Copyright Law

The UK copyright law was passed in 1988 and it states that copyright in most
works will continue for 70 years after the death of the creator, or if this is not
known, 70 years after the product was first invented, it is 50 years for computergenerated work. It is important in radio because sounds recordings and
broadcasts can be copyrighted. Which means that radio stations may be able to
copyright certain noises which they use regularly, which would mean that other
radio stations would not be able to use them, in addition to this, if one radio
station conducts an interview, another station would not be able to use that
interview if it was copyrighted. If the copyright law is broken it means that a
company can be sued for a large amount of money as they have stolen content
from the original creator in order to create revenue. An example of copyright
infringement in music would be Vanilla Ice vs Freddie Mercury/David Bowie in
which Vanilla Ice was sued by David Bowie/Freddie Mercury for sampling Under
Pressure.

Broadcasting Act
The broadcasting act was edited last in 1996 and it states the following An Act
to make new provision about the broadcasting in digital form of television and
sound programme services and the broadcasting in that form on television or
radio frequencies of other services; to amend the Broadcasting Act 1990; to
make provision about rights to televise sporting or other events of national
interest; to amend in other respects the law relating to the provision of television
and sound programme services; to provide for the establishment and functions
of a Broadcasting Standards Commission and for the dissolution of the
Broadcasting Complaints Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Council; to
make provision for the transfer to other persons of property, rights and liabilities
of the British Broadcasting Corporation relating to their transmission network;
and for connected purposes. The act helps the industry because it means that
there is a lot of variety for the listeners, and it improves the industry as a whole
as it means that there are many more viewpoints on news etc. for the listener to
choose between. In 1990, ITV had to change many aspects of the channel
because of the Broadcasting Act which you are able to read about here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ITV#The_Broadcasting_Act_of_1990

Importance of Ethical Issues

Ethical issues are extremely important in the UK media sector as we are a very
multicultural country, we have all world religions living here which means that is
important that an ethnic group is not offended as this could lead to your station
being shut down, in addition to this, it would cause a lot of problems to your
station as you would receive bad publicity and this would then lead to complaints
from the audience. An example of this would be skin colour, if you had a black DJ
who made an insult against white people it would cause problems for the radio
station as people would complain about the remark that he has made. There is a
written code for ethical issues in press, radio and television, it states that a
broadcast should:

Provide accurate news

Treat replies generously
Respect individual privacy
Exercise care in the use of pictures
Listen to both sides

If a radio station follows this code it means that they will not get reported due to
ethical reasons. A recent example of a breach of the code was in 2012 when
2Day FMs DJs Mel Greig and Mike Christian prank called the hospital where Kate
Middleton was due to give birth. The nurse which picked up the phone committed
suicide three days after she fell for the hoax. Which led to serious backlash for
Mel Greig and Mike Christian. You can read about the incident here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Christian

Representation of Gender
Representation of Gender is just as important in radio as it is in any other sector
in media, the reason that representation of gender is important is because it is a
very fragile topic at the moment so it is important that no one who is listening to
your station is being offended, whilst there is no act of the representation of
gender, it is important that your radio station is not seen as being sexist at any
point as this could lead to problems for the radio and it could cause you to lose
listeners. Radio should have a good balance between male and female radio
presenters. According to a study by The Guardian men still vastly outnumber
woman on radio even though on the large radio stations there is a good balance
between male and female, but it would seem that more women need to get into
the radio sector. http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/apr/03/maleexperts-female-tv-radio-research

Representation of Religious Beliefs

In the UK it is illegal to preach hate towards religion. Therefore your radio station
could be shut down if you are reported and found guilty of doing this, in addition
to this it is important not to offend your radio audience by doing things that is
deemed a sin in their religion as it will cause you to lose viewers, as we have
many different religions that live in the UK. You can only do this up to a point but
radio stations need to ensure that they do nothing. In the news nowadays a key
example of an issue with Religious Beliefs would be Islamophobia in newspapers
such as the daily mail, which then leads to complaints. The BBC has received
many complaints before due to religious comments made , there is so many that
it is not possible for me to list them all but you can read them here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC#Pro-Muslim_bias There are
cases of bias throughout when reporting which is the cause for most of the
complaints; which is why it is extremely important that when reporting you are
clear with the news.
How should men and women be represented?
I think that currently men and women are being represented very well in radio,
there is a good balance between male and female radio presenters which shows

us that more radio presenters of different sexes are joining the industry since in
the past the radio sector has been mainly men, on the BBC website they have
advertisements and programmes which are meant to try and convince women
better to join the sector as it will benefit them.; which is why it is extremely
important that when reporting you are clear with the news. You can see the
programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/work-inbroadcast/events/women-in-radio

Does my chosen industry represent people fairly?

My chosen industry represents everybody fairly because radios ensure there is a
good mix of male and female presenters and there is also a wide range of
religions who also present radio shows, there is also a wide range of views that
are available to the general public thanks to the regulation which allows many
different radio stations with different views so that people are able to get more
than one opinion on things. There has been complaints that the BBC has not
been representing the people fairly as the company has objective journalism and
that it is biased, in the past there has been a lot of criticism of the BBC as you
can see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC