Creative Media Production - Essay Example

Creative Media Production

My future career aspiration in the creative media production is to be a producer in the production industry. I hope to achieve several career goals such as; being able to understand all aspects of media production in order to improve the prospects of my career as a graduate in this competitive industry. By understanding all aspects, I will need to be exposed to a wide range of media across historical eras and international boarders so that I can be familiar with the major trends in media within specific historical and national contexts.

In order to develop my future career, I would like to be able to acquire the necessary skills which will allow me to take part in creative and insightful media production. My main aim is to be unique and competent in my line of work so that I can be able to write intellectually grounded essays, and engage in the production of useful discussions in the contemporary global culture. As a producer in the future I would like to be part of expanding the production industry and coming up with better policies that will give the production industry a good platform to perform more effectively.

Laws and Regulations in the Creative Media Industry

A producer oversees all aspects of a production such as, live performances, motion pictures and television programs among others. They are in control of what is produced, however, there are laws and regulations that a worker in this career is required to abide to. One of the laws is, the liberal law, this law restricts the production industry from defaming an individual who can be identified, in a manner that causes the individual to lose in their trade or profession (Noam 84). Secondly, the production industry should keep in mind the human rights act during production. Violation of human rights is against the law and even the members of the media industry are not excused to violate human rights, instead they also face punishment for violation of these rights.

Copyright and intellectual property law is another regulation that members of the production industry are required to comply with. This law states that, every producer has the right to come up with his or her original work and inventions and is allowed to publish it to various markets. However, one is not allowed to copy the work of another producer and publish it to the markets. Producers are also expected to uphold the privacy law which deals with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by the government and other public and be in charge of how this information is stored.

The production industry is also restricted from doing production that brings about discrimination or violating the race relation act 1976. Items covered should be free from discrimination on the grounds of nationality, education, race, ethnicity, colour and public functions. Publishing or producing of obscene publications or productions is also a violation to the regulations of the media industry. Members of the production industry and the media industry are required to have licenses for their premises and businesses, this is to legalize their businesses. In order to attain a license there are some qualifications that a producer ought to posses for example academic qualifications to show that the individual is an expert in that field.

How Government Agencies are involved in Regulations, Laws, and Certification of the Production Industry

There are three government agencies involved in the laws and regulation in the media industry; these are the federal, state and local governments. Among the three governments, the federal government is the most involved in matters regarding the media regulation. The federal government has come up with major regulatory agencies, these are, federal trade commission (FTC), federal radio commission (FRC) and, federal communications commission (FCC). The purpose of FTC from the beginning has been to eliminate unfair business practices like ensuring there are no unfair methods of competition in commerce; FTC was absorbed by FCC but still plays this role.

Initially the FRC was formed to try and bring order to the chaotic situation in the early years of wireless radio communication. Later FRC was also absorbed by FCC, and found its role and responsibility in regulating the radio airwaves. The FCC biggest role has been to regulate interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, cable and satellite. The FCC plays a role in ensuring that different political offices access equal time to airtime on the same stipulations. The agency also limits the number of radio and television stations a company can own; FCC has laws governing public service and local programming and is in charge of reviewing the stations operation as a part of the licensing process.

State government is partly involved in media regulation, some states have shield laws that give the journalist either absolute or limited protection from orders to reveal confidential sources or how some media personalities gathered information in the course of their work. The local government is rarely involved with the media industries other than keeping the industry on its toes by ensuring that the stake holders adhere to the rules, they are not involved in any other way. The federal and the state government work together although the federal government has more powers and provide laws and regulations through their agencies.

How the Levels of Government and Agencies Interact with each other and Interest Groups in relation to Monitoring or regulating the media industry

The federal government has seven bureaus which are involved in the licensing of media industries and developing and implementing regulations. Some of these bureaus are; the consumer and governmental affairs bureau which is involved in developing and implementing consumer policies, including disability access. There is the media bureau which develops, recommends and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to electronic media. Post-licensing matters such as direct broadcast satellite service are also handled by the media bureau. Another bureau that is involved in the monitoring and regulation is the wireless telecommunication bureau which regulates domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies including licensing.

Other than the government’s involvement in the monitoring and regulation through the FCC bureaus, there are other interest groups that are involved in monitoring and regulation. The community journalism interest group was established to focus on the role of journalism in the community, focusing primarily on small-market media outlets which face major challenges compared to larger media outlets. The interest group desires to improve the policies for the small-market media outlets for the better of the community. Internship and careers interest group is a group that is concerned in providing knowledge and internships for students pursuing journalism and mass communication. Knowledge is very vital where learners are able to learn rules and regulations and knowing the importance of adhering to them.

Policies that Impact the Media Industry

Other interest groups are participatory journalism interest group, political communication interest group, religion and media interest group and small programs interest group, which are all involved in monitoring and regulation in the media industry (Lugo 45). My future career to be a producer will rely on certain media policies; one of them is the broadcast television and radio policy. The FCC is in charge of regulating broadcast stations as well as commercial broadcasting operators who operate certain television and radio stations. In this policy broadcast licenses are to be renewed if the station meets the necessary requirement from the public or if the public’s interests are satisfied. The burden falls to the producer to ensure that the broadcast is appealing to the public to avoid lack of license renewal or license revocation.

Tax payment for the production of animation and video games is a policy that affects the industry growth because of its high rates. As a producer venturing into producing animations and video games will be risky because it will make my career remain constant. There have been many policies over the years that have influenced the media industry both positively and negatively though the media industry has emerged positively with better results. However there is still room and need for improvement for the people working at the media industry and the community at large. In my future career as a producer I hope to bring a difference in the production industry and the creative media production as a whole.