Developing Technologies in TV and Film

DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES IN TV AND FILM

TV has come a long way since they were invented in the 1920's. No longer are they huge boxes with little screens, as many developments have been made since then. I am going to list a number of things and give a brief explanation of how TV has changed.

3D TELEVISION

TV sets have become so advanced that now you can watch your favourite programmes in 3D.

There are several ways to display a 3D image. Displaying offset images that are filtered seperately to the left and right eye is the basic requirement of producing a 3D image. Two strategies have been used for this: the light source can split the images directionally into the viewer's eyes or the viewer wears a pair of glasses to filter the seperate offset images to each eye.

To project stereoscopic image pairs to the viewer, there is a vary of different technology techniques - such as;

1.  with lenses

• Anaglyphic 3D
• Polarisation 3D
• Alternate-frame Sequencing
• Head-mounted display

   2.    without lenses

• Autostereoscopic display or Auto 3D

3D PROVIDERS

In the UK, the only provider of 3D TV is from Sky.

Sky first broadcast a Premier League football match between Arsenal and Manchester United in 3D in January 2010.

In October of the same year, Sky created the first ever 3D only channel in the UK. It broadcasts a mixture of movies, entertainment and sport for 14 hours a day.

Since then, there have been many 3D shows available on the channel. David Attenborough's show 'Flying Monsters 3D' was the first one shown. Sky then agreed deals with some of the world's most famous movie production companies, such as 'Walt Disney Pictures', '20th Century Fox' and 'Warner Bros.' alongside more, to exclusively showcase all of the studio's latest 3D releases. - including the world premiere of 'Avatar 3D'.

They also screened a Bollywood dance routine at St. Pancras railway station in 3D, as well as signing a deal with 'Nintendo' to provide content from Sky 3D to the Nintendo 3DS and announcing that Kylie Minogue's latest world tour would be shown on Sky 3D in the summer of 2011.

SATELLITE TELEVISION

For people who wish to have a satellite TV, you need to have an outdoor antenna (referred to as a satellite dish). The dish will placed on the side of your house, near the top and placed in the best position to pick up a signal from the satellite that is somewhere in the sky.

To recieve the signal, you will either have 1 of the 2 things;

• a satellite tuner module which is built into the TV set or
• an external set-top box which you have to connect to your TV

You can also tune in to a satellite by using a card or a USB stick which you will have to attach to a personal computer. Around the world, often in areas that are not serviced by cable or terrestial providers, satellite TV provides a wide range of services and channels.

SATELLITE PROVIDERS
Sky are the only satellite provider in the UK.

You put the Sky dish on the side of your house, and you recieve a Sky card which slots into the Sky box and you recieve the channels that you are entitled to, aswell as any channels that you pay extra for (HD, 3D or for Sky Box Office)

                                                         CABLE TELEVISION

Cable TV works quite a bit differently from Satellite TV. Rather than having a dish outdoors, Cable TV works from under the ground.

Cable TV provides the TV progams to the viewers by radio frequency signals being trasmitted to TV's through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property. Radio programming, the Internet, telephony and similar services may also be available.

The majority of TV sets already have a cable television tuner built in that is delivered as an analog signal.

INTERACTIVE TELEVISION

Interactive TV describes a numbers of ways that viewers can interact with the content of their television as they watch it.

FORMS OF INTERACTIVE TV
The term 'interactive TV' refers to many different types of interactivity and this can make it harder to understand.  

Interactivity with a TV set
This is the simplest type of interactive TV. It is very common, starting with using the remote to 'channel-surf' and now things like video-on-demand, recording and pausing/re-winding/fast-forwarding live TV. Though this form of interactive TV is not insignificant, critics claim that saying that using a remote control to turn TV sets on and off makes television interactive is like saying turning the pages of a book makes the book interactive.

Interactivity with TV program content
This is seen as the one that is the 'proper' form of interactive TV. It is also the hardest to produce.

This technique is based on the idea that the actual program can change on the viewers feedback. Advanced forms, not commonly used, are when certain programs endings or plot details can be influenced or changed by the viewer.

