LO2: Legal and Ethical

LO2: Legal and Ethical

Legal (Laws)

Obscene Publications Act - Prevents the publication of inappropriate content that may negatively influence readers. This is to prevent content from being offensive and appropriate for the audience (especially that which it's targeting). 

The audience for Casbah Clash are 16-25 males who have an interest of music (from an ABC1 background) and they could be influenced by the music representations they see in magazines such as with the male gaze as a common stereotype in rock music therefore, signifying a patriarchal dominance and readership within rock magazines that could be offensive. 

I would adhere to this law through challenging representations that would entice the male gaze theory in instead using male representations in feminine connotations through costume which challenge the mass patriarchal dominance in male magazines and avoids stereotypical representations of females as provocative. I would also adhere to this law through my male representations not being offensive by way of their body language, stereotypically in rock, body language is crude and offensive. Instead using poses that can create an ideal self in relaxed, careless connotations through poses like holding a jacket over the shoulder. This challenges rock stereotypes in denoting relaxed and contempt male representations rather than obscene ones with profanity in both the images and surrounding text (not using profanity in the articles or cover lines to adhere to the law). In the event of profanity in my magazine, I would censor but not remove the content to make everything still a true representation. 

Libel Law - Illegal to publish defamatory content about a person or publish misinformation.

I will adhere to this law as my magazine is based on real world people; including a real interview which contains the words of one of the artists from a band therefore, what is being written is not fictional and lead to misinformation. Furthermore, I will adhere to this law through not spreading misinformation relating to the featured band; not writing anything defamatory regarding other magazines or artists within my magazine either. 

Copyright Law - The intellectual Property Rights are what someone holds over their own creation for a limited time exclusively to sell or adapt their product how they like.

This law can be adhered to through producing my own assets as well as taking my own photos. However, an issue with intellectual property rights would be in taking photos of an existing band in which I have accounted for through a release and consent form which has been signed and agreed to by the band as a whole. 

Laws of Contempt - The contempt of court includes influencing  legal cases taken in court whether it be in court through introducing bias, disobeying court order, refusing court questions as a witness or taking photos or shouting out in a court. 

The relevance towards media and magazines would include 'publicly commenting on a court case' and this is inclusive of social media or a news article such as those included in magazines. This would include writing names of those kept anonymous by a judge, discussing previously convicted crimes, use of names for under 18's involved in court or give bias towards whether someone's guilty or not. Breaching this could lead to 2 years of prison, a fine or both. 

I would adhere to this in the relevance of the Travis Scott case in which 10 people died and 300 were injured in a mosh pit during one of his concerts. This is a precedented event in mosh pits in the case of the death of nine during a Pearl Jam concert in 2000 however, the singer ceased the concert due to the event. The controversy of Travis Scott within this similar situation is that the concert continued on, causing more deaths and injuries therefore, holding him potentially accountable for manslaughter. I would not comment on this case not only due to the controversy caused by it but also because of my younger teen audience who may be be affected by it. 

Deaths at Travis Scott concert due to accidental suffocation, medical examiner says | Reuters

Ethical (Morality)

To avoid creating offensive stereotypes:

Male representations which are created to be stereotypical are not made to insult either gender either through offensive masculine stereotypes or creating misogynistic connotations. This is avoided through these representations, while stereotypical of a male, to be empowering to a male audience through an ideal self (accomplished through low angles).

Moral panics created by the rock genre pose a potential risk through the link which rock music has to rebellion and subsequent indecent or inappropriate material. Therefore, to avoid this, in photography the content can be orchestrated to not contain any offensive material such as gang signs, indecent exposure or swearing (also applicable to cover-lines and articles). 

Representation of models has to be considered as to not convey them in an offensive manner during the magazine's production. Examples of risks could include libel within articles and cover-lines as well as how the models are edited in the magazine to appear. This can be avoided through reflecting the models positively and making positive representation decisions during editing.

Interview transcription needs to be faithful to what was quoted during the actual interview; not editing the speaker's words with malicious intent to create offensive content which is directed to tarnish their reputation.