Professional Behaviours and Progression

Professional Behaviours
In the media industry, professional behaviours are near enough the same as in any other work industry. You have to be Confident and have Good Communicating Skills; this is because if you were a news reporter then you would have to be able to talk and communicate with others that you may not know to find out the information and facts to report on it. You also have to be good at Time Keeping, for example if you are a journalist, and you have arranged to interview a celebrity for a magazine article, and if you show up late, then the celebrity will get impatient, leave and you wouldn't have a story, and that celebrity may not agree to give any more interviews for that magazine.
Other skills are things like being able to work in as a team, being a quick learner, flexible  motivated, hard working, able to think on the spot and solve possible problems, as well as being friendly, reliable, responsible, organised and have good management skills.

Progression in the Media Industry

When you are wanting a job in the media industry, there is usually several ways to get to were you would like to be, and different stages of every way.

Here are two diagrams that I made showing the type different routes of the progression of getting a job in the media, with two possible routes.

The first one is the possible progression to becoming a film producer, starting for being a college student, and then either going along the route of further education, and going on to university and meeting and networking with people that way, and then going into full time employment and then working your way up to becoming a producer. The other route is leaving college and going onto trying to find work and get experience, in hope to get a job and the chance to work up to becoming a film producer.

And this second diagram in the possible progression route of becoming a News Paper Editor.

 

Issues surround Regulations

What is a monopoly?

A monopoly is the exclusive possession or control of the supply or takes in a commodity or service. What this means is that in media a monopoly is something a person or a company has when they own a large portion of the media market. Rupert Murdoch has a monopoly of businesses in the media sectors, because he owns lots of newspapers and television channels and more.


Why is it important to ensure that one single media producer in the UK has a monopoly?

It's important to make sure that no one person in this country has a monopoly because if they did, the media would be near enough controlled by just them. This means that everything we see, hear, and read would be controlled by that one person; therefore the information can become unreliable and of the opinion of that person, and things would stop being in the public's interest. It would be harmful to the public if one person had a monopoly in this country because they would not get fully correct information and would be influenced by the same person every day without noticing.

         Why is consumer choice important?

It's important for consumers to have choice over the things that they see, hear, and read, this is because they need to be able to decide what the best thing is for them. If they didn't have a choice, then they would hear the same thing over and over again, and it might not necessarily be right information. To have a varied choice is important so the news that they hear is not biased or wrong. Also, competition is important in the media industry because if there was no choice for a business, such as Sky for example, could charge a lot of money for their services and the public would not have a choice in paying it as there would be nowhere else they could go to get a lower price.

         What is censorship?

Censorship in the media industry is when some things are removed or suppressed for the benefit of the public. This usually happens when something is considered to be offensive or harmful to the general public.

 

         What are the arguments for and against censorship?

A good thing about censorship is that it can keep a certain amount of control in the media and therefore is usually seen as a good thing. It stops harmful, offensive, or obscene things being seen by the wrong people, like children, and this makes the media safer. However, some people argue that censorship is a bad thing because it can prevent people from seeing the truth and it can restrict freedom of speech.

 

         Why should under 18's be subject to particular considerations by regulators?

People under the age of 18 are often seen as being vulnerable people and should therefore be protected. They should not be shown things which could be potentially harmful to them in anyway. For example, when BBFC decide on which certificate a film should have, they must consider younger people and make sure that only people of the appropriate age group can see the film. If for example, a film has graphic scenes of violence or obscenity, the BBFC would choose to give the film an age certification of 18 to ensure that it could not harm, offend or upset them in anyway. But on the other hand, some under 18 year olds disagree about the certificates which some films are given. This is because they feel like they are mature and old enough to see those type of things, so have already experienced or witnessed themselves. So does this mean that there is no-need for the age’s rates to be so high?

Jobs in the Media Industry

Job roles in the media industry are separated into 6 different groups; creative jobs, technical jobs, editorial jobs, managerial jobs, administrative jobs and financial jobs. 
Here are example of different jobs from these groups, that are found in the TV and Film industry.

Creative 

Screen Writers

Writers are involved in the creation and/or development of all types of creative writing for film and TV. Creative writing covers a number of wide and varied forms including screen and radio; such as comedy/soap opera scripts, drama productions or documentaries. Screenwriters are responsible for crafting the words that are spoken by actors in film, television and video games. While well-known writers can make salaries well above £0.6 million, the majority of screenwriters earn a smaller salary. The salary of a screenwriter can be earned from several methods of writing beyond creating a script from scratch.According to a 2010-11 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, screenwriters fall under the "Authors, Writers and Editors" category. Professionals in this career field earn an average salary of £34,495.

