Advantages and Disadvantages of Self-Regulation - Essay Example

Self-Regulation of the Press Introduction There are no sound reasons, in principle, or in practice, why self-regulation of the press should not be replaced by an effective statutory framework that balances the right of journalists to investigate and publish, with the reasonable expectation of citizens that the press should act fairly and responsibly. The print media in the UK is not subjected to any specific statutory controls on their activities and content. The government has given the journalists no power to regulate, thus the press is self-regulated (Curran and Seaton, 1997, p334). At times, private bodies feel the need to regulate itself for whatever reasons whether to respond to consumer demand, to carry out its ethical beliefs, to enhance industry reputation, or to level the market field. Press is also regulated by a separate, non-statutory body, Press Complaints Commission (PCC). It manages the code of practice and complaints of investigation. Any journalist who is said to breach the codes is found guilty; however, the PCC has no status or power to punish the journalists for these breaches (Keeble, 2005, p273). The clauses that the PCC includes in the codes to follow is the accuracy level, the respect for privacy, the interests and protection of children, harassment, incursion into shock or grief, breaking into hospitals, the report of crime and many more. The journalists have to investigate and publish reports keeping these clauses in mind. Yet, the journalists and press does not realize the importance of respecting these clauses and thus statutory control on the framework of these journalists is recommended (Bromley, Tom OMalley, 2009, p115). At first, the statutory control on the press was considered as unreasonable as it subjected to restriction on press freedom and their freedom of speech. However, there have been some activities seen in the press by the irresponsible journalists; moreover the weakness of the PCC led many to reconsider the thought to impose statutory control over the press. Although, the threat to pass on legislation on the press has lightened the irresponsible work of the press and encouraged good practice, there is still serious thought that has to be given on a statutory control of the press (Franklin, 2008, p128). Disadvantages of self-regulation: Self-regulation of the press itself has many disadvantages because of which the idea of legislation strengthens. Where there are acknowledgements on the fact that government may not possess the expertise as compared to the private companies, but the major issue is that whether these private companies will use their expertise for the benefit of the public or they are more likely to use their expertise to maximize the company’s profits (Bromley, Tom OMalley, 2009, p115). One of the major disadvantages is that the self-regulation companies, unlike the government regulation, do not have the right to punish or take action for any breach of code. This will definitely loosen up all the clauses and journalists will not feel the need to follow them. Because of this the PCC has been greatly criticized for not being able to control the press. Even though making complaints to the PCC is simple and free of cost, it is allowed to do so once the damage has been done. Moreover, they hardly take complaints (Curran and Seaton, 1997, p334). There have been further problems associated with the self-regulation of the press ever since there have been new mediums and advanced forms of media introduced. These have encouraged the journalists to expand their limit of investigation and publishing. No restrictions and new mediums to publish would definitely have an impact on the minds of the journalists. The new media forms: Unlike the past, today there are many new forms of media through which journalists can post and publish their stories to everyone around the globe. The advancement in media has bought a change in methodologies and techniques with each new medium. These transformations have played a major role in defining and shaping journalism. This is the internet age that is growing faster and more efficient than ever seen. Not only has this digital age made information circulation faster, but it has also changed the direction of this information flow (Fortner and Fackler, 2011, p998). The information flow used to be one-way in the previous times, and reached the submissive audience but today not only is the information flow powerful, but it also reaches to the audience who is actively involved in the type of content that is being published. This is the audience that is influenced by the technology and has given birth to the new forms of journalism; participatory journalism and citizen journalism (Keeble, 2005, p273). There are many social media networks that contribute their roles in this media revolution. These are blogging websites that are user friendly and easily accessed by majority of the people. These sites are low cost and mostly free sites where people can post blogs and interact. These websites are now playing the role that the journalists played in the mainstream media. This means that there has been an invasion of the audience and these websites become newsrooms for them. Though many of the professionals have responded to this with suspicion, others have gladly accepted it (Franklin, 2008, p128). This has become a platform for the journalists and the internet is their marketplace. This type of internet journalism is taking over the print media. It is in the form of news websites that utilize multimedia platforms, blogs and citizen journalism. This new way has diminished the traditional print media. Ethics of journalist to investigate and publish: There are certain ethics that the journalists should limit their work to. These are the codes of conduct that are certain in the journalism field. Although, it is not the statutory control on the journalists’ rights, they are the general ethics that