This happens usually when a program invites the viewers to give their opinions or views of the show. The Xtra Factor - a live behind-the-scenes sister show of The X Factor - is a good example of this. In portions of the broadcast, viewers can phone in, text, e-mail or 'tweet' (messaging from the social networking site Twitter') questions or direct statements to the presenters or guests of the show. They can also speak with the contestants and judges from The X Factor.

Interactive TV services

Many of the major channels in the UK offer interactive services for the viewers to enjoy. By pressing the red button on your Sky remote, a varied number of options become available.

On the BBC, when you press the red button you can see all the latest news to do with sport, politics, showbiz and many more. In certain shows, you are also able to see the behind-the-scenes or the making of your favourite BBC shows.

On one occasion, fans of the BBC school based drama Waterloo Road were allowed to see a spin-off, titled 'Waterloo Road: Reunited', which saw old cast members being brought back together for a short series about how they are growing up and moving on from their school days. This was only available on the red button, although now you can see it on BBC iPlayer, which I will talk about later...

On the Sky Sports channels, when a live football match is being played there are many different serviced available when you press the red button during the match. The serviced available are different camera angles, one camera following just one player through out the match, an alternative commentary provided by one fan each of the two clubs playing (known as Fan Zone) as well as many others.

Here is a clip from Fan Zone. Although the clip shows the commentators in their booth, when you press the red button you will actually watch the match with their voice being played over. So, this isnt what you see, this is what you hear...

                                                        HIGH DEFINITION TELEVISION

High definition TV is when the resolution is substantially higher than that of traditional television systems (now known as Standard Definition). Early HDTV broadcasting used analog techniques, but today HDTV is digitally broadcast using video compression.

Most major channel have HD options nowadays. The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and FIVE offer HD channels and so do every Sky Sports channel and most Sky movie channels too. And as you have to pay for HD, the HD channels are seperate to the original Standard Definition channels. So the originals stay in the same place but the HD alternatives are much further down the EPG listings.

Most people have HD TV sets, but aren't able to watch the HD channels as you need a HD reciever - which costs extra. I personally don't see why people should have to pay extra for it. If you have the TV (that you have paid more for than a Standard Definition TV) then why should you pay more for only a handful of channels where some of them won't interest you? People say that the best things to watch in HD are the movie, sport and wildlife channels. I, for one, am happy with my standard definition movie and sport channels and am not interested in watching wildlife programs. I understand that people will be but then again maybe they dont want to pay for sports? So for that reason I think the extra cost is unfair to the customer.

 

STREAMING MEDIA & INTERNET TV/ON-DEMAND VIEWING

Streaming media is when mulitmedia is presented to a streaming provider (most commonly the Internet on your computer, phone or tablet). The name is actually the delivery method of the multimedia rather than the actual process itself.

Live streaming usually occurs for a major news story (for when you may be out or not able to watch a TV and you can watch it on your phone, tablet or laptop) or when, for example, a person who regularly uploads videos to YouTube and gains enough fans and subcribers for he or she to recive feedback on his or hers videos. 

Here is an example of an old live stream from about a month ago that I found on YouTube...

A common technique of streaming are the 'On-demand' services that the major channels provide for their viewers who may have missed the original broadcast. 

BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD and Demand 5 are the services provided by the 4 'terrestrial' channels. 

Structure and Ownership of the Media Sector

For this assignment I have to look at two different media companies and describe their ownership structure.

The two companies I have chosen are;
Disney and 
Guardian Media Group

DISNEY

The Walt Disney Company is the largest multinational media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio the company was reincorporated as Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. in 1929, and became publicly-traded as Walt Disney Productions in 1938.

This cross-media company, together with its subsidiaries, is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in four business segments:

·         Media Networks

·         Parks and Resorts

·         Studio Entertainment

·         and Consumer Products

MEDIA NETWORKS

Disney owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network and cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, and ABC Family.

PARKS AND RESORTS

There are 14 theme parks all around the world.

