The government began consultation on the future of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), whose existing charter was due to expire at the end of 2006. The Culture Secretary said the BBC had to prove it could be trusted to provide impartial and factually accurate news coverage, or else face fundamental changes in the way it was regulated.
Source: The Review of the BBC's Royal Charter, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200) | The Observer, 14 December 2003
Links: Consultation document (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | DCMS press release | Guardian report (1) | Observer report
Date: 2003-Dec
A report said TV soaps encouraged binge drinking. Campaigners criticised programme makers for unrealistic and irresponsible portrayals of heavy drinking, which did not reflect the harm caused by excessive alcohol consumption.
Source: Anders Hansen, The Portrayal of Alcohol and Alcohol Consumption in Television News and Drama Programmes, Alcohol Concern (020 7928 7377) | Press release 19 December 2003, Alcohol Concern
Links: Report (pdf) | Alcohol Concern press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
The government said it wanted to all homes to have internet access by 2008 - in addition to the existing target of access for all those who wanted it by 2005.
Source: UK Online Annual Report, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500)
Links: Report (pdf) | DTI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
A survey of children aged 9-17 found that they thought there was too much sex on television, and that media and pop stars gratuitously used nakedness as a marketing tool.
Source: David Buckingham and Sara Bragg, Young People, Media and Personal Relationships, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Nov
Researchers found that media coverage of asylum seekers and refugees was characterised by stereotyping, exaggeration and inaccurate language. It said the Press Complaints Commission, in consultation with refugee organisations, should develop 'soft guidelines' on news reporting on asylum and immigration issues.
Source: Sara Buchanan, Bethan Grillo and Terry Threadgold, What s the Story?: Results from research into media coverage of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, Article 19 (020 7278 9292)
Links: Report (pdf) | IRR press release
Date: 2003-Nov
The Press Complaints Commission said that journalists should not use the phrase 'illegal asylum seeker'. It said the term was inaccurate and misleading, and had led to a large number of complaints.
Source: Press release 23 October 2003, Press Complaints Commission (020 7353 1248)
Links: PCC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Oct
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on privacy and media intrusion. It made a number of suggestions for ways in which the self-regulation of the press might improve, but said that the government had no intention of introducing any extra legislation.
Source: The Government s Response to the Fifth Report of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Privacy and Media Intrusion , Department for Culture, Media and Sport (020 7211 6200)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Oct
The Law Lords rejected an attempt to establish that a right existed under English law to sue for invasion of privacy.
Source: Wainwright and another (Appellants) v. Home Office (Respondents), UKHL 53 (Session 2002-03), House of Lords Judicial Office (020 7219 3111)
Links: Text of judgement | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Oct
Research into screen violence found that pre-teen children (aged 9-13) developed a strong understanding of what they found violent and what violence meant to them. They were able to interpret what they saw on screen, to distinguish between reality and fiction, and to deploy a moral imagination in evaluating images.
Source: Andrea Millwood Hargrave, How Children Interpret Screen Violence, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000), British Broadcasting Corporation, British Board of Film Classification, and Independent Television Commission
Links: Links removed by Ofcom
Date: 2003-Oct
A report said that news coverage of health issues was seriously out of proportion to actual risks to health. The news agendas of the print and broadcast media were skewed heavily towards dramatic stories such as crises in the National Health Service and major health scares , rather than issues that statistically had a greater impact on health, such as smoking, obesity, mental health and alcohol misuse. (Researchers compared the volume of reporting on specific health risks with the number of deaths attributed to those risks.)
Source: Roger Harrabin, Anna Coote and Jessica Allen, Health in the News: Risk, reporting and media influence, King s Fund (020 7307 2591)
Links: Summary (pdf) | KF press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
The Communications Act had its third reading (in the House of Lords) and received Royal assent. The Act established a new regulatory framework for the media and communications industries.