the journalists should follow. These mainly include the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, impartiality and fairness. These also include the principles of limitations of harm. The journalists have ethical restriction on the fact that they are not supposed to harm any person during or as a result of their investigation and published posts. This may include harm to children, criminal’s names, or defamation of any person. Race, religion and cultural boundaries also come under the code of ethics that the journalists have to follow (Crone et al, p258). These journalism ethics are designed keeping in mind the need of these in the journalism field. These give special attention to the problems that have risen in the history because of the breach of these ethical issues. These ethics are important if the journalists want to keep their reputation, understanding with the audience, promotion of moral behavior and reforming high in the society (Fortner and Fackler, 2011, p998). Unfortunately, these ethical investigations are not seen in the work of journalists. Where there are journalists who take care of these issues and norms, there are some who do not. Their main aim is to create hype, and a sensation amongst the people of the society. This is why there is a need seen for the statutory control of the journalist rights to investigate and publish. Expectation of the citizens: There are many expectations of the citizens from the journalists. They expect them to protect their rights rather exploiting them, they expect them not to cause any harm to the reputation and the name of the person to whom it is related, and they expect them to carry out an investigation which will be accurate. Journalists are public figures and the need of ethical journalism will affect the whole community. Citizens expect a fair and responsible investigation from the journalists of their society (Curran and Seaton, 1997, p334). Because of some journalists who portray an unethical investigation and a negative image of themselves, journalists amongst people are figures to be afraid of. People tend to stay away from journalists, and there are myths that journalists exaggerate and publish false stories to create drama that the audience is most likely to enjoy and be attracted to. Although this is to a certain extend true, and should be looked into by the officials (Keeble, 2005, p273). It is a right of every citizen to feel safe and secure in every sense, whether it be from physical damage or damage done to reputation. Journalists need to realize the importance of this and work to come up to the expectations of the citizens, as these are the people who make them what they are. Many journalists do think that way, but the ones who spoil the game are the ones who do not realize this. A statutory framework: As the image of the journalists is not what it supposed to be once, there are serious actions that should be taken for the journalists. The self-regulation of the press gives certain clauses but unfortunately does not impose punishments on them when they are breached. Thus, this is an unsuccessful way of trying to manage the journalists and their image (Franklin, 2008, p128). Moreover, the new mediums of media such as the internet have made it so much easy for the journalists to reach the desired audience. The age of digital media has enabled many journalists to post and publish freely on online websites that reach a number of people, not only within the society, but also outside the boundaries of the society. There were codes of conduct imposed on the journalists to follow them and make sure that they are not violated. But sad news was for the citizens that this was not an effective way of controlling the journalists, and their expectations rose (Crone et al, p258). As per the expectations of the citizens, there should be some serious action taken by the law bodies of the country. In effect to the failure of the self-regulation of the press and the ethical approach towards journalism, there should now be statutory control over the rights of the journalists to investigate and publish. A statutory control is however necessary as it will enable the citizens to enjoy their right of privacy. It will give back the journalists the good image that they once had. This is not only in regard of giving back the journalists back their image; this is for the citizens to feel free about whatever they do in public and with their personal lives (Franklin, 2008, p128). Conclusion: The current law for journalists involves their rights for their families and their lives. The laws still depend on the PCC but there has been serious consideration on the fact that whether self-regulation should be replaced by statutory control for journalists. If there is serious consideration given to the powers of PCC, the unethical code of conduct of the journalists and the expectations of the citizens it will be clear enough to state that there are no sound reasons, in principle, or in practice, why self-regulation of the press should not be replaced by an effective statutory framework that balances the right of journalists to investigate and publish, with reasonable expectation of citizens that the press should act fairly and responsibly. This can be a new direction to the field of journalism and it can contribute in bringing back the image that the journalists once had. References Bromley, M. and OMalley, T. (1997). A Journalism Reader. London: Routledge Curran, J., Seaton, J. (2009). Power without Responsibility: Press, Broadcasting and the Internet in Britain. NY: Taylor & Francis Crone, T., Alberstat, P., Cassels, T., Overs, E. (2002). Law and the Media. UK: Focal Press Fortner, S. P., Facklerm M. (2011). The Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics. UK: John Wiley & Sons Franklin, B. (2008). Pulling Newspapers Apart: Analyzing Print Journalism. NY: Taylor & Francis Keeble, R. (2005). Print Journalism: A Critical Introduction. London: Taylor & Francis Read More