MEDIA REGULATION - EXAM QUESTIONS

 ANALYSE THE CHALLENGES OF REGULATING THE MEDIA IN THE DIGITAL AGE

One of the challenges of regulating the media in the digital age can be taken from China's situation on their governments censorship towards the American television sitcom FRIENDS. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Studios lasting for ten seasons, starting from the 22nd of September 1994 and ended on the 6th of May 2004. In China, a streaming site called Sohu Video owned the distribution rights for FRIENDS uncensored, lasting for 6 years, from 2012 - 2018. At the time the show was losing popularity, that was until in 2021 when HBO Max hosted a reunion for the original cast members, which made people around the world interested again, including China, and so, many streaming sites purchased the right to stream the show, though this time, many parts were censored. Many fans were furious over the censorship and took to the social networking site Weibo to complain which resulted in the #FriendsCensored hashtag being made, before being removed by the government hoping to silence the fans. 

'MEDIA REGULATION IS FAILING EVERYONE.' HOW FAR DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT?

I agree to this statement, where media regulation today, is failing everyone, one case where 'media regulation is failing' is the banning of Andrew Tate from social media. Emory Andrew Tate III is a British-American social media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer, he began his internet career in 2016 where he appeared in the UK reality show Big Brother, and since then has already faced controversy of hitting a woman with a belt, but his fame came in the year 2022, where he, highlighting what some media experts suggest, is part of a dangerous system whose algorithm can be manipulated to radicalize young men to adopt harmful views against women and the LGBTQ community. All the controversy around Tate has caused social media sites like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook to ban his accounts permanently, but these bans prove that banning controversial figures makes things worse, in this case, a few weeks after the ban, clips of Andrew Tate can be seen all over social media, even after his ban, the effects are still present. After this, Tate released his 'Final Message' to the internet through Jake Paul's, Youtuber and Boxer, Youtube Channel stating his bans and hate were unjust. These effects relate to media regulation's failure due to social media platform's inability of restricting media output before it's release, but due to US law section 230, stating that social media platforms cannot be held accountable, platforms like Youtube, Instagram, TikTok etc. cannot be blamed of the spread.

ANALYSE THE WAYS IN WHICH CONTEMPORARY MEDIA REGULATION REFLECTS ITS PERIOD

The ways in which contemporary media regulation reflects its period can be seen in the acceptance of blackface in the past but censoring it in today's media. This can be applied to a few of the episodes in 'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia', the American sitcom created by  Rob McElhenney and developed by McElhenney and Glenn Howerton that premiered on August 4, 2005, one episode containing blackface is "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 5" which aired in November 11, 2010 as the ninth episode of their sixth season. The episode features the show's creator and cast member Rob McElhenny playing Danny Glover’s character, Murtaugh, and uses blackface. But now, times have changed and what was then deemed as funny is now seen as unacceptable, this can be seen when the show landed on Disney+ in 2022, but this episode, along with other episodes featuring blackface, were removed from the site.