Jean Baudrillard

Paul Gilroy

LIVINGSTONE and LUNT

LIVINGSTONE AND LUNT 

Some ideas of how to apply: 

 • Look at the age rating on DVDs for it. Why it got this etc... 
• Where it was shown in the UK and how that might fit into PSB regulation (giving choice to consumers) under OFCOM. 
• Linking content to post-watershed scheduling, but how scheduling is not a relevant system of regulation in the contemporary media landscape of place and time-shifted media. If it was available on Iplayer which as a BBC service, it is regulated in a similar way to a standard TV, so it is less of a risk. 

What is Livingstone and Lunt's theory? 

• A key aspect of the theory is the underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens on the other hand, and the need to further the interests of consumers on the other. 
• This is shown through Ofcom which regulates UK media. The main regulatory duties of Ofcom appear to address the needs of citizens while others seem to address the needs of consumers. 
• Livingstone and Lunt argue that the interests of citizens and those of consumers cannot be easily reconciled. This suggests that there is an increasing tendency in recent UK regulation policy to place the interests of consumers above those of citizens. 

Both Stranger Things and Deutschland 83 is rated 15: 

- strong language (ST + D) 

- sexual nudity 

- sexual activity 

- threat and horror (ST + D) 

- violence without dwelling on the infliction of injury or pain (D)

- drug-taking 

- verbal references to sexual violence 

Traditional television - after 9pm (9:10) regulation is minimalised, however Ofcom has no power to issue sanctions on both Netflix and Channel 4, as it is regulated by the Dutch regulator.  

The idea that the rise of convergent technologies puts traditional regulation at risk. 

OFCOM rules:

• Protect under 18s
• Prohibited material doesn't appear
• Don't insight hatred
• The commercial reference needs to be regulated

What are the pros and cons of regulating online media and streaming services? 

- Protects younger children 
- Enables the parents/carers to have power/control over what their children watch 
- Some streamers require passwords/information to access 
- On-demand reduces the regulation - can watch any time, any place 
- Can lie about age/who they are to watch
- Ofcom has no power to issue sanctions 

industry theorists

Industry Theorists: 

Curran and Seaton - The idea that the media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by money and power. They also say that as there are so little companies controlling the medias, this limits creativity and quality.

Livingstone and Lunt - The idea that there is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens.

David Hesmonhalgh - The idea that cultural industry companies try to minimize risk and maximize audiences through vertical and horizontal integration and by formatting their cultural products.

Cultivation Theory

George Gerbner:

• The repetition of images, stories etc. begin to shape our beliefs 

Representation: 

Teenagers: moody, spotty, lazy

Muslims: terrorists 

Gypsy's: caravans, tramp 

America: fat, loud 

Doctors: clever, smart 

Essex Girls: fake 

representation theory

Stuart Hall - Representation 

opposition, negotiated, preferred readings 

Opposition: when an audience reads a text in the opposite way the media intended to.
Negotiated: audience is allowed  to bring their own experience alongside the medias intentions. 
Preferred readings: when an audience reads a text in the way that the media intended it to. 

Stuart Hall believes in stereotypes and that they are often negative and are the result from inequality. 

HEGEMONIC POWER:  dominant groups in society controlling those less powerful. 

D disability 
R representation

C class
A age
G gender
E ethnicity 
S sexuality 

TV DRAMA

theories

Curran and Seaton – Power and Media Industries:

- What is the theory?

Newspapers should reflect the interests of an audience otherwise they will go out business. They should be liberal and anyone should be able to make one. However, this does not happen in practice and the press can be used as a propaganda tool to influence the audience.

Curran and Seaton: ‘diversity is in the public interest – but modern societies suffer from collective attention deficit disorders[…] 

the public interest has to work harder to be noticed, and we need agile but resourceful media.'

to do that

- The freedom to publish in a free market ensures the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests in a society. If a viewpoint is missing in the press, this is because it lacks a sufficient following to sustain it in the market place. However, since the press has been industrialised, the ‘assumption that ‘anyone is free to start a paper’ is an ‘illusion’.Whilst the press used to be independent of outside financial  interests, most British press was bought up in the 1960s and 1970s by conglomerates. The press have become a subsidiary of these companies and harms their independence. Furthermore, anti-monopoly legislation has been ineffective, allowing the creation of large media monopolies, which allows individual companies a great deal of power when the desire to publicise a message to vast amounts of people is enacted.Curran found evidence that media owners did interfere and manipulate newspaper content at the expense of the independence of journalists and editors . Rupert Murdoch in 2003 strongly wanted a war with Iraq and its no coincidence that all of his 175 newspapers around the world that he owns supported this view in their articles

Livingstone and Lunt – Regulation: 

the idea that there is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens (by offering protection from harmful or offensive material), and the need to further the interests of consumers (by ensuring choice, value for money, and market competition)

Hesmondhalgh – Cultural Industries 

' the book takes on new and vital targets, for example claims that the Internet is replacing television in everyday media consumption.... In the process, Hesmondhalgh provides us with an essential toolkit for making critical sense of the digital media age, and our places within it'