"How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes?"
The purpose of regulation is to protect the public from potentially harmful or explicit content, and this is mostly applied to young children, or mentally vulnerable adults.Over the decades, regulation has become more liberal, because as a society, we have become more desensitised to things over time, as with social media becoming a huge aspect of the world we live in, we are exposed to much more than we were before, and potentially, if something was classified as a higher age rating, or even banned, it is very easy to go online and access these things illegally. An example of this is the BBFC. This company can either decide to classify, censor or ban a film, and this is how they proactively regulate. Their aim over all these years has been to protect the young and the vulnerable, but with an unregulated force such as the internet, it is harder to enforce these regulations, as the internet makes things that aren't supposed to be accessed; easily accessible. OFCOM is a government lead regulator, in charge of what gets shown on the television, and what time it can be shown. They can use classification and put above 18 content after the timing they predict that children have gone to bed, and they can fine companies and channels, or revoke the channels right to broadcast. The media has more of a conservative type of regulation in place to protect children and vulnerable adults to something that may be deemed inappropriate. However, OFCOM's regulation may not be seen as effective, because if they have to be reactive with a concern, it means that the inappropriate piece of content has already been shown on the televison, and it will now draw attention to the show/channel, which is the opposite of what OFCOM wants.
The Evil Dead shows the desensitization of society over time, as the film was originally a classified X at the time of its release but in 2001 was re-released after cuts where made making the film now an 18. The imitable behaviour also caused concerns with parents, bringing in the copy cat theory as pencils are a common, and easily accessible item in most homes. The main cause of regulation is to protect children and this went directly against that ideal cause of regulation and up holds my argument that the media is now more liberal than what it once was, and the fact that the film was banned will entice people to go online and watch it.When the BBFC first started off in 1912, they were originally called the British Boars of Film Censorship, meaning that they were only going to suggest films to either be cut, or banned. They then changed their name to British Board of Film Classifications, and this shows the liberalisation of the media industry over time, as they have moved away from either cutting parts/ banning films, to giving it an ‘appropriate’ age rating. The latest film the BBFC have banned is ‘Hate Crime’, in 2015, but before that the last time they had banned a Film was 2011, showing the movement from a highly conservative society, to a liberal one. However, there are more age classifications than there were in the past, only having about 4 classifications in the late 1900’s, thAT were not very age specific, but now we have 10 age classifications, showing that the BBFC have become more inclusive overtime, understanding that society as a whole have moved from the conservative way of thinking.
The Evil Dead shows the desensitization of society over time, as the film was originally a classified X at the time of its release but in 2001 was re-released after cuts where made making the film now an 18. The imitable behaviour also caused concerns with parents, bringing in the copy cat theory as pencils are a common, and easily accessible item in most homes. The main cause of regulation is to protect children and this went directly against that ideal cause of regulation and up holds my argument that the media is now more liberal than what it once was, and the fact that the film was banned will entice people to go online and watch it.When the BBFC first started off in 1912, they were originally called the British Boars of Film Censorship, meaning that they were only going to suggest films to either be cut, or banned. They then changed their name to British Board of Film Classifications, and this shows the liberalisation of the media industry over time, as they have moved away from either cutting parts/ banning films, to giving it an ‘appropriate’ age rating. The latest film the BBFC have banned is ‘Hate Crime’, in 2015, but before that the last time they had banned a Film was 2011, showing the movement from a highly conservative society, to a liberal one. However, there are more age classifications than there were in the past, only having about 4 classifications in the late 1900’s, thAT were not very age specific, but now we have 10 age classifications, showing that the BBFC have become more inclusive overtime, understanding that society as a whole have moved from the conservative way of thinking.
Over time, people have become more desensitised to watching violence, but when it comes to the age ratings of comics, or video games, violence is still held to a very high standard. However, when it comes to sex, people have more of a conservative view on it being shown in the media. An example of this is fifty shades of grey, which is a film that is about a BDSM relationship. This film is rated as an 18, because of its high sexual content, but Deadpool, a film that contains both violence and sexual references is rated a 15. This shows the disparity between how sex and violence is viewed, and that when it comes to sex, the views are still quite conservative. It can be argued that people see violence in a film as a method of catharsis, which is using the media to purge your negative emotions, stopping people from wanting to be violent in real life, so perhaps this is why violence is more tolerated in society than sex.
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