Technical 

Camera Operators

A Camera Operator works with digital, electronic and film cameras in multi and single camera operational conditions, producing pictures for directors by combining the use of complex technology with creative visual skills. The work is based in either a studio, where the Camera Operator usually follows a camera script (which gives the order of shots practiced at rehearsal and is cued by the director during recording) or on location, where there is likely to be more opportunity for creativity through suggesting shots to the director. A Camera Operator usually works under the direction of a director or director of photography and is sometimes supported by a camera assistant (or a focus puller/clapper loader, although with the advent of digital and electronic cameras these functions are in decline). The role is an interesting mix of the creative and technical. The average salary for a camera operator is between £11.500 - £40,000+ a year.

Editorial 

Editor

Film Editors assemble footage of feature films, television shows, documentaries, and industrials into a seamless end product. They manipulate plot, score, sound, and graphics to refine the overall story into a continuous and enjoyable whole. On some films, the film Editor is chosen before cast members and script doctors; people in Hollywood recognize that the skills of a good film Editor can save a middling film. In the same way directors use certain actors they appreciate over and over again, they also use film Editors they know and are comfortable with. Martin Scorcese, Spike Lee, and Robert Wise are a few of the directors who work with the same Editors over and over again. Such relationships lend stability to a film Editor’s life; otherwise, they must be prepared to submit video resume after video resume, in the struggle to get work. Range of typical starting salaries for an editor is between £18,000-£25,000 for those employed by a television or post-production studio. This is not typically an entry level/graduate job; entrants start at a lower-paid level, which can be around the national minimum wage, working as runners and then assistant editors before reaching this post. Range of salaries with experience: £20,000-£35,000. Range of typical salaries at senior levels: £37,000-£70,000. The higher end of this scale will only be available to senior editors working on high-status projects.

Managerial

Producer

A film Producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls all aspects of a production, from fundraising and hiring key personnel, to arranging for distributors. The Producer sees the project through to the end, from development to completion. A television Producer is usually employed by a television station or network. A network television series usually has an executive producer who does long-term planning for the show. Some television Producers work independently; they may find sponsors and grants to supplement their budgets from the stations. The average salary for a film and TV producer averages between £18,000 - £70,000+ a year.

Administrative

Assistant Director

The First Assistant Director (AD) is the director's right hand person, taking responsibility for a number of important practicalities so that the director is free to concentrate on the creative process. During pre-production, First ADs break down the script into a shot by shot storyboard, and work with the director to determine the shoot order, and how long each scene will take to film. They then draw up the overall shooting schedule (a timetable for the filming period). Once the film is in production, Firsts are in charge of making sure that every aspect of the shoot keeps to this schedule. The approximate average salary rate for an assistant director is about 329,000 a year.

Financial 

Production Accountant

Production Accountants are responsible for managing finances and maintaining financial records during film or TV production, working closely with the producer and the production office. Their job includes preparing schedules and budgets for film productions, and managing the day to day accounting financial reporting against the budgets. The average wage of a production accountant is around £42,000 a year.

Employment Opportunities in the Creative Media Sector

A contract is a legal agreement between two parties; an employer and an employee, which sets out the terms of employment to a business or company. A contract is important because it lets people know where they stand in the business, so they they know exactly how much wages that they are entitled too, how many hours they are alowed to work; and a contract protects from any mistakes that could be made.

There are a few different types of contracts and they are both advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

Full Time Contract -

A full-time contract is an agreement in which a person has to work a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer. A full-time contract often comes with benefits, such as annual leave, sick leave, and health insurance. A disadvantage to a full time contract is that if you are unhappy in the work place, you can’t just leave, but you have to give notice before leaving, so the employer has enough time to find a replacement.

Part Time Contact -
A part-time contract is very much similar to a full time contract, only the hours are fewer and shorter and they don’t work as many days. But they aren't as hard to replace like it is for a full time employee.

Casual -
A casual contract agreement, sometimes called 0 hours, and with this contract they employee works as and when it is available. So this means is there is no work, then you don’t work, therefore don’t get paid. But also with a casual contract you are entitled to turn down offered work, but the more you turn work down, then the less you get asked, and the les you get paid.

Fix-Term Contract -

Fix-termed contracts are contracts that only contract employees to work a fixed period of time, and after the time period is up, they can either turned away, or re contracted for another fix-term. These contracts are getting used more and more now, as it gives employers the chance to employ the best people for the job.

On Completion Contract -
An on completion contract means that the employed is not contracted to be paid until the job is done. Also if the work is not finished to a deadline, then the employers usually deducted a percentage of their wages, depending on how many days late it is.

