Day 4. Televisions Best Kept Secret: Telling Stories That Are Not Big, Not Fat, But Real.

23.05. 13
C H A N N E L 4/ Regulations

The end was nigh for my first week here at Channel 4, fortunately I was beginning to understand my role in line with my Advertising and Media degree at Northumbria university, they felt as if they had a collective impact, hand in hand and I loved every second of it. My time studying all aspects of media and advertising fronted by my educational pathway so far, finally felt like it was starting to pay off. I’m now even more determined to fully grasp and embrace the role I’ve been given and make the most of this opportunity as I’m learning how much it will benefit me once I graduate.

“Advertisements should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care should be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation…” (Wilmshurst & Mackay 1999)

The arrangements surrounding my role and workflow on this day were a little less active in terms of creativity, yet nevertheless underpinned much of what I had learnt during second year and echoed the ‘Advertising: Reception and Texts’ module, acting as a refresher to media studies. Today I joined ‘Adam’ for an introduction into compliance and regulations.  Prior to this, I already had a wealthy understanding of ‘ASA’, the assumed regulator whose responsibility it was for maintaining standards for advertising in the UK. Yet I was soon to learn, broadcast advertising was regulated separately by a statutory regulator: Ofcom. Acting like a sponge and absorbing all this information, Adam clarified the Ofcom structure as being a simplified regulation for consumers and businesses, and meant that decisions about ad campaigns or any media material running across all platforms was made by a single organisation.

 Adam’s duties meant that he maintained standards in the broadcasting of Channel 4, which some would argue as being challenging since Channel 4 is notoriously noted for its strong reputation in controversy, Adam must therefore pursue alternative forms of regulation where practical and applicable to shape and embody  the content, establishing a co-regulatory partnership with industry standardisation. In practice Adam is responsible on a day-to-day basis for broadcast advertising content standards to avoid an avalanche from Ofcom as a detriment to their reputation, the result of a major incident reported for further action. Amongst the system, he must monitor any obligations or indictors of any ostensible offensive footage, which includes swearing before the watershed transition, sexualisation, violence or explicit portrayals, imitable behaviour, privacy infringement, liable law of risky scripts during documentation or live shows and also justifiable brand or product placement.

 

 A video Adam was working on how to make 'cleaner' for any daytime viewing, curse you explicit rap videos!

As the day itself was quite lax with Adam, he highlighted best practice and was able to share many insights into his own experience including how he sought after his role together with an exchange of some valuable contacts. He also shone some light onto his field and had some very interesting stories and outcomes to reveal including the imperial right wing views of Channel 4’s program ‘Dispatches’, journalism which lands scoop after scoop reaching a high in terms of audience delivery, however is often deemed a risky category for the network. Channel 4 can still shape social attitudes by confronting and exposing subjects that other broadcasters ignore which is why I consider Channel 4 to be highly admirable, this judgment can also be referenced to the emerging, captivating gypsy shows which despite the productions tackling criticism of the shows participants,  such as cleaning up their acts and way of life, Adam admittedly informed me that channel 4 was in peak with these documentaries even when competing with juggernauts ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Strictly’.

Today I learnt that the notion of where to draw the line is an increasingly complex issue. Channel 4 is implicitly strong and sustainable, bringing in great audiences and able to attract commercial funding that allows it to continue to stimulate debate, reinforce the stereotype and raise awareness of different sections of a very real society. So long live ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’ and whatever the next ‘Big Brother’ might be, programs like these create debate and visibility for the minority communities that any charity can.

Bibliography: Wilmshurst, J. and Mackay, A. 1999. The fundamentals of advertising. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.p.32