Content Regulation in Australia, Free Essay at Your Disposal

Content regulation is the situation where government and government-affiliated bodies control and guide mass media in the society and regulate the content that they show in the society (Goldsmith, 2012, p23). Content regulation has gained a lot of interest in the modern society due to the widespread explicit content and the declining standards of morality. There is the great need for the society to ensure that what is shown in the televisions help in promoting morality and helps in strengthening the social structures in the modern society. Technological development has led to the widespread of explicit content to the young generation, and this threatens to break the social fabric (Li, 2015, p36). In this manner, various countries have formed legal frameworks that they seek to use in tackling the challenges of poor or unsuitable content in the society. There are various reasons why governments and government institutions control media in the society. One of the main reasons is to protect the public interest in the content that is provided by the media in the society.

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Secondly, content regulations help in promoting competition in the society to ensure that there is an effective media market. This helps in maintaining competitive technical standards in the society (Nicol, 2013, p130). Australia has put great efforts in promoting content regulations and maintained a quality of media products in the country. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in the country is very effective in ensuring that the advertisement and the television programs in the country meet the standards as set by the government agencies (Nepal, 2014, p262). The ACMA works in collaboration with the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to help in the regulation of substances such as tobacco and the advertisements of therapeutic goods in the country. This serves to protect the children from watching media damages that are potentially harmful and to protect adults from an unsolicited material that is bound to offend them.

Media ownership controls

The ACMA helps in the regulation and controlling media ownership in the country, and this helps in improving the quality of competition in the country. Also, the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 stipulates the conditions that the media owners need to fulfill to acquire the medial licenses that enable them to operate in the country (Bolleye, 2014, p117). The Act stipulates the rules that apply to the data casting transmitter licenses, licenses, and the newspapers. The objective of regulating the ownership of the media in Australia is to ensure that there is diversity in the content that the media houses provide to the society and help in improving the quality of viewership. In television media ownership control, the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 stipulates that there should be no control of television broadcasting licenses whose combined licenses broadcast to an area that exceeds 75 percent of the total population of the country (Jones, 2013, p74). Secondly, the Act stipulates that foreigners are not in a position to control licenses; moreover, the foreign interests need not exceed 20 percent.

The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 also helps in regulating the radio stations and stipulates that a person should not be in any position to control more than two licenses that apply in the same license area. Moreover, the Act also sets the limits for multiple dictatorships in the country. Finally, in the subscription of the television broadcasting licenses, the Act stipulates that any foreigner must not have company interests that exceed 20 percent in the broadcasting subscription license. Moreover, the total interest that foreign companies can have must not exceed 35 percent (Flew, 2012, p10). In this manner, the Act serves to protect the ownership of media in the country and promote local ownership of media in the country.

Foreign media ownership limits

The Australian media regulations on the media have fair rules that foreign companies have to follow to set up any advertisement company in the country. In this manner, there is great need to analyze the impact of legal systems on the ownership of media by the foreigners in the country. The BSA has no restrictions on the media ownership by the foreign companies in Australia. The BSA, therefore, gives the foreign companies the control of the media and the commercial broadcasting licenses. Additionally, the BSA also gives the foreign dictatorships the right to control relevant media licenses in the country. Besides, the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 and the Australias Investment Policy help in regulating the foreign ownership of the media assets in the country (Cunningham, 2014, p102). This serves as a framework that tackles the challenges that relate to the control of the Australian media by the foreign companies in the country.

Future trends in content regulation

The regulation of the media content in the modern society would have various effects to the society and the media content that citizens watch in Australia. In this manner, there is need to consider and understand the effects that media regulation has in the society. One of the effects of content media regulation in Australia is that it would help in encouraging universality of the population and the broadcast services of the country (Flynn, 2012, p27). In this manner, there would be the promotion of the high-quality standards in media broadcasting and ensure that there is the availability of content that improves the lifestyles of the citizens. The Australians would also have the availability to maintain global standards of broadcasting and ensure that broadcasting services meet the global standards in the society.

Secondly, content regulation in Australia would ensure that the frequencies and broadcasting concessions are distributed fairly. This would then help in order and conformity and help in the administering of the laws and regulations that relate to media broadcasting. Third, the content regulation in Australia would encourage diversity in media broadcasting. As a result, there would be a wide range of services and access opportunities to the society, and that helps in meeting the needs of the society. In this manner, there would be the increase in political, social, regional and cultural diversity in the country (Price, 2013, p65). Moreover, the content regulation in Australia would help in promoting the dissemination of high-quality products that conform to the local standards and values. This would conform to the levels of education, information, decency, culture, taste and advertising. Finally, the content regulation would serve to promote basic interests of the country in matters relating to good order and security.

Influence on other countries development

Media in Australia has various effects to other neighboring countries sand the world at large. Media in Australia plays a core function of promoting international relations in the country; this is because media helps in marketing the country and creating cordiality between Australia and other countries. The information that media in Australia, therefore, serves to maintain a good image about Australia, and this helps in promoting growth and economic development in other countries (OBrien, 2015, p80). This occurs when other countries take a comparison of their rate of economic development with the development in Australia, other countries, therefore, borrow lessons from Australia, which helps in promoting economic development in such countries. Moreover, media also shows that trends of environmental conservation that Australia has taken, and this serves to motivate other countries to engage in the environmental conservations that have various benefits.

Bibliography

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Li, G. (2015). Regulating overthetop services in Australia-from universal service obligation scheme to OTT regulation. International Journal of Private Law, 8(1), 30-40.

Nicol, D., & Lyndon, J. (2013). Media regulation in Australia.

Nepal, R., Menezes, F., & Jamasb, T. (2014). Network regulation and regulatory institutional reform: Revisiting the case of Australia. Energy Policy, 73, 259-268.

Jones, S. C., & Gordon, R. (2013). Regulation of alcohol advertising: policy options for Australia.

Bolleyer, N., & Gauja, A. (2014). The Limits of Regulation: Indirect Party Access to State Resources in Australia and the United Kingdom. Governance.

Flew, T. (2012). Media Classification: Content regulation in an age of convergent media. Media International Australia, 143(May), 5-15.

Cunningham, S. D., & Turnbull, S. (2014). The media and communications in Australia. Allen & Unwin.

Flynn, I. (2012). The Convergence Review and media policy-The missed opportunities. Telecommunications Journal of Australia, 62(3).

Price, M. E. (2013). The Vchip Debate: Content Filtering From Television To the Internet. Routledge.

OBrien, K. S., Carr, S., Ferris, J., Room, R., Miller, P., Livingston, M., ... & Lynott, D. (2015). Alcohol advertising in sport and non-sport TV in Australia, during childrens viewing times. PLoS one, 10(8), e0134889.