Freelance -
Freelancing is not really contracted, but freelancers get hired to do some work for an employer or a business. The advantage of being a freelancer is that you are able to accept to work that you want to do, and refuse the ones that you don't. But if you keep turning down work from businesses then people will hear about it, and it could give you a bad reputation, and if you’ve got no-one wanting to hire you, then you’re not making any money. Another disadvantage about working freelance is that you have to sort out your own national insurance and tax, as well as having to buy all of your own equipment, if any is needed.

Regulatory Bodies

Press Complaints Commission (PCC) -

The PCC is an independent self-regulatory body which deals with complaints about the
editorial content of newspapers and magazines. They keep industry standards high by training
journalists and editors, and work pro-actively behind the scenes to prevent harassment and
media intrusion. The PCC is an organisation created to manage the press. They control a set of rules which the press must follow, if they press do not follow these rules there are consequences.
The PCC deals with all editorially-controlled material in UK newspapers and magazines, and their websites. This can include:

• Articles and pictures
• Words, pictures, audio materials and videos on  newspapers and magazine websites
• Readers' letters
• Edited or moderated reader comments on newspaper and magazines

They also deal with the physical behaviour of journalists, which include:

• Persistent pirsuit of individuals
• Refusing requests to stop taking photos or asking questions
• Using hidden cameras to obtain material
• Failing to be sensitive when dealing with cases involving greif
• Falling to obtain the proper consent bedore speaking before speaking to children or people in hospital

OFCOM -

The offive of communitation, known best as Ofcom is a government apporved regulatory body that monitors the eithics and practises of the broadcasting, postal services and telecommunication industy and also the airwaves wireless devices operate. Ofcom protects and manages what goes on television, radio, telecommunications, wireless communications and protection law. Complaints can be made online on Ofcoms' website. They suggest that a complaint is made within 20 days of the broadcast, and then if Ofcom decides an organisation or source of media has breached the provisions of the Broadcasting Code, they will consider an investigation. Depending on the severity of the misconduct they may decide to issue a statutory sanction against the broadcaster "Procedures for the consideration of statutory sanctions in breaches of broadcast licenses" will apply. They also have the ability and financial resources to fine you in a court of law for not adhering to the content standards or any breaches of The Broadcasting Act of 1990.  A final adjudication will be published by Ofcom which will decide if Ofcom will give a statutory sanction to the broadcaster.
 

Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) -

 
The ASA is a self-regulating body which monitor the distribution of advertisements across the UK. They regulate every form of advertisments ranging from physical billboards to online ads on the internet. The purpose of  ASA is to try to keep advertisements within the UK professional and refrain advertisers causing potential harm to the public. They take thousands of complaints a year for a reasons. They normally deal with;

• potentially harmful material
• obscene or material
• misleading information or false advertising

Deciding whether an advertisement is harmful is normally done through the UK advertising codes. The ASA mornally refer to these when dealing with a case or compliant. If the advertiser is breaching the code then they will be forced to withdraw the product.

 

PRS for Music -

The Performing Rights Society was founded in 1914 for collecting fees for live performances from sheet music. In 1997, the Performing Rights Society formed with the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society to form the MCPS-PRS Alliance. In 2009, they adopted the name "PRS for Music," as it is now formally known. The Performing Rights Society regulates copyrighted music making it so that if music is played, the relevant artist will get paid royalties. To play the music on a TV show, for example, you must have a licence from them. Here are actual legal cases that are to do with PRS.

In 2007, PRS for Music took a Scottish car servicing company to court because the employees were allegedly "listening to the radio at work, allowing the music to be 'heard by colleagues and customers.'" In June 2008, PRS for Music accused 11 police stations, of failure to obtain permits to play music, and sought an injunction and payments for damages.

So when their rights have been broken, they tend to take the case to court and sue.

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) -

The British Board of Film Classification regulates movies. This means that when films are made the BBFC watch them and then decide whether the film is appropriate for certain ages, this is all the certificates that were changed and released in 2002.
The way that the BBFC works, is that they have to take into consideration of;

• Drug content
• Sex content
• Horror
• The language that is used
• Nudity
• Voilence

and then catogoise the film into the age group that it is suitable for.

Leveson's Enquiry

A big issue that came up in the media industry that regarding ethical constraints was the News of the World phone hacking scandal. To get more facts about situations, News of the world hacking to to victims phone messages to get information. This was first discovered back in 2002, and then in Summer 2011 New of the World published their last newspaper and shut down.

JK Rowling

JK Rowling was a witness at the Leveson’s Enquiry. She spoke her horror at discovering a letter from a journalist inside her five year old daughter’s school bag. She was completely outraged about this,
and the said that that journalist got another mother from the school to slip the letter the five year olds' bag. Rowling said at the Leveson Enquiry, "I can only say that I felt such a sense of invasion that my daughter's bag … it's very difficult to say how angry I felt that my five-year-old daughter's school was no longer a place of complete security from journalists."

