Essay Notes: Arguments For/Against Regulation of the British Press

By Fintan Darragh

It’s often helpful to take a look at a good essay plan if you’re trying to get to grips with a topic where you’re eventually going to write an essay anyway. Here’s one which covers a large part of the OCR A2 Media Studies.

This particular essay plan was roughly formed from the mark scheme of a question from an actual exam. The question will never be exactly the same, but the possibilities of what the question will actually ask for are fairly limited and it’s likely your answer can always involve, fundamentally, arguments for and against more regulation of the British press.

You must flesh this plan out with your own ideas and notes. Your own opinion is necessary for you to understand the topic and to write convincingly. Do not just take these notes and turn them blindly into an essay, and don’t be afraid to re-arrange. They’re pretty raw.

For more regulation of the British Press

• There is public disquiet over reporting in newspapers:
  • political bias
  • intrusion into privacy
  • inaccuracy
  • triviality (the public interest: what is of interest to the public, in the interest of the public)
  • sensationalism
  • chequebook journalism
  …be sure to come up with a good example or two whenever you make a point.
• The newspapers exercise ‘power without responsibility’
  • chequebook journalism is a great example of this, and by doing a little digging on the Internet you can find reports of a story about the 1966 Moors murders:
    • 2 witnesses were offered money by a newspaper
    • the amount they received depended on whether convictions were made
    • this can quite easily lead to witnesses altering their evidence, because they’d want to receive that money
• In 1997 Diana’s death lead the paparazzi into disrepute over their core purpose (see list above). This this time the PCC was widely believed to have failed in their purpose.
• Reports on the PCC have shown it to do more or less nothing except for the Code of Conduct. They are a complaints commission, but actually only seem to pass letters to-and-fro between the complainer and the papers, not actually solving much.

Against more regulation of the British Press

Directly leading on from the Diana/paparazzi argument;

• however, the public are those demanding such stories and images (they buy more papers when paparazzi pics appear in the paper).
• After the Diana affair, the PCC brought into effect a tougher Code of Conduct which focused more on
  • accuracy
  • rumours and fact clarity
  • privacy and harassment
  • definition of the Public Interest
• The press is the fourth estate and as such is a defender of public interests.
• The press industry sees statutory regulation (laws) as state censorship and government interference
  • mention preemptive statutory regulations and controls:
  • Official Secrets Acts 1911
  • Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989

Conclusion

Hmm. Well it might be a good idea to mention that clear tensions exist between the two arguments. You might also want to suggest that the PCC should reform to make it more responsive to the ignored complaints of the public.

Be sure to arrive at your own, personal conclusion given what you think about the evidence you have presented in answering the question.

What do you think? If you have anything to add to this plan, just leave a comment.

This plan was formed for OCR A2 Media Studies section Freedom, Regulation and Control of the British Press.