The Leveson inquiry is currently looking into the behaviour of the British press. It is examining the ‘culture, practice and ethics’ of the press as well as looking into the conduct of News International, owners of the News of the World after the phone hacking scandal. Madeleine McCann’s parents have just given evidence and spoken of their distress at press reports that they were responsible for their daughter’s death.
This enquiry gives General Studies students lots of examples to use in their ‘Conflict’ unit about ‘Media Bias’. Watch the McCann’s clip, and read the background to the Leveson enquiry. Then post your thoughts:
· In what way have the media here gone ‘beyond the news’?
· Do you think the press should be more tightly regulated in this country?
· Should the newspaper buying public take any responsibility for the behaviour of the press?
This enquiry gives General Studies students lots of examples to use in their ‘Conflict’ unit about ‘Media Bias’. Watch the McCann’s clip, and read the background to the Leveson enquiry. Then post your thoughts:
· In what way have the media here gone ‘beyond the news’?
· Do you think the press should be more tightly regulated in this country?
· Should the newspaper buying public take any responsibility for the behaviour of the press?
1 comment:
In this case you could argue that most of what the news reported was MORE than news. In some ways they made serious allegations against the McCann's, suggesting that they had placed their daughter's body in a freezer. On another occasion they published Kate's private diary - how can that be news? It is simply a violation of their personal emotions!
The press most definitely need someone to pull them in line. The McCann's reported that they had been harassed by press on the way out of their own drive (and this included jumping out of hedges and banging on the car windows). There were children in the car on many of these occasions and they described these events as 'scary'. Don't we need to build up the younger generation, not terrify them? These are just a couple of examples, but there are thousands more where the media have gone too far in trying to find a story or the perfect picture to match a false article. Surely someone needs to stand and regulate the press so that they consider others before themselves.
So should the newspaper-buying-public take any responsibility for this bad behaviour? Well the media argues that this is what their readers/viewers want to see, or so they say. They suggest that the public don’t just want the world news – they want to know the secrets hidden in reality. But surely the press can’t blame the public for their outrageous infringement of human rights? At the end of the day, they are the individuals who invade privacy and disregard consent.
Megan Whitehead 12SK
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