I will be looking into the different ethics that are though about when creating different TV shows and how to ensure that the people involved will be safe and are fit to take part on the shows.
Ethics in the media department is the moral principles that define how a person or a group of people act. Some of the most important ethical constraints that TV producers must take into account are
- Trust
- Liability
- Truth
- Privacy
- Serving the public's interest
The ethics behind different styles of TV shows varies depending on the situation. for example with reality TV, you take celebrities or strangers that have never met, you don't know anything about them and don't know how the fame from being on TV will effect them. On shows such as X Factor, I'm a celebrity get me out of here, Big Brother members of the production team must put the participants through a series of tests to find out if they are mentally/physically fit to take part of the show. If you were to just put anyone on the shows without finding out the health of these people the fame could send them spiralling out of control, and in some cases causing them to lead to drug and alcohol abuse or even suicide. As well as the mental health the physical health is also an issue. if you are physically unfit to take part in certain reality shows like I'm a celebrity the shows consists of different tasks that endeavour fitness, being in confined spaces, eating edible creatures and participating in adrenalin challenge that involve being at high heights.
With drama shows it is a different ethical procedure as they are actors fitting a role, but as drama is based on real life, real life situations will become major story lines for example rape, murder, bullying, death. When drama shows are portraying these situations it is extremely important to take into account the people who are viewing the show, being careful not to make the scenes too graphic or revealing too much of what is going on. a lot of soap operas get around this by using the other senses of the audience instead of their eyes. For example in coronation Street there is a storyline which evolved a malicious bullying scene with children, but instead of showing you every detail of what happened they began by showing mild, minor actions, cutting the scene and re-opening after the attack had taken place. As well as this they also revealed a video clip but again the attack wasn't shown but instead the voices on the video were heard which made you realise what happened without actually showing you. It is also important to be caring towards the audience. as the story lines are based on real life situations these cases are more than likely to of happened to a number of the people watching the show at home. a popular way of using ethics in this situation besides not showing the attack them selves is by adding warnings and helplines at the beginning and ends of the shows which gives people the opportunity to talk with someone about what they have went through and if it has affected them or to not watch the show at all.
when members of the public take part on talk shows such as Jerry Springer, Jeremy Kyle and Maury, you must consider that the people on the shows are more than likely to have people living in there area watching or that the content of the shows could damage there life/reputation. Take Jeremy Kyle as an example. The largest reason for people going onto the show is to get paternity test. in these situations many families could be attending the show with full intention that they are 99% certain of who the biological parents are, and on many occasions have been distraught about the outcome. TV producers get through these tough experiences by providing a support team who are there to help you get through the situation. Same with Jerry Springer. it is well known for allowing people to vent there anger issues out by fighting. to ensure that the situation doesn't get out of hand and people are not hurt physically there are security guards present at all times during the show, on stage and off.
Comedy shows are different compared to the rest of the styles of shows. A lot of comedy shows have been caught out on racial, sexist, religious, celebrities and government jokes and sketches which are more than likely to offend members of the public. what a lot of comedy shows do in order to ensure that are not sued for their use of these sketches is by not singling out one person. for example. In family guy it has occurred more times that possible where they have made jokes regarding celebrities, whether that is from cases they have been accused of by paparazzi, there appearance or the private lives. they have made sure that they use a variety of different celebrities to joke about other than just the one.
When creating current affairs TV documentaries there are numerous different ethics that can be used in place of hiding the identity of people. As you are visiting areas where it is almost impossible to get every single persons consent to be shown or a lot of the people don't want to be shown at all. With shows such as Panorama where hidden cameras visit places such as care homes, schools and hospitals to uncover what it is actually like, almost all of the people shown are filmed without consent. to protect the identities of these people the editorial crew can blur out faces, not display names and when people are giving evidence they tend to change their voices. If the identities of these people were not kept hidden depending on the story there lives could become at risk, people may not believe what they are saying or may disagree with there opinions. also if they are employees and it was shown they were giving away information they could loose their jobs. Not only is it a case of hiding the identities of those that need to be, current affairs is hard hitting real life situations and it can tend to effect the audience seeing mental health patients. A procedure that is used often in these cases are help lines and warning signs at the beginning and end of the show, for members of the audience that have issues related to the show they have just watched.
It is extremely important for TV producers to think about the different ethics that need to be put into place when creating any genre of a TV show, if the show was to be aired with no ethics or constraints it could cause havoc within the audience with complaints, protests, banning of the show and suing the producers involved. Some of the guidelines that producers must work towards to ensure that they dont break the law, offend of harm the audience consist of Harm and offence, fairness, contributors and consent, privacy,children and young people as contributors, religion and much more. each production company has their own set of guidelines here is an example of how many the BBC has.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines/
Each of these guidelines go into detail of the different things to consider. with children and young people as contributors for example. You must make sure that you have consent from parents and or guardians before filming, interviewing or photographing them. the reason for this is because personal issues within the family they may not want their child's images or voice to appear on national television or radio for anyone to see. Another important guideline to follow is harm and offence. In my opinion i believe that this guideline should be set for all productions mainly because there is so much that must go into consideration from sex and nudity to violence, intimidation and humiliation. If you are making a documentary about violence and you are interviewing someone with a violent history or a history of abused you must take into consideration that it is their own personal life that you are filming and showing to people all over the country. you must not lie or give away personal information about their location, age or any of the names involved. this guideline is put in place to protect the identity of the participant.