STUDIO ENTERTAINMENT

The Studio Entertainment unit is the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company was built, and at its heart are world-renowned animated features and live-action motion pictures.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes feature films produced under the following banners: Walt Disney Pictures (which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation and DisneyToon Studios), Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Disneynature

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

Disney Consumer Products (DCP) is a division of The Walt Disney Company that engages in merchandizing of the Disney brand and Disney properties, including Disney movies and The Disney Channel television shows. Its merchandise includes apparel, toys, home décor, books, magazines, interactive games, food and beverages, stationery, electronics, and animation art. The Disney Store, which first opened in 1987, also falls under DCP.

Disney is headquartered in Burbank, California in the USA and was founded by Walt and Roy Disney in Los Angeles. The Chairman of Disney is John E. Pepper Jr and the CEO and President is Robert Iger.

Shortly after his 2005 takeover of the company, Robert Iger was aware that the relationship between Disney and Pixar Animation Studios was becoming strained. He began negotiations with Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull, about a possible merger with the two.

Disney has had their fair share of criticism since its establishment in 1923;

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

·         Religious welfare groups, such as the Catholic League, have spoken out against the release of material which they and others found offensive, protesting against the Miramax Films features Priest (1994) and Dogma (1999). Disney pushed back the release date for Dogma due to the controversy surrounding the movie, and eventually sold the distribution rights to Lions Gate Films. The ABC show Nothing Sacred, about a priest, a book called Growing Up Gay (published by Disney-owned Hyperion Press), the annual Gay and Lesbian Days at Disney theme parks, and similar issues spurred boycotts of Disney and its advertisers by the Catholic League, the Assemblies of God, and other conservative groups.

·         It has been criticized also by animal welfare groups, for their care of and procedures for wild animals at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, and for using purebred dogs in movies such as 101 Dalmatians. Animal rights groups claim movies with purebreds create an artificial demand for purebreds from people who may not be prepared or temperamentally suited for the animals, many of whom end up abandoned or surrendered to animal shelters or rescue groups.

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES

There are several conspiracy theories about Disney having sexual innuendo or references hidden in some of their animated movies.

·         In the movie Lion King, it was alleged that during a scene the word ‘SEX’ was spotted written in the clouds. Tom Sito, a Disney animator, denied the allegation and claimed the word spotted in the clouds was actually ‘SFX’ – which is an abbreviation of the words ‘sound effects’

·         In Who Framed Roger Rabbit a scene drew attention to viewers when Jessica Rabbit revealed what was under her dress in which nothing was drawn. This scene wasn't noticed until 1994 during the film's laserdisc release. This discovery caught the attention of major news media.

·         In The Little Mermaid, a castle, one of the character’s homes, is displayed on the cover for the Classics VHS cassette when the film was first released in 1990. Close examination of the cover artwork shows an oddly shaped structure on the castle, closely resembling a penis. Disney and the cover designer insist it was an accident, resulting from a late night rush job to finish the cover artwork. The questionable object does not appear on the cover of the second releasing of the movie.

·         In the same movie, a character is apparently shown to have an erection during a wedding scene. A small bulge is slightly noticeable in a few of the frames, but was later shown to be his knees. A woman filed suit against Disney in 1995, but dropped the charges two months later. Because of the controversy, in the 2006 Platinum Edition DVD, the scene was altered so his knee is now not visible.

‘DISNEYWAR’

DisneyWar is an exposé of Michael Eisner's 20-year tenure as Chairman and CEO at The Walt Disney Company by James B. Stewart, an American lawyer, journalist and author.
Stewart's book describes some of the following:

• Roy E. Disney's (Walt Disney’s nephew) abrupt resignation in November 2003
• The Comcast hostile takeover attempt
• Financing of the film Fahrenheit 9/11
• The 2004 Shareholders' meeting that led to Eisner's resignation as Chairman
• Eisner's friendship-turned-rivalry with Jeffrey Katzenberg
• Eisner's tension with Frank Wells before Wells' death
• Eisner's tension with Michael Ovitz during Ovitz's short-lived presidency
• Pixar's decision not to renew its relationship with Disney
• The purchase of the ABC Family channel and its content and the fallout resulting from Disney's inability to revive it.
• The struggle to get Who Framed Roger Rabbit made in time and on budget despite the big egos of Robert Zemeckis and Richard Williams.
• Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold's removal of Disney CEO Ron W. Miller in 1984.
• Hilary Duff's decision to quit the Disney Channel because of low salary.

