Types of working contracts

 A confidentiality contract is a written agreement when companies start working together or to keep a project hidden from the public. It is a clear indication that the information is private. An example of this could be beyonce’s new album where the recording of this was kept private and nobody knew about this until it came out. Another example is star wars – the phantom menace, where again the production of the film was kept a secret, and nobody knew about it until it came out.

The second type of contract is exclusivity. This is when a production team has the right to idea into their film or TV production. This usually happens for an adaptation of a book, where the company buys the rights from the book and has a period of exclusivity in order to produce it. An example of this can be “The Watchman” where Warner Bro’s developed it into a film.

Ethical considerations when working in the media

Media production companies need to consider the way people are presented in a production. In television, production companies need to consider how different groups, religions and individuals are represented. In Eastenders for example, a range of all different ethnic groups and backgrounds with different religions are presented in Eastenders who live on “Albert Square”. In a gang which recently stabbed a boy in Eastenders, the production company made sure that a range of black and white people were part of the gang in order for none of the viewers to feel that they are presenting a stereotypical look of what they think a gang would look like. Production companies try not to be sexist, so there are a mixture of successful and unsuccessful characters in Eastenders, both male and female.

All production companies need to insure they cover all the acts and regulations (later explained in another section) which is set out to protect viewers in order for no one to be offended. They have to consider ethical issues such as trust, truth, privacy and serving the publics interest. Take the BBC for example. Their main aim principle is to serve the publics interest according to a quote by the charter; “the BBC exists to serve the publics interest.” The BBC follow their set principles and practices of acting ethically which they must obey. All production companies are expected to follow their editorial guidelines to insure that no viewers have any social concerns. 

Employment Legislation

The equal opportunities act

The equal opportunities act is a state legislation act which makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person for their gender, race or disability. This also includes religious beliefs and sexual orientation. It lays the basic rights and freedom that any one in the United Kingdom is protected. For example, if an employer has a choice of 3 different future employees and one of them is black, that makes them no different to any of the other employees and should be considered purely on how well they will work in the job.

The employment equality (age) regulations 2006

The employment equality (age) regulations 2006 were set to make it unlawful for employers to discriminate employees according to their age.  For example, employers shouldn’t take into account a future employees age even if they feel theyre age is not right for the job. It is not their choice and age shoudn’t have to be a reason not to hire someone.

Employee Rights

An employee is entitled to a statement of the terms and conditions of their employment. This includes the hours employees are expected to work, sick pay, whether job is temporary or permanent, job title and description, holiday pay, and rate of pay. Employee rights also include Right to the minimum wage, Right to rest breaks, Right to time off public duties (for example Christmas day), right to redundancy pay, and right to not be fairly dismissed.

Trade Union

A trade union is an organization made up of members (workers). Trade unions try ad develop close working relationships with employers.  Most workers join trade unions because they believe it can negotiate better pay and working conditions (this can also include holidays or improved health and safety), provide training, and are available to give help and support.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property rights are the rights given to people over their mind creations. It gives the creator a right over their creation for a certain period of time.  Intellectual property rights are divided into two main areas.

The first area is COPYRIGHT. Copyright right protects the rights of authors literary and artistic work. This includes aspects such as books, paintings, films, music and computer programs. Also protected through copyright are actors, musicians, singers and sound recordings. One of the purposes of this is to reward creative work and to make sure nobody else claims its theirs.

The second area in Intellectual property rights is INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY. Industrial property can be divided into 2 parts. The first part is the protection of signs and logos (this could distinguish goods, services or logos). For example, no other company could steal the walkers crisp logo and use it as their own. This right therefor protects consumers. The second part is the rights for other types of industrial property such as design, innovation and the creation of technology to be protected. The main purpose of this is to protect the development of new technology. 

Methods of recruitment for media jobs

There are many different ways of entering the media industry. One of the most successful ways of doing this is through contacts. By having contacts with different people in the media industry you have a great opportunity of knowing what jobs are available and people you know who could possibly get you to that desired job. To get a good lot of contacts, people network and go to networking gatherings. This is a type of get together where people can learn things about eachother and what they do as their job, they can therefore exchange contact details if they feel they could get good use out of the job they do.

It used to be that the only way to get a job in the media industry was through word of mouth. However now, the majority of production companies have a lot more work than they can handle and try to fill these positions with talented and creative people. They put adverts on media job sites such as “media Guardian” or “Mandy”. Here, people can see a list of all the different media job opportunities that companies have to offer.

Another method of recruitment into the media industry is through being promoted. People tend to start from the bottom in this industry through either doing work experience for free or working at a low pay.  Getting promoted means getting noticed, and being recruited for a better and usually higher paid job. This could mean that an assistant editor could get promoted to the head editor, or working backstage behind the scenes you could get promoted as a costume assistant.