There are certain rules and regulations that must be abided by in television, one of the more obvious ones being the 9pm Watershed. What this means is that things that are deemed inappropriate for before 9pm, can be shown after 9pm; these include swearing, alcohol and drug use, sex and nudity. These things are allowed to be shown later as young children will be less likely to see it. An argument could be made about the need to have a watershed as you could argue that children will be exposed to that kind of material with their friends elsewhere, and if TV is a natural representation of society and real life why shouldn't they be able to see it.
In my opinion they should keep the watershed for swearing, sex and nudity as nobody likes to hear little kids in the playground swearing their mouths of as it would most likely get repeated to the nth degree. Sex and nudity should also be kept in the watershed as children could get the wrong idea about sex and possibly treat women with less respect. I also believe however that violence and drug use doesn't need to be kept hidden from children as they will play even more violent video games all the time so it would be pointless, and they won't even get what people are doing or talking about whenever drug use is shown.
Another important issue in the TV industry is licence fees. If you own one or more TV's you have to pay a licence fee, you pay this for as long as you have a TV in your household. The reason behind this is so that the BBC can give us a better service with no adverts. This is unique to any other channels as there adverts pay for the shows that they produce and not the licence fee; the licence fee also pays for radio stations and online features such as Iplayer from the BBC. The problem with this is that some people want to watch TV but not watch BBC channels which in theory means they are stuck and they have to pay the licence fee even if they're not interested in any BBC programming. This can lead to licence fee fraud where people own TV's but don't pay there licence fee as it can be fairly easy to get away with.
Reality shows can cause a lot of controversy with the content they display that some people may find offensive or simply untrue; an example of this would be Geordie Shore as somebody watching the show who has never been to Newcastle may believe that everyone from Newcastle acts like what's shown on the show. The Only Way Is Essex is a new breed of reality show that appears to be real but is actually scripted, this tool is used to make something false seem more believable and gives you free reign to make up whatever you like but in a reality show setting. TOWIE has also come under fire for stereotyping people from Essex and also contributes that the idea that TV is becoming more and more for idiotic and aimed at stupid people, or "dumbing down".
Another example of "dumbing down" would be BBC's heavily criticised coverage of the Diamond Jubilee, presented by the infantile Fearne Cotton. I agree with the argument that TV is getting stupider, as it is very common when I turn the TV on to see the presenters of whatever show to be getting excited like a child over something meaningless.
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