Woolwich Attack Micro Essay

The case study I will be analysing is the Woolwich terrorist attack/Lee Rigby’s murder. The incident took place on the 22nd of May 2013; two men attacked and murdered a soldier as an act of revenge to all the people who have died through bombs in different Muslim territories. The incident was then broadcasted on several television news networks such as: ITV, BBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera etc. before the watershed. This in fact was what caused a lot of controversy. OFCOM are the communications regulator in UK, who regulate TV, Radio and other sorts of communication, they operate according to the Communications Act 2003. Thus they were the regulators who rose up regarding this television broadcast after receiving about 700-800 complaints about this being inappropriate for viewers. It was said to be unacceptable as the broadcast publicised footage of a man holding a machete and having blood all over his hands. This footage was then repeated several times on different stations, meaning the images were becoming so memorable and clear in people’s minds even children. This is a big issue as children shouldn’t be able to see such explicit and violent content because they can act on it evidence of this is the bobo doll experiment; the idea of kids copying something that they have immediately watched is bound to happen. However the different companies editorially justified the reason why they broadcasted the footage at this time as it was in the public’s interest and it was ‘integral to understanding the horrific incident’ as well as this they thought it was right to inform people immediately as it was so shocking. The media’s instant broadcast and there need to repeat the footage created a moral panic as they started to sensationalise the story making it much bigger than it was thus creating hysteria. People in power had to cancel their plans and call in for unexpected meetings based on this issue.

On the other hand some people may not have been so affected by this outbreak due to them being desensitized by violence. As society are becoming liberal, regulators for other forms of media like the BBFC and PEGI are becoming much more lenient meaning people have been exposed to too much violent scenes in films and games so when they watch this broadcast it wouldn’t have shocked them that much.

Personally I believe that OFCOM are the strictest regulator as they have to work on media that is recurring thus putting a lot of pressure on them which they have to contain. However in this case study OFCOM wasn’t really effective as the television stations had a good excuse to why they broadcasted this footage before the watershed. Overall I believe that OFCOM will only become more lenient in the next fifteen years due to the liberalism in this society. I still believe they will still have a strong ability to regulate programmes that breach the Human Rights.