TEL T 205 1st Edition Lecture 13 The One That Is Rated R 1 Protection From Harmful Content a Media policy measures i Emphasis on protection 1970 1 Ensure the public airwaves are used for the public good 2 Mandate broadcast stations to air content that was good for kids educational or pro social at hours that children would be watching television 3 Effectiveness is debatable ii Deregulation 1980 s 1 Swept lots of industries and hit the media industry hard 2 All laws put in place to regulate and protect children from harmful content were gone iii Telecommunications Act 1996 1 Put back in place some of the regulations for children s programming that existed in the 1970 s 2 Focus on Advertisement on children in a weaker form a Limit on advertising time i Sound limiting exposure to ads creates an audience that is less effected by the ads ii Adult content has 16 min of advertisements and children s content has 12 min of content b Band on host selling Definition has changed i Old def could not have shows that were produced to sell products 1 People invent toys first and then make cartoon that revolves around the toy 2 Designed to sell merchandise ii 1996 definition Can t have a commercial for a product during a show that has the same character 1 pointless but needed to do something 2 fines are insignificants Disney pays an immense amount of fines for it c Bumpers Kids cannot distinguish programs or commercials i Put bumpers in tell kids the program is on pause and taking a commercial break These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute ii Pointless if child cannot tell between program and commercial not they cannot tell program from the bumper from the commercial 1 Another thing they cannot distinguish iii Apply to an online environmental as well 1 Childs cannot tell the difference between a banner ad to their entertainment a When they click on the ad that takes them to a different page they cannot tell they are at a different page with different entertainment b May accidentally install things on the computer they did not mean to 2 The Ratings System a Goal switching responsibilities from producers to parents provides information to parents so they can govern what their child has access to i Allow producers to have creative freedom ii Free producers from censorship b Rating systems fail at these goals i Who rates them 1 Movies MPAA a Committee of people who watch the movies b They tend to know someone in the industry and need to be a parent 2 TV Producers a Of the show decides they ratings 3 Video Games ESRB a Structured like the MPAA Board however they do not play the game like they watch the movie b Submit a written overview of the game and 30 min of recorded play ii All rating systems are voluntary the government has no involvement and no policy or law involved iii Issues 1 Consistency lack there of across media a Different systems of rating and different people rating the content b Even within media there is no consistency i Ex TV different producers rate content differently 2 Not applied accurately i 70 of all TV shows with violence don t have the letter V attached ii 70 of sexual content don t have a letter attached 1 part of this is due to the fact that different letters are applied differently based on the age 3 Knowledge a Most parents do not understand what these ratings mean or how they work b Even if they did understand how they work can block all shows that have the letter V with the V chip i 70 of all shows that are violent do not have the rating V ii So children still have access to violent content 4 Relevance a Irrelevant to understanding of effects and development b Why have a PG 13 rating when there is no development that happens at age 13 c Rating are completely arbitrary i They mean nothing and are not based on child cognitive development or what we know about effects from the media d Not at all about younger children being vulnerable e Society worries about the wrong things f Who is more effected by sexual content 7 year old or 17 year old i 7 year old is not thinking about sex g Disconnect between concerns ratings 5 Forbidden Fruit Children want things that are off limits to them 6 Self Censorship a Desired ratings is already known i Knowing what rating you need acts as a censorship to provide content that fits a certain rating c Ideal System i Get rid of the age rating system ii Implement something similar to cigarette labels 1 Information about what it contains and what effects they may have