How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes?
Regulation is a form of controlling and protecting
vulnerable viewers such as children or people who may be intellectually disabled
from seeing content that may influence to them imitate the behaviour or make
them feel uncomfortable. It can also be used to uphold what society deems as
normal and acceptable and to prevent negative messages being projected into
society. I will be analysing how contemporary media, such as films, are regulated
in the UK and the effectiveness of their practices with regards to social
change. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is one of the main film
regulators for films shown in the UK and they are a non-statutory institution
based on the principal that film is a from of art and is shown universally so
they’re decisions are made primarily from the film industry and reflects their
interests. They regulate film proactively as content is reviewed before a
theatrical release and they regulate films by either giving age classifications,
censoring films by requesting cuts or completely prohibiting the film from
being shown. I would agree that their regulatory practices have become more lenient
due to our contemporary society becoming more desensitised to graphic content and
as a result the films that are being made have to become more controversial and
provocative in order to gain an audience and more popularity. However even with
regulation it’s evidently not completely effective because even if a film is
banned from being shown in the UK it can alternatively still be viewed and
downloaded on illegal websites.
The BBFC was founded in
1912 as a way of classifying films with a representativeness and unbiased view
without government involvement. The C previously stood for censorship however
it was changed after the Video Recordings Act was brought in as films were becoming
harder to simply ban. As an organisation the BBFC has become more liberal
because of changes in society’s values and new technology. In the 1980s the VRA
(Video Recordings Act) was brought in by the government, as a result of moral
panic caused by the release of ‘Evil Dead’, to ensure that films that were available
to be bought or rented at home were given a classification. There was a fear, predominantly,
from the conservative members that the film would subvert the traditional norms
and values of society and encourage violent and inhumane behaviour. A scene showing
the antagonist stabbing a victim with a pencil caused outrage because it was
believed that young children who saw the saw film would want to imitate the behaviour
and it would be possible because children have easy access to pencils. When the
film was first viewed it had mixed reactions from the regulators so 49 second cuts
had to be made in order for it to receive an ‘X’ rating rather than being
completely banned. However, in 2000 an uncut version of the original and the
remake of the film (released in 2013) were released with an 18 certificate.
This could be a result of society becoming more desensitised to graphic and
gory violence and suggests also that people’s attitudes to extreme violence
have been cultivated overtime and they’re more tolerant to it.
In terms of how media is
regulated in contemporary society; there are major differences in how violence
is classified in comparison to sex. The superhero action film ‘Deadpool’ was
given a 15 rating despite showing scenes, as stated by the BBFC, that involved “strong
violence, strong language and sex references” whereas coming-of-age romantic
drama film ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ was given an 18 rating due to explicit
sex scenes and bad language. The two films share the majority of the same features
however Deadpool was given a lower age classification possibly due to the fact
it doesn’t linger on the provocative or violent scenes for too long whereas
Blue Is The Warmest colour exhibits full nudity and homosexual sex. As
mentioned before, society has become desensitised to violence and considering Deadpool
is based off of a comic book it could be obvious to the audience that the
violence is not real and by viewing the film and enjoying the content they’re
simply using it for cathartic release which prevents them from displaying
negative behaviour in real life. On the other hand, it poses the question as to
why the BBFC are more liberal with graphic violence than graphic sex. Media
regulation is a way of protecting
vulnerable viewers and arguably to uphold moral standards. In this case the 18
rating would presumably protect the vulnerable audience, who are children, from
being exposed to sex prematurely and preventing them from imitating what they
see at inappropriate moments. Also considering the story revolves around two
teenage girls having consensual sex it goes against conservative views on
sexuality. They would argue that it’s promoting and encouraging young girls to
have pre-marital sex and in a religious context it goes against the view that
sex is for a married man and woman and thus would cause a moral panic about
societies values being forgotten. However, since the film was released uncut,
with an 18-age certificate it suggests that the BBFC acknowledge that contemporary
society has become more secular. Additionally, they have to take the director’s
artistic in consideration and understand that the film is not a “sex work” but has
deeper message to communicate to the audience.
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