Unit 25

Text editing programmes are as the name suggests, designed to edit text files. Alot of people tend to get confused what is meant by a text editor and a word processor. A text editor is used to edit 'plain text files', a plain text file is something which is represented and edited by showing all of the characters as they are present in the file. Plain text files are often used for programming and configuration rather than as documentation E.G. detailed instructions and user guides. In the past they were used for this. A word processor is a piece of software that is used to control the characters by enabling different formatting functions such as bold, underline, italic etc. These and other common formatting symbols were once only used with desktop publishing software but now they are used in the simplest word processor. Most word processing software can be used to edit a plain text file but only if the document is saved in the correct format, if you just save it how it is using the word processor it wont be saved as a plain text file. The most common text editors used today are notepad which is a default programme for anyone using the Windows operating system, and WordPad which you normally get with most microsoft packages, although there are a few programmes that can be used as both word processors and plain text editors.

When writing work on a computer especially for important pieces of work or work that is going online it is very important to make sure you proof read your work. Most computers and word processors these days have a built in spell checker and will either automatically correct any small spelling mistakes or underline the work in red if it does not recognise the word you are trying to spell. The main problem with this is that most computers used in the UK have the language settings as American, and not English. This causes small problems as some word may sound the same in each language but are spelt slightly different, eg, the word 'colour' is spelt 'color' in American and therefore will not show up as a spelling mistake or it will automatically change the spelling of colour to the American way of spelling it. Also if you design a company name for example and it uses a strange way of spelling a word or is a word that does not exist the computer will always show it as a spelling mistake unless you add into the computers dictionary. So when writing up work make sure that your computers language is set to English and that you check your own work after your finished just be on the safe side, by reading it out loud so you can easily notice any mistakes as you go. Another function of most word processors is there ability to check for any mistakes in grammar, such as accidental second presses of the space bar, or a missing apostrophe, these grammatical errors will usually be underlined with a green line. Making sure to prof read your work is important becuase if it doesnt make sense then anyone who reads it will not understand and may not want to work with you in the future due to these kinds of errors.


Media ethics covers a long range of different topics, such as broadcast media and journalism, film, theatre, and internet. First of all there are different types of ethics for journalism, such as manipulation of the media, the news can either be manipulated or manipulating, and manipulation can then be split into voluntary and involuntary.  Public interest as the name states focuses on subjects that the general population are interested in, usually high interest stories about current news on wars over the world etc. Privacy is also an important topic when it comes to journalism  as it normally ends up conflicting with the right of free speech. This is due to some journalists finding out secrets about people or celebrities that they may not want the public finding out about or finding out about just yet, but journalists will publish them anyway. The conflict here is that it is a breach of there privacy but the journalist can say they have the right of free speech to say what they want.
There also a different set of ethics based around entertainment media, the most commonly known area of these ethics are those based around the depiction of sex, nudity, violence, and strong language. One way in which the media sector tries and prevents these topics effecting people in a negative way is to give things like games and movies and age restriction limit. The rating system goes from U which means it is suitable for people of all age up to 18+ these ratings and restrictions help media sectors avoid any hassle from parents or families claiming that there content is not suitable for there children etc, but these restrictions stop them viewing anything that is deemed to mature for children. Both advertising and entertainment media make heavy use of stereotypes. Stereotypes may negatively affect people's perceptions of themselves or promote socially undesirable behaviour. Finally we will move onto media and democracy. In democratic countries, a special relationship exists between media and government. Although the freedom of the media may be constitutionally enshrined and have precise legal definition and enforcement, the exercise of that freedom by individual journalists is a matter of personal choice and ethics.