Newspaper regulation

 

One: Media Magazine article and questions

Read the Media Magazine article: From Local Press to National Regulator in MM56 (p55). You'll find the article in our Media Magazine archive here. Once you've read the article, answer the following questions:

1) Keith Perch used to edit the Leicester Mercury. How many staff did it have at its peak and where does Perch see the paper in 10 years' time?

130 at its peak.

He says that if it is still print then it will have a very small circulation, be very expensive and will be weekly whereas if it is online which he sees as the most likely outcome it would not make much money and only employ 5/6 people.

2) How does Perch view the phone hacking scandal?

That they were all punished by regulation for an issue that only a small amount of people were doing.

3) What does IPSO stand for and how does it work?

Independent Press Standards Organisation.

Handles public complaints and if the Committee can insist on corrections and demand that they be placed on a particular page.

4) What is Perch's view of newspaper ownership?

There are millions of different voices online yet everybody chooses to look at print and if people don't agree with one newspapers views then are many others with different views.

5) Do you agree with his view that broadcast news should have less regulation so that TV channels can support particular political parties or people?

I think that news broadcasters should not be regulated to control their political affiliations because TV news should be unbiased 

Task Two: Newspaper regulation exam question

Write an answer on your blog answering the following exam question:

What are the arguments for and against statutory regulation of the newspaper industry? [20 marks]

Aim to write an answer of around 400-500 words featuring at least three detailed paragraphs. Make sure you cover both sides of the debate. This topic could well be our 20-mark essay at the end of Paper 1, Section B so it's great preparation for the summer exams.

I think that statutory regulation is good for the newspaper industry as if offers a more ethical way of running the newspapers over the current IPSO model however it could cause a lack of freedom of speech. On the other hand IPSO does not enforce proper punishments and is used by most newspapers because of this, this leads to people being exploited and clickbait or completely false stories in order to grow their audience rather than spread factual information.

One argument in favour of statutory regulation is that it can actually hold newspapers accountable for acting in an unethical way allowing the newspapers to face legal prosecutions for their actions rather than just issuing an apology and getting away with what they've done. An example of this is the phone hacking scandal in which the phones of celebrities, politicians and high profile people were hacked to reveal their voicemails. This led to the Levenson inquiry that caused IPSO to become the newspaper regulator. However IPSO cannot bring legal punishments onto newspapers and is easily bypassed therefore a statutory regulator such as IMPRESS would be better as they can actually enforce rules and rebuild public trust.

Another argument is that statutory regulation can decrease the amount of misinformation and improve the accuracy of newspapers. Newspapers have a significant influence over the news agenda and are often referenced and cited on TV news. Therefore if the news stories on newspapers are spreading misinformation this could lead to a knock on effect. The newspapers may also lie or use hyperbole in order to sell more stories and get more clicks, statutory regulation would ensure that they would not be able to do so. 

On the other hand, an argument against statutory regulations can hinder free speech which is essential to newspapers offering a wide variety of views. This plethora of views and ideologies is essential for people to make informed decisions such as who to vote for or just to build their own opinion up about a certain topic. Statutory regulation could lead to censorship of the newspapers which can sway public opinions on big events such as elections, the statutory regulatory body such as IMPRESS could be able to influence big decisions. A reason why the current model of IPSO regulating newspapers does not work is because it is self regulated so the newspapers can just get away with whatever they do. 

In conclusion I think that IMPRESS and statutory regulation would be good for the newspaper industry as it would make the industry much more ethical however I also think that there are many cons with statutory regulation which make it worse than the IPSO model. I think that they IPSO model could be tweaked in order to have it be more enforceable rather than completely turning away from this model.