Lecture 6: Commercial Media

Completely ready to write about this week’s lecture I pull out my note book only to find I wrote 3 whole pages of notes. Not the biggest motivation. But unlike I usual upbeat exciting lecture post (hint of sarcasm), I decided this one is going to be a bit more factual.

Putting it simply, commercial media is profit-driven media productions. It, unlike public media, receives no funding by the government. It survives on its own business successes while primarily come from advertisers. Commercial media has become a lot more common today which major players including, Ten, Win, News Limited and the list goes on. These major players produce things from newspapers to films and everything in between.

When looking at commercial media is it essential to look at its main forms and functions.

The issue that arises is can commercial media really deliver on both commercial (profit) and social (‘public trust’) functions? Or is it just about the money?

Due to the social responsibilities of the media in a democratic society there are rules that are put in place to keep it under control.

P Formal State Requirement

P Legal Prescription

P State Oversight

P Statutory – Australia Communications and Media Authority

P Voluntary – Australia Press Council

There are a few other important factors that need to be noted. So much so that if I keep writing this is going to turn into a short novel. So I am going to leave it with some notes that seemed pretty important.

The Ethical Wall: guarantee of commercial-social functions

New controls on commercial media:  1. Government Agency – Regulating Content

                                                                    2. State Press Subsidies

                                                                    3. Licenced Journalism

Style of Commercial Media:  ‘Corrupt; lack of quality; profit over-rides social responsibility’ John McManus

So in the end what has this, commercial media, all led to. Due to the style of commercial media it has resulted in dumbing-down, tabloidization, the ‘desire to please’ and ‘mickey mouse’ news

So things aren’t looking to positive for commercial media. Especially with the decline of advertising revenue for broadcast media being down it means that:

Loss of revenue = loss of investment = loss of money for quality production = more bought-in content (less original) =more repeats of US sitcoms, more reality TV.

Not the nicest looking equation that is for sure.

I wonder if public media can do any better.

I am sure this was an overload of information but I promise I will be back to normal broadcasting next week.

Till Next Time…