Charlotte Church

Charlotte Church is one of the most high-profile witnesses in the Leveson Enquiry, told the enquiry into media standards that she was pressured into waiving a £100,000 to sing at Rupert Murdoch's wedding in exchange for a promise of a 'good press', at the age of 13. But when she was 16, and out of the projection of Rupert Murdoch high authority, the press started to swarm. The 16 year old had paparazzi trying to take photographs up her skirt, they hacked her phone, and she was just generally harassed.

Milly Dowler's Parents

The parents of the murdered school girl, Milly Dowler, were also witnesses of the Leveson Enquiry. Bob and Sally Dowler we're the first alleged victims to appear before the high court. Back in 2002 Milly Dowler was abducted on her way home from school. Milly had her mobile phone on her, and that was how her parents we're trying to get in contact with her, but because she did not answer they they her voice messages in the mail box. Eventually the mail box was full, so that meant that they could not leave any more messages until the previous ones has been heard and deleted. But keeping their hopes up, they attempted to contact Milly once more. The same thing happened and there was no answer, but this time they managed the get through to the mail box. This meant that the previous messages had been heard and deleted. This gave Bob and Sally false hope about their missing daughter, this is because it turned out that the News of the World wanted to know more on what was going with the case, that they had managed to hack into the school girls phone and listen to all of the messages, then delete them making from for the family to leave more.

Ethical Constraints

Ethics constraints, also known as moral decisions, are something that you believe is right or wrong, whether something might be be legal, but is the right thing to do. Here is a list of ethical issues that are highlighted when working in the media industry;

• representation of age, gender, race, disability, religion
• Protecting Under 18 year olds
• Using off the record information
• Power to influence public opinion
• Anything that could cause offence or harm
• Intruding on individuals privacy
• Interviewing vulnerable people or children 

A case in the media when ethical issues were brought up was the radio shows hosted by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross back in 2008, when they were meant to have a guess on the BBC radio 4 talk show. The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row, sometimes colloquially referred to as "Sachsgate", concerned a series of voice messages that comedian Russell Brand and TV presenter Jonathan Ross left on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs, which were labelled obscene by many media commentators and politicians. It followed a BBC Radio 2 broadcast of an advance-recorded episode of The Russell Brand Show on Saturday 18th October 2008. In the show, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross left lewd voice messages for Andrew Sachs, including comments about his granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. The two originally called Sachs as a guest to interview on the show, and after he failed to answer the telephone, Brand and Ross left the messages on his answering machine. 
 Brand and Russell pre-recorded the show on the Thursday, for it to be aired on the Saturday, so during that time, it gave the productions plenty of time to listen back to the show and decide whether it was suitable to be aired. So on the Thursday after the show was recorded, the producer got in touch with Andrew Sacks explaining the situation. But the producer gave false information to Sacks, as Sacks believed that he was agreeing to go in for another interview to replace the current one, but the producers took the yes as Sacks giving his permission for the original recording to the aired.  So the shows was then aired on Saturday night, which opened with a warning: "The next programme contains some strong language which some listeners may find offensive." But then by Sunday, the BBC only revived 2 complaints about Russell Brands Show. By the Monday 27th October, the BBC had received a further 1,585 complaints about the show. So during the space of 8 days, more people who did listen to the show, and even people who did not tune in to the show, but heard about it in the news and read the transcripts found it offensive and wrong.
After all of this, the BBC fired Russell Brand and suspended Jonathan Ross after they both fully apologised the Andrew Sachs and his grand-daughter Georgina Baillie. But people argue about who's fault it actually was, Russell and Jonathan's or the show producers  In my opinion, they all had their own part in it, Russell and Jonathan for continuing the leave offensive messages to Andrew Sacks, but mainly I think that it is the producers of the shows fault, because he was responsible for what went broadcasting out. He could have prevented the huge up-raw by not letting it air, and let the matter be sorted out not in the eye of the public where everyone would be oblivious too what happen. 
In this one radio show, there was at least 3 offences against the ofcom broadcasting act. In Section 2, harm and offence, 2.1 and 2.3 where both relevant the situation, because 2.1 says 'provide adequate protection for members of the public from the inclusion in such services of harmful and/or offensive material' , but Andrew and Georgina and the public were all offended with what was broadcasted. 
2.3 says 'broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context. Such material may include, but is not limited to, offensive language, violence, sex, sexual violence, humiliation, distress, violation of human dignity, discriminatory treatment or language'  and Russell and Jonathan used offensive language, disgust sexual relations, and caused humiliation for Georgina, as it was her sexual relationship with Russell Brand.
Nothing in the show was in the public interest, but quite the opposite  and because of this it was an act against section 8, which is Privacy of the broadcasting act.