LO3: Legal and ethical

In terms of UK radio, the media sector is regulated by OFCOM, this regulatory body also supervises content produced by TV as it covers all broadcasted media.
In creating a programme it's important to look at legal and ethical components that need to be monitored throughout production. These broadcasting codes range over many aspects that ensure that all programmes are appropriate to air.

Section 1 is regarding protecting under 18's that may listen to a show, this in terms of ThrowBack Thursday needs to be carefully monitored due to the show being a late night show airing at 9pm this is post watershed meaning that explicit language is accepted by the regulator however we do need to be mindful of the club lifestyle that we are discussing as this could be seen as promoting a drinking lifestyle which would be harmful and damaging for under 18's as they would be impressionable. To combat this negative correlation between alcohol consumption and the show we will place a drinking awareness statement that will discourage younger listeners from the lifestyle discussed.
Due to the September air time that the show will have this will discourage younger listeners listening to the post-watershed show as they will have school running meaning unlike summer they will have structured evening meaning that more then likely they wont be listening to the show.
In terms of discussing sexual content/ violent descriptions or explicit language this will only mildy appear in songs and will not be discussed during the show.

Section 2 is surrounding harm and offence this links to both the protection of under 18 year olds as well as all other listeners, this section looks at ethical elements such as false information portrayed as facts, glamorising negative thoughts or actions, this meaning in terms of self harm that may encourage others such as seen in 13 Reasons Why* and ensuring that all competitions are fairly conducted.
 In terms of looking at these codes alongside my show I can confidently say that because our show is an upbeat chatty show that we will not have issues such as glamorising negative behaviour or misleading factual information, we will however ensure that all competitions are arranged fairly this being done with an unbiased team that have no way of changing the winner.

Section 3 is surrounding the topic of hate and inciting disorder through speech, this could be done through racist or discriminatory aspects being spoken about on the radio.
The principle of the code is to not incite crime or encourage behaviour by the speech included on the radio station and therefore in relation with my station and programme this will be an easy code to be guided on.
Due to Throwback Thursdays being a light hearted show that is aimed at people getting ready to go out I do not think that any topics would cover any hateful views or perspectives that could further incite or encourage others to commit hateful/criminal acts however to definitely avoid this we will draft up a script before the show and get it read by a second option to ensure that nothing could be construed as hateful.

Section 4 covers religion and how it is portrayed on broadcasting medias, this covers the respect needed when speaking about religions and how to properly discuss it as a subject, due to our programme being broadcasted on Sheffield Live, its a community radio station that has many religions and ethnic groups that broadcast weekly. We need to ensure that if religion is brought up however it would be an unlikely topic due to the subject of the show being student life and throwback songs that we must speak about it with care and respectfully.

Section 5 covers due impartiality and due accuracy, this code covers the code that ensures that news presented is accurate and presented with impartiality, this would be specifically relevant in terms of political content spoken about or a controversial topics.
In keeping with the code I will ensure to have non-bias opinions when speaking about news topics, this covering controversial figures such as Donald Trump and in our news flashes we will present factually correct information and if anything changes in terms of the news presented  they will be acknowledged and corrected on air as quick as possible.
Similar to acknowledging mistakes on the air broadcasters have to be careful of fake news circulating as if this reported it could create moral panic and this even end up in prosecution if the news was seen as false or defamatory.

Section 6 covers the fairness of treatment that guests will receive on shows or programmes, in our show this would relate to the call in portion and the mention of listeners tweets. When mentioning and talking to contestants I will need to be very transparent about all topics that would be discussed and the purpose of the show. Due to the show being very light-hearted and chatty this wont be a huge problem unlike for political shows where if any harsh or tricky topics were going to be discussed they should be discussed before hand so answers can be prepped.
All participants in the show should also have the right to listen to their portion on the show to ensure they're happy and ok for it to be broadcasted.

Section 7 involves privacy and this is very relevant to the show, it will be very involved in the callers we will interview as their numbers and names would the have to be stored correctly in correlation with the data collection act, this would mean that it would have to be encoded in a safe practice to in keep with privacy of information.
We need to make sure all callers have provided their consent and don't mention any personal details they don't want broadcasted e.g addresses or full names, this will also be screened in the tweets we will read out.

Section 9 is surrounding the clear contrast between adverts and content in the programme its crucial that the audience know when an advert is being played due to it could seem part of the content of the programme and this being surreptitious advertising, this being unethical and at the risk of financial harm.
I will also be very careful whilst screening my advertisers as I would not want to have unstable sponsorships that support negative views for my audience.
To have a clear differentiation between adverts and content I will announce when an advert will be played this will follow conventions as I will blend it into the introduction of music as well.

Section 10 covers commercial communications, this being a very similar code to section 9 however is more focused on radio use as adverts can be more transparent due to not having a visual element, the adverts must be clearly separated from programme content and this will be done once again by the announcement of adverts to really ensure protection for listeners.

*https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/does-13-reasons-why-glamorize-teen-suicide-111327/

Other legal requirements that would have to be considered whilst creating my show would be elements such as copyright, this would be a huge consideration I would have to factor in due to me playing licensed, due to us playing copyrighted music this will need us to have a PRS license as licensed music has lots of regulations involved.
All stations will have to have a PRS license as popular music is often copyrighted as the musicians intellectual property therefore they must receive a financial gain if their intellectual property is used.

Another legal requirement to be wary of when creating the programme was discussed earlier, this being data protection as we are dealing with private information of our listeners and audience, to ensure we are keeping the information safe and private we must encode them and keep them safely this being very relevant if the audience members are under 18 however this is not our target audience so this isn't our biggest concern but it may be a secondary audience that will need consideration.