 

‘SOUTH PARK’
In the adult cartoon series South Park, the Jonas Brothers are parodied in an episode called ‘The Ring’. The Walt Disney Company, the Disney Channel and the Mickey Mouse cartoon character are also spoofed in the episode; even when Mickey Mouse says callous things or physically assaults people, he follows up most statements with the character's trademark high-pitched "Ha ha!" laugh, which in context comes off like a nervous tic.

Although billed as a Jonas Brothers parody, it is mostly a parody of the ethos of Disney. The episode portrays Disney as a corporation using the ruse of family-friendly morals to disguise their primary motive - profit. This point is illustrated by the use of Mickey Mouse, a cartoon symbol for the wholesome Disney image, as a foul-mouthed, greedy, all-powerful and violent character. The episode further illustrates the greed of corporate culture by portraying Mickey as capitalizing on religion for profit, while secretly mocking it in a particularly cruel tone:

"I've made billions off of Christian ignorance for decades now! And do you know why? Because Christians are retarded! They believe in a talking dead guy! Ha ha!”

PARKS AND RESORTS

·         In May 1992, it was reported that about 25% of Euro Disney's workforce — approximately 3,000 men and women — had resigned their jobs due to unacceptable working conditions.

·         Two architects alleged that they approached the Walt Disney Company in 1987 with plans for a sports complex, and that Disney’s Wide World of Sports, which opened 10 years later, was heavily based on their designs. Disney claimed that, while the designs had some similarities, the concept of a sports park was too generic for any one group to claim ownership. The two men sued Disney. In August 2000, a jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs with damages in the amount of $240 million, a fraction of the $1.5 billion sought. Disney appealed the judgment, and settled out of court in September 2002 for undisclosed terms.

·         Even in planning stages, various animal rights groups didn't like the idea of Disney creating a theme park where animals were held in captivity. The groups protested, and tried to convince travel agents not to book trips to the park. A few weeks before the park opened, a number of animals died due to accidents. The United States Department of Agriculture viewed most of the cases and found no violations of animal-welfare regulations. On opening day, the Orange County Sheriff's office sent about 150 deputies in fear that there may be a large protest, but only two dozen protesters showed up. The protest lasted two hours, and there were no arrests.

·         Disney originally planned to serve shark fin soup, a traditional Chinese delicacy, at wedding banquets at Hong Kong Disneyland. Animal rights groups protested in June 2005, citing the declining shark population in global waters and the cruel methods sometimes used of cutting the fin and discarding the live sharks back into the water. After constant pressure from environmental groups and schoolchildren, Disney announced on 24 June 2005 that shark fin soup will not be on the menu.

GUARDIAN MEDIA GROUP

                                  

Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of his cousin Edward Taylor. It became the Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd when it bought out the Manchester Evening News in 1924, later becoming the Guardian and Manchester Evening News Ltd to reflect the change in the morning paper's title. It adopted its current name in 1993.

GMG is a privately held media company which also is split up into four business segments:

·         Newspapers

·         Radio Stations

·         Broadcasting

·         and Websites

NEWSPAPERS
The newspapers that GMG operate are The Guardian and The Observer – which is widely regarded as The Guardian’s ‘sister paper’ or ‘The Guardian on Sunday’.

RADIO STATIONS
The radio stations that GMG operate are nationwide regional stations under the Smooth, Real and Rock radio brands.

BROADCASTING
GMG owned The Manchester Evening News newspaper for many years but in 2010, the group sold its GMG Regional Media division to Trinity Mirror plc for a total of £44.8 million. This included 31 local and regional newspaper titles being sold. The division's local television station for Greater Manchester, Channel M, and two newspapers in Woking were not included in the sale, so Channel M is the main broadcasting station owned by GMG.
WEBSITES
GMG run the Guardian website – www.guardian.co.uk – and as they run the Auto Trader magazine, they also operate the company’s website too. GMG Property Services (estate agency software providers Vebra and Core, lettings software provider CFP Software, graphic design consultancy The Media Design House and consumer portal ThinkProperty.com are all operated by GMG.

