having to make profits or have their schedules and programming
dictated by external pressure. They also have a policy on the safeguarding of
children that they work with in their programmes and also a watershed policy
that ensures certain subjects, matters, issues and images are not on the
channel before 9pm. These ethical policies make the BBC avoid legal action and
give them a good reputation and standing in the country.
Emerging social concerns
A company’s ethical policies might extend to dealing
with emerging social concerns such as the treatment of people with
disabilities, the sexual exploitation of children and empowering youth. Channel
4 for example is committed to highlighting issues around those with
disabilities. They broadcast the Paralympics and have commissioned a range of
programmes dealing with disabled people and their lives. They also have
documentaries under the Dispatches series that tackle and highlight a huge
range of very serious issues including Britain’s sex gangs. These investigative
shows fulfil ethical obligations to help the country improve.
Representation
Finally
broadcasters will always consider the representation of social groups in their
programmes. Channel 4 has come under fire for its representation of gypsy culture
in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and also for its titling of a show about disabled
people dating called The Undateables. These shows can damage the reputation of
Channel 4 and lead to accusations of racism and making people’s perceptions of
certain social groups worse or they can be praised for highlighting parts of culture that are not often represented on the television.
Similarly Hollywood blockbusters are also often
criticised for characters that could be considered racist stereotypes.
Paramount, Dreamworks and director Michael Bay were all criticised for Transformers 2’s racist caricature
robots that sounded
‘black’ and could not read. Avatar and Fox also came under fire for casting
African and Native Americans as aliens. However these huge blockbusters and their financial
backers seem less concerned with ethical obligations as they still make huge
profits even if a minority of people complain.
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