Source: Communications Act 2003, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Lords Hansard, Debate 8.7.03, columns 138-209, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | Hansard | DCMS press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A new book explored the complex influences affecting the media treatment of sex crime, through every stage of the news production process, and related the findings to the wider context of cultural, economic and political change.
Source: Chris Greer, Sex Crime and the Media: Sex offending and the press in a divided society, Willan Publishing (01884 840337)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Jun
A committee of MPs said that the new broadcasting regulator should undertake a thorough review, including wide consultation, of how complaints against broadcasters should be tackled, and on the substance of a new code upon which the system would rest. A think tank called for a new privacy law to clarify journalists right to investigate.
Source: Privacy and Media Intrusion, Fifth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 458-I, House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 16.6.03, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report | IPPR press release
Date: 2003-Jun
A think-tank paper argued that the 'privileged status' of the British Broadcasting Corporation as a state-sponsored monopoly broadcaster was out of date, and that the compulsory television licence fee should be phased out.
Source: Eben Wilson, Media Meddling and Mediocrity, Adam Smith Institute (020 7222 4995)
Links: Paper (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2003-Jun
Research found that accuracy in the portrayal of disability by television was extremely important to disabled viewers; that the provision of aspiring role models for young disabled people was vital; and that barriers to acceptance existed for some non-disabled viewers - but 79 per cent of people surveyed said they would not mind if a disabled person read the main evening news bulletin.
Source: Jane Sancho, Disabling Prejudice: Attitudes towards disability and its portrayal on television, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000), British Broadcasting Corporation, and Independent Television Commission
Links: Report (pdf) | BBC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
Interviews with children found that television was of significant importance in their lives. Most homes had more than one television set, and many children had a set in their bedrooms. Children spent significant amounts of their television viewing time watching genres other than those targeted at children. The level of parental knowledge about the material being watched was mixed: while parents voiced concerns, many admitted that they policed the viewing of their secondary school-age children less than that of their younger children.
Source: Kam Atwal, Andrea Millwood-Hargrave and Jane Sancho with Leila Agyeman and Nicki Karet, What Children Watch: Analysis of children's programming provision between 1997-2001, and children's views, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000) and Independent Television Commission
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jun
One report reviewed the academic literature on media literacy, in the light of the government s aim (stated in its draft Communications Bill) to promote media literacy - in particular, improving public awareness and understanding of contents and services provided through electronic media. Another report focused on media literacy among children aged 11-16.
Source: Sonia Livingstone with Nancy Thumim, Assessing the Media Literacy of UK Adults: Review of the academic literature, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000), Independent Television Commission and NIACE | Tony Kirwan, James Learmonth, Mollie Sayer and Roger Williams, Mapping Media Literacy: Media education 11-16 years in the United Kingdom, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000), Independent Television Commission and British Film Institute
Links: Report - adults (pdf) | Report - children (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
An annual report traced some of the main changes in ownership of in-home entertainment and attitudes towards broadcasting. It found some evidence of an emerging social divide in access to new technologies: more readers of broadsheet than of tabloid newspapers had a personal computer and access to the internet, but more tabloid than broadsheet readers had almost every other item of new technology.
Source: Robert Towler, The Public s View 2002, Broadcasting Standards Commission (020 7808 1000) and Independent Television Commission
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
A Bill to establish a new regulatory framework for the media and communications industries had its third reading.
Source: Communications Bill 2002, Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 4.3.03, columns 682-787, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Hansard
Date: 2003-Mar
A report argued that newspapers are failing their readers in coverage of homicide cases. It said that better balance is needed by covering a wider range of cases instead of the current narrow focus on exceptional and dramatic stories.
Source: Brian Francis and Keith Soothill, Homicide and the Media: News coverage and the public portrayal of justice, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: Press release | Linked papers
Date: 2003-Jan
A new book argued that the daily repetition of media violence helps to normalise and legitimise the acts being portrayed.
Source: Cynthia Carter and C. Kay Weaver, Violence and the Media, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: No link
Date: 2003-Jan