GMG is headquartered in Manchester where it was also founded by C.P Scott. Since his death, the Scott Trust Limited owned the company, but became defunct in 2008 before being replaced by The Scott Trust Limited – although it is commonly still known as the Scott Trust.

There has also been many criticism towards GMG, and more specifically, The Guardian newspaper...

ACCUSATIONS OF BIAS IN COVERAGE OF ISRAEL
In recent decades The Guardian has been accused of exaggerating criticism of Israeli government policy. In December 2003 columnist Julie Burchill cited "striking bias against the state of Israel" as one of the reasons she left the paper. Greville Janner, former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, has accused The Guardian of being "viciously and notoriously anti-Israel”.
Responding to these accusations, a Guardian editorial in 2002 condemned anti-Semitism and defended the paper's right to criticise the policies and actions of the Israeli government, arguing that those who view such criticism as anti-Jewish are mistaken.

‘OPERATION CLARK COUNTY’
In August 2004, for the US presidential election, the daily G2 supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County, Ohio in the USA. G2 editor Ian Katz bought a voter list from the county for $25 and asked readers to write to people listed as undecided in the election, giving them an impression of the international view and the importance of voting against US President George W. Bush. The paper scrapped "Operation Clark County" in October 2004 after first publishing a column of complaints about the campaign under the headline "Dear Limey assholes". The public backlash against the campaign likely contributed to Bush's victory in Clark County.

GAGGED FROM REPORTING PARLIAMENT
In October 2009, The Guardian reported that it was forbidden to report on a parliamentary matter, namely a question recorded in a Commons order paper, to be answered by a minister later that week. The paper noted that it was being "forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented - for the first time in memory - from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret. The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck." The paper further claimed that this case appears "to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights". The only parliamentary question mentioning Carter-Ruck in the relevant period was by Paul Farrelly MP, in reference to legal action by Barclays and Trafigura. The part of the question referencing Carter-Ruck relates to the latter company's September 2009 gagging order on the publication of a 2006 internal report into the 2006 Côte d'Ivoire toxic waste dump scandal, which involved a class action case that the company only settled in September 2009 after The Guardian published some of the commodity trader's internal emails. The reporting injunction was lifted the next day, as Carter-Ruck withdrew it before The Guardian could challenge it in the High Court. Alan Rusbridger, (the editor of The Guardian) credited the rapid back-down of Carter-Ruck to Twitter, as did a BBC article.

‘CONTROVERSIAL’ CARTOONS
Editorial cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell have received hate mail for their treatment of topics that some deem controversial.

·         There was a disagreement over a set of strips showing the Ayatollah and the Pope. As Bell admitted, "I dragged the Pope into it for no reason, and he (the editor, not the Pope) got stroppy about that. I didn't want to change it, because there was nothing much I could change. What happened there was he just didn't run them."

·         In 1983 there were further problems when the Guardian was taken to the Press Council for Bell's depiction of Henry Kissinger as a giant turkey with a German accent.

·         In 1987 Bell's "If...” strip was characterised in the House of Lords, by a former Labour Foreign Secretary, as "a series of almost obscene lampoons on the President of the United States."

After researching both media companies, my opinion is...

I would prefer to have a company privately owned like GMG. This is because, although you wont make as much money as a huge company like Disney, you dont get half of the criticism that Disney would get. This is because Disney own so many other companies that when a certain individual error is made by one of the small companies, it is Disney who has to take responsibilty and the blame for their mistake, as they allowed it to happen under their leadership. So, it is their name that gets rubbed in the mud, rather than the individual company that actually made the mistake.

Regulation of the Media Sector

REGULATORY AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES

BRITISH VIDEO ASSOCIATION

The British Video Association is the trade body that represents the interests of publishers and rights owners of video entertainment. It was founded in 1980.

FILM DISTRIBUTORS' ASSOCIATION

The Film Distributors' Association is the trade body for theatrical film distributors in the UK - the companies that release films for UK  cinema audiences. It was founded in 1915.

