Is it acceptable to have a "Page 3"

A YouGov survey carried out in October 2012 found marked differences in attitude toward Page 3 among readers of different newspapers. 61% ofSun readers wished to retain the feature, while 24 percent said that the newspaper should stop showing Page 3 women. However, only 4% ofGuardian readers said The Sun should keep Page 3, while 86% said it should be abolished. The poll also found notable differences by gender, with 48% of men overall saying that Page 3 should be retained, but just 17% of women taking that position.You Gov / Survey Results.

What do you think?

I asked regular readers of The Sun to find out their thoughts on whether they think Page 3 is acceptable and should still be in the paper…

I asked a total of 50 people. 25 were female and the other 25 were males. I decided to conduct my own research to find out if the views and opinions were still the same

The poll below shows the results..

Its evident through my research that a majority of females are highly against Page 3. 90% of females disagree with the page and believe that it should be discontinued.

One female expressed that the page is "derogative" and shows no respect to women at all. another expressed that she is surprised that the page has been running for so long and people haven't addressed how harmful this page is to children.

Males on the other hand were seen as more engrossed in keeping Page 3, it was understood that it's never been a problem and there's never been a big deal about the page.

Questions & Answers

Males

Darren Spain, 22, Full Time Business Student. Reads The Sun once a week says:

"I'm not sure if i see the big deal about Page 3, if people were so unhappy with it then why didn't they get rid of it in the first place. I think it's alright to look at, it's not like its the front page"

Andrew Gwia, 28, Full Time Employment, Regular reader of The Sun says:

"I can understand why people are concerned about a topless woman out in the open. I wouldn't want my children to see that"

Females

Elizabeth Ansah, 49, Full Time Employment, Reads The Sun twice a week says:

"As a woman it is an issue, i would never want my daughter posing for such things. Young children nowadays are influenced by the women that they see in the media, i think The Sun ought to think about how the publicise this"

Jackie Abrafi, 31, Full Time Student, Reads The Sun every other day, says:

"Maybe the newspaper lure in customers that way, i so kind of think it's sexist because why can't they use a man instead why does it always have to be a woman?"

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What's the difference?

When looking at the different types of media outlets around the world and how they broadcast the news we tend to see differences between them. The standards of taste and decency being one of them. Ethical standards for journalists are different when looking at stories from the UK and abroad.

For example the UK tend to have a different standard to other countries when it comes to controlling what goes in and out of the media. This mainly because they have standards to uphold to please their audience and not to offend them. While on the other hand for example other parts of Europe, like Germany and Spain choose to appeal to their audience differently.

What is meant by standards?

In the UK the media try to care about their audience and their feelings towards whatever processed on the news. This means by setting some rules/standards to abide by in order not to cross those boundaries and upset people. These are created by Ofcom, an independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. There rules for Harm and Offence (Taste and Decency) are generally there to follow in order to avoid publishing harmful material that could potentially harm and offend the public. This includes publishing explicit pictorial content or video imagery, violence, sex, bad language etc.

Other countries are not as squeamish as the Britain and in fact have a higher tolerance when it comes to gory content or explicit imagery.

However when looking at the ethics of publishing the "Page 3" models in The Sun, do people agree with it being publicised. Having run for almost over 45 years it has come across so much controversy but yet has still manages to be the most popular page in the newspaper.

Other countries in Europe too have a "Page 3" and consider it as a