Legal and Ethical Constraints

Legal & Ethical Jack O’Hara
Constraints
Ethical issues & constraints
Ethical constraints exist to protect the media

industry they serve. They are put in place to make
sure viewers will not be offended by sensitive
material that the show may provide, such as
discrimination, jokes about gender or sexual
orientation and other stereotypes.
Religious beliefs
Religious beliefs have become a hot topic in media

these days because of the way other religions have
been portrayed in the past. It’s a sensitive topic to
many people and they may feel attacked or insulted
unintentionally by a product.
Films and television shows have been known to
cross the line between a joke to a harmful gesture
in previous years. However, it is no longer tolerated
in today’s society. Television shows like South Park
and Family guy have been known to do this
frequently.
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is another sensitive topic in the

world in today’s society, especially with more open
with themselves and the rest of the world. Because of
this, they often face disrespectful and hateful
comments. A lot of these comments can also be found
in older media.
Although sexual orientation used to be a very big joke
within the media industry, it has slowly died down
with television and film producers swaying away from
those topics and instead embracing LGBTQ+ subjects
and topics in their products instead.
However, it’s not all good. Some topics are more
represented than others, leaving some groups to feel
alienated or not acknowledged at all.
Gender
For many years now, it has been a problem in any industry

that males have been paid more, favourited and held in
higher regard than their female counterparts. The media
industry is no exception to this.
An example of some of these gender stereotypes would be
the fact that males will often get picked for classier
advertisements such as watch advertisements and car
advertisements yet females will get picked for more basic
advertisements like household product advertisements.
However, I believe advertisements have become more gender
inclusive over the years. Now, it isn’t out of the ordinary for
these roles to be reversed and in most occasions, anybody
can be used for any advertisement and it won’t feel out of
place.
Legal issues & constraints
Legal issues and constraints are issues that are

deemed to be enough for legal action to be taken
place if they are breached by anyone. These issues
are not only enforced by law but they are also
under different acts which state which regulations
must be followed.
These different acts were all created separately.
However, in 2010, they were all brought under the
banner of the ‘Equality Act of 2020’, which made it
easier for people to know what laws they had to
follow and for people to know if they were in the
right to take legal action if any of these things had
happened to them.
Copyright and intellectual
property laws
Copyright and intellectual property laws have been

put in place to protect somebody’s creations from
being stolen or used in a way that the creator
doesn’t want them to be used in. These are called
trademarks, copyrights and patents.
Anything you create media wise can be
copyrighted, from a movie all the way down to a
sound clip.
An example of this would be using an artist’s song
in a movie without their permission. However, if
the artist agrees to allow the song be used in the
movie, there is no breach in copyright.
Professional codes of
practise
Professional codes of practise are guidelines that have been set in

place that any producer must follow when they are creating any
media product. The list of codes of practises are:
• Accuracy – You must be able to produce accurate points and
ensure that all of your research is completely accurate.
• Impariality – You must ensure that no controversial topic will
come across as opinionated. You must eliminate any bias of the
company in your product.
• Harm and offence – You must make sure that no piece of media
that you air will cause harm and/or offend any viewer.
• Fairness – You must make sure that what is produced is fair to
the topic of the content.
• Privacy – You must make sure that privacy will be respected
and information that doesn’t need to be disclosed with
anybody outside of the product will not be shared.
Bibliography
Ethical and legal constraints:
https://sites.google.com/site/understandingmedia162/home/star-bores
South Park and religious beliefs:
https://branemrys.blogspot.com/2006/05/south-park-and-religion-part-i.html
Gender and Advertising:
https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/57153_book_item_57153.pdf
Equality Act 2010:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents
Copyright law:
https://www.startuploans.co.uk/business-advice/what-is-copyright-law/#:~:text=Legal.%20Copyr
ight%20law%20protects%20the%20creators%20of%20original,something%20that%20was%20ori
ginally%20created%20by%20someone%20else
BBC Codes of practise:
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/code_of_practice.pdf

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Legal and Ethical Constraints

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Legal & Ethical Jack O’Hara

Ethical constraints exist to protect the media

Religious beliefs have become a hot topic in media

Sexual orientation is another sensitive topic in the

For many years now, it has been a problem in any industry

Legal issues and constraints are issues that are

Copyright and intellectual property laws have been

Professional codes of practise are guidelines that have been set in

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