Working for the BBC: Codes and Conventions.

What is the BBC? BBC stands for 'British Broadcasting Corporation' and is a public service broadcasting corporation. Its main responsibility is to provide impartial public service in the United Kingdom. The main finance resource for the BBC is the tax of everyone above 18 who are working in the united kingdom.

When working for the BBC it is important to understand the codes and conventions of the BBC, specially with the radio side of BBC, your probably thinking what are codes and conventions? well codes and conventions are the rules which govern how you write or shoot a media piece.

Accuracy

So just to help your understanding of the codes and conventions of the BBC, i will give you an example of one of the codes and conventions for the BBC is; accuracy, for example one of the genres in BBC radio is politics this can relate to accuracy in the sense that if there was a debate going on about the idea of 17 year old paying for tax, the statistics and facts should of course be accurate because if the stats given were false the audience would lose trust in the  radio station that's why it is important to make sure that information given out is true and not false.

'Accuracy means not only getting the objectively verifiable ‘facts’ right – names, places, dates of birth, quotes, the results of sporting fixtures – but accurately reporting opinions expressed by those who you report.'<sup>1   
so for example when the presenter quoting a different person the presenter has to make sure he says the quote correctly and doesn't miss out a word so that it is raw and actually seems like it was from a different source.


Opinion
Opinion is really simple easy to explain as its simply the audience or guests etc on the radio station having an opinion on a topic which could be part of a debate where both sides have there own opinions on the topic whether its for and against. This gives the opportunity for the audience to actually feel that they are involved in the programme, by interacting with the presenter putting there opinion on the show. 

Balance</sup>
Balance within the radio industry is pretty simple, balance means 'An even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady' 8. in terms of radio keeping the balance in a debate so its equal and not biased, for example there should be equal amount of points for the argument aswell as against the argument.

^Bias

bias, bias is being 'Prejudice in favour of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way where you be unfair' 2.for example a discussion on a programme where a group of people are being biased in an opinion where they don't think about the other side of the topic this is being biased. ' Bias is thought to manifest itself in various ways; in stories which are ‘one-sided’, in material which is incomplete, and in reportage which ignores entire events and/or alternative viewpoints.<sup>1'

impartiality</sup>

impartiality is 'an inclination to weigh both views or opinions equally^{3' it is not the same as balance, neutrality or objectivity but it contains the element of all three.its all about providing a range of view so for example a BBC journalist would have to seek out and weigh up both sides of the arguments on a specific issue without being biased.}

Access

Access is basically the 'A means of approaching or entering a place^4' 

^{In terms of radio its basically the audience having access to programmes which increases the interactivity between the presenter and audience , for example in terms of radio programmes some programmes may allow the audience to phone in to share there opinions on a specific topic like BBC radio do on some of there programmes.}

Privacy

Privacy is the state of being free from public interest, so for example in terms of radio, if a programme has a interview of a person based on the topic which is sensitive for example 'politics, a specific MP being interviewed over the phone who may not want his name to be mentioned will ask for this, the presenter will inform the audience of this along with a reason but the audience could claim that it is there interest that they should know the name and could be argued. 'The law in the area of privacy aims to allow individuals to take action on, and also prevent the publication of, information about their private life where there is no public interest in its publication.^5'

Subjectivity

Subjectivity is the judgement of individuals based on personal impressions, feelings and opinions. so for a radio stations which purpose is to help people with how they feel emotionally this will mainly be based around subjectivity with the presenter asking the audience personal questions like there opinion on a specific topic to resolve there emotional problems. 'The individual subject is a product of class, gender, age, ethnicity and so on.' 7

Representation

Representation is a obvious yet the 1 simplest one of the codes and conventions of BBC, the meaning of representation is 'The action of speaking or acting on behalf of someone or the state of being so represented' 6. so for example in terms of radio is difficult as trying represent information to the audience could be quite tricky as they will have to try and understand through speech. it would've been easier for the audience to understand with matching visuals which would help the understanding of the audience.


This assignment is now completed!