All members of the press have to maintain the highest professional standards, subsequently ‘The Editors Code’ was created in January 1991 (though changes have been made since). The code protects both the rights of the individual and the public's right to know.

What does the Code include?

Accuracy: The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures. If misleading information is printed it must be corrected promptly and if necessary an apology published. The press have a duty to make sure – within the article – that it’s clear and easy to distinguish between comment, conjecture and fact.

Opportunity to reply Editors must ensure there are available opportunities to correct inaccuracies.

Privacy Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life (this included photographs taken in private places) without consent.Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit. – If asked by the individual not to, they are required not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals

Intrusion into grief and shock In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made withsympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively; however this doesn’t restrictthe right to report legal proceedings.

The PCC – Press Complaints Commission – is an independent body which deals with complaints about editorial content or magazines and newspaper articles.

In November 2010 alone they received 387 complaints.

The Editor’s Code continued...

Children A child under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or

another child’s welfare unless consent is given.

Children in sex cases The press must not identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accuses and the child.

Hospitals Identification of journalist who must obtain permission to be on site.

Reporting of Crime Names of relatives or friends of the accused must not be stated.

Victims of sexual assault No identification of victims

Discrimination No prejudices (race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability)

Financial journalism Journalists should not print for own financial gain.

Confidential sources Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.

Payment to criminals: Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glorify or glamorise crime in general, must not be made directly or via agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates – who may include family, friends and colleagues.

“Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private lives”

Clive Goodman, royal editor of the News of the World, was arrested and sentenced for four months in jail after intercepting private phone messages to and from Prince William and Harry in 2007.Sentenced along side him was private investigator Glenn Mulcaire who confessed to illegally intercepting and listening to voicemails belonging to Gordon Taylor (Chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association), Simon Hughes (Member of Parliament), Elle Macpherson (Model) and Skylet Andrew (agent of Sol Campbell). Although the code is there, newspapers don’t always abide by it.

Naomi Campbell, well-known super model, once sued the Mirror after printing photographs of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. She was given £3,500 compensation the judge ruled the publication caused her distress. Naomi said she felt “shocked, betrayed and violated.” -There is often misprinted, confidential or evasive information that is printed which violates the Editor’s Code yet only the rich are able to afford to argue their case in court. So is there always opportunity to reply?

Piers Morgan one of the most controversial Editors, of the News of the World and the Mirror, was always hounded by the PCC. He printed a front-page picture of Victoria Spencer, former wide of Earl Spencer, in a detox clinic which goes against the Editor’s Code of Practice

Research was conducted by Meenakshi Gigi Durham on teen media use among middle-school girls in Iowa. all girls who took part in the experiment expressed some disapproval of their body and furthermore, some had resulted into extreme methods, e.g. Starvation.

If you turn on you television to watch the news or read a newspaper, you are likely to find a string of negative news reports. Some agree that the negative media is far more interesting but is this creating a defeatist and pessimistic attitude? Now psychologists are looking into the possible psychological effect people have after a period of time exposed to negative news

There is on going argument over whether some Magazine beauty and dieting advise and imagery is harmful or

helpful.

Although media, in general, is not a direct cause of suicide it is definite influence. Teenagers, specifically aged

between 13-15 – are at their most vulnerable. It is said that girls who are avec magazine readers, specifically

magazines that divulged dieting tips or print size 0 models, are three times as likely to change their eating

regimes. This has later led to eating habits such as: anorexia or bulimia. Other mental illnesses have been

found to develop, including depression (main cause of suicide).

Upon researching anorexia, in the Google search engine, the second top suggestion, once typing ‘anorexia’ in

was ‘anorexia tips’. I was easily able to find websites promoting severe dieting, tips were given to hide what

your anorexia from family members as well as how to stay skinny (for example, eating toilet paper). I

personally know a girl who ventured onto these sites which guided her to become anorexia. She said she

would upload images of herself, bearing in mind she was size 0, others would comment saying things like ‘keep

It up’.

Certain things written by newspapers may not have a severe impact, such as suicide or self-harm, but often leads to riots or protests. An example of this would be when the Daily Mailpublished an article after a 13 year old girl committed suicide and blamed a popular alternativerock band, My Chemical Romance. They also insulted many ‘emos’ and the emo subculturereporting it as a “sinister teenage craze that romanticises death” and writing “No child is safe”.Consequently My Chemical Romance fans protested outside of the Daily Mail’s headquarters inLondon.

However negative the media is portrayed, it is not of course all ‘doom and gloom’. It is a largeand easily accessible mode of communication that in some way or another everyone uses.Newspapers often promote and publicise charities and recognises their fundraising efforts. Themedia can also help locate people, due it being wide scale, which is significantly positive.Though controversial it was the press who originally discovered the MP expense scandal.Typically they printed the information they had found and this lead to enquiries andfurthermore arrests.

My Chemical RomanceProtestors outside the Daily Mail Headquarters