Media Regulations and Media Industry Growth

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In such a small country like Singapore, there are more than 37 media regulations and 11 licenses in our media industry. Due to media regulations, mass media is being controlled by or is under the guidance of the government and other bodies. These regulations and licenses have many goals, such as protecting “public interests” and encouraging the media industry growth. However, in 2009, our media industry has contributed to less than 4.4% of Singapore’s GDP (Wda.gov.sg). Media regulations set by the Media Development Authority (MDA) in Singapore do not promote media industry growth as the regulations reduces the number of audience reached, restrict the freedom of speech and restrict the expression of creativity in the media.

Firstly, media regulations reduce the number of audience reached, which cause a drop in revenues generated. The two significant regulations that are responsible for this is the Free-To-Air Television Programme Code and the new Internet licensing framework under the Broadcasting Act. This Free-To-Air Television Programme Code reaffirms that there is no indecent or controversial content on TV (Mda.gov.sg). Under this regulation, certain spoken languages like dialects are banned on television. For example, a Singapore Dreaming trailer was banned from free-to-air TV and radio for containing too much hokkien (Youtube.com). As a result of this ban of dialects on TV, many of those above 60 years of age who speak only dialects find local media content an alien entertainment. With statistics from the Age Pyramid of Resident Population by Singstat.gov.sg, if our media regulation allowed more spoken languages to be aired on TV, our media will have an approximate 10.5% increase in the number of people reached. Andrea Ong ...

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