Lecture 7: Public Media

‘The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens’ (Nigel Milan).  After looking at commercial media last week, it was public media’s turn. Public media’s ‘mission’ is to serve or engage a public audience. Instead of making its income through commercial means, it is supported by its viewers, the public, the taxpayers.

Public media players include the ABC and SBS as well as their branches such as triple j and their various TV stations statistics suggest. When you think about the shows you watch on TV it is more common to find an interest with commercial media stations. However, I, like many of Australian kids, was brought up watching ABC kids. From shows like ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘Round the Twist’, the ABC has managed to stick with me through my self-indulgence of kids TV shows, or being interested to see what Jenny is wearing on tonight’s weather report. As for the SBS, I never really watched that as a kid. Perhaps that is because as Dr Redman said, SBS might stand for sex between soccer. Of course when I made this joke to Dad, a noted SBS watcher, he clearly pointed out that the SBS wouldn’t be caught dead referring to soccer as anything other than football. He did not offer an alternative to sex though. As I have gotten older the SBS has become a station I look for, from and old obsession with ‘Big Love’ to watching the occasional ‘Rockwiz’ with Dad. Surprisingly public media does play a large role in the public's, well mine at least, viewing.

Back on topic, as a media of the public, it is important that public media please the public; it needs to have ‘public value’. According to the BBC this means:
·         Embedding a ‘public service ethos’
·         Value for licence fee money
·         ‘Weighing public value against market impact’
·         Public consultation.

Like commercial media, public media has specific functions such as nation building, national heritage, national identity and national conversations. These functions reinforce public media’s mission to provide balanced programming to the public who supports it. 

The issue arising for public media is that it cannot compete with commercial media. Thus public media is criticised for slowly becoming more commercialised. With the introduction of ABC shops and the world game shop by SBS, it is essential that a line be drawn that ensures that public media is still follows the ‘public value’ and provides the viewers with what they are paying for.

Till Next Time...