Question Section B

Section B: Contemporary Media Regulation (50 marks)

For this theme you need to learn about the following in relation to at least two areas of the media:

• How media regulation now is different to the past - the historical angle
• The different kinds of media regulation and how they all seek to 'protect' people in some way
• The efficiency and impact of various forms of media regulation - how well they work, and what difference do they make to people's lives?
• Debates around the role of the regulator in a democracy - arguments for and against various forms of media regulation.

You can explore combinations of film censorship, the regulation of advertising, the Press and regulation / control, computer / video game classification, contemporary broadcasting and political control, the effects debate and alternative theories of audience, children and television, violence and the media or a range of other study contexts relating to the regulation of contemporary media.

The theme of Contemporary Media Regulation takes us into the heart of public debate about the media. Whether or not a government should, or can, regulate the media, and if so, how, is one of the most important political questions we can raise about the media. Alongside these political issues, there are crucial economic decisions to be made. The media is big business, and if unregulated, companies and corporations can gain a great deal of power and influence through acquisition of media organisations. And there are, of course, the well-know social factors relating to the media and how we use it (or are used by it), so there are always heated discussions in the public forum about the need for the powers-that-be to be regulated the content of media and more importantly perhaps people's access to it, especially children who are more vulnerable to media effects.

Media effects