VIDEO STANDARDS COUNCIL

The Video Standards Council is a non-profit making body that was set up to develop and oversee a Code of Practice designed to promote high standards in the video industry. It was later expanded to promote high standards in the computer game industry aswell. It was founded in 1989.

TRADING STANDARDS INSTITUTE

The Trading Standards Institute exists to promote and protect the success of a modern economy. It aims to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of citizens. It was founded in 1881.

PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION

The PCC is an independent body which administers the system of self-regulation for the press. It does so primarily by dealing with complaints, framed within the terms of the Editors' Code of Practice, about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines and the conduct of the journalists. It was founded in 1953.

ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY

The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including marketing on websites. They work to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful. It was founded in 1962.

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT FORUM

MEF is the global community for mobile content and commerce. It is the leading trade organisation for companies wishing to monetize their goods, services and digital products via the mobile connected device. It was founded in 2000.

THE INDEPENDENT GAMES DEVELOPERS ASSOCIATION

The Independent Games Developers Association is the trade association representing the UK's games industry. It was founded in 2001.

BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is the leading independent charity supporting, developing and promoting the art forms of the moving image in the UK - from Film and Television to Video Games and Interactive Media. It was founded in 1947.

RADIO ACADEMY

The Radio Academy, formerly known as the Commercial Radio Companies Association, is a registered charity dedicated to the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence in UK radio broadcasting and audio production. It was founded in 1983.

INTERNATIONAL VISUAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION

The International Visual Communication Association exists to represent its members to Government and other stakeholding bodies and to promote effective business and public service communications of the highest ethical and professional standards. It was founded in 1950.

WORLDWIDE WEB CONSORTIUM

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community where Member organisations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. It was founded in 1994.

UK WEB DESIGN ASSOCIATION

The UK Web Design Association was established to encourage and promote industry standards within the British web design and new media sector. It was founded in 2001.

BRITISH INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA ASSOCIATION

The British Interactive Multimedia Association exists to;

•  support and promote the British digital industry
• share knowledge and best practice and
• reward great work and encourage the next generation

It was founded in 1985.

                               REGULATION ISSUES

OWNERSHIP

A regulatory body has to make rulings on how much one company can control in the media. For example, in recent times, News Corporation wanted to buy the remaining 61% of BSkyB. Due to the fall out from the News of the World phone hacking scandal, the government were forced to not allow this deal to go through.

MONOPOLY

A Monopoly is when certain branches of the media industry are owned by one party. An example is if News Corporation owned every single newspaper in the UK.

ACCESS

The MAC (Media access control) functions as a crossing point among the LLC (logical link control) sublayer and the network's physical layer. The MAC layer mimics a full-duplex communication channel in a multi-point network. This channel may present a broadcast, multicast or unicast communication service.

CONSUMER CHOICE

The BBC are ordered by Ofcom to have radio stations and TV channels that accommodate the public in their wishes to watch what they want to. This is a good idea because it means that people are getting their money's worth when paying the License Fee (which pretty much only provides BBC's services).

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Freedom of information regulation consists of rules that assure access to data held by the state. They establish a 'right-to-know' legal method where submitted requests may be made for information held by the Government, to be obtained freely or at a minimal cost, excluding standard exceptions.

CENSORSHIP

Censorship is basically the theory of stopping someone from doing or saying something. Private organisations or the Government can apply censorship rules onto people or companies. The spoken word, a message posted online, a film/tv show/game/song/album, the press, TV/radio/newspapers and many, many other things can be deemed as worthy of censorship as it may offend people in many ways. Religious groups, political groups, etc. Slander and libel is another reason for censorship to be implemented, too. 

TASTE AND DECENCY

Quite similar to censorship, taste and decency is all about what is deemed unacceptable to be shown on various media outlets such as TV, film, radio, newspapers, etc. Something could be seen in bad taste and may offend many people. Comedians tend to be the ones who drag themselves into this category. For example, they could make a joke about a much loved deceased person which leaves many people upset. The 9.00pm watershed applied to British television is used in order to stop children from hearing something which is inappropriate for them to hear. This is in Section 1 of the ITC Programme Code, which is provided by Ofcom.