We discussed commercial media in this lecture, which seems to be the majority of our media.
I have Foxtel at home, but I rarely watch it. Truth be told, I mainly watch ABC and SBS (see next blog entry for details)
Commercial media is profit driven, hence the title. It runs like a business, which is to generate audiences, and makes money by selling space to advertisers.
These are the main commercial media outlets in Australia.
Commercial media is incredibly broad, covering as many mediums and topics as possible to appeal to the maximum number of people. They seem to own a monopoly over every form of media. Fairfax Media has print media, Nine has free view TV and WIN has the regional market.
Commercial media can have an agenda due to the sponsorship or subsidies that it receives. For example, Fox News is almost considered propaganda in the US due to it's clear bias towards the Republican Party. It is not here to serve the public interest, but to serve business interest or anyone who has the money and power to make their voice heard.
Which begs the question:
Does commercial media have any purpose in the democratic system?
Media is meant to be representative, critical, factual and all information needs to be accessible. But if commercial media serves the agenda of those with money and power, is it really any of these things?
The Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Australian Press Council have been put in place in order to prevent bias and misinformation in the public. These regulatory bodies are meant to provide an 'ethical wall' between editorial content and the commercial side of media. How successful they are, is another question...
As media becomes more commercial, the less it serves its social function of informing people.
The nature and style of commercial media has lead to its downfall as most critics consider it to be the lowest common denominator type of entertainment and information. It has been dumb downed, the 'news' is just tabloids and it's all about pleasing people to increase the ratings and increase the interests of advertisers.
Are these critiques leading to changes in people's attitude towards commercial media? I asked myself this question when this was presented to us:
Advertising revenue for broadcast media has been rapidly declining and is continuing to do so. As such, there is less money from investment which is causing problems with production. There is less going towards the quality of programming which means that commercial media is just importing things from America (British content is considered too high brow for some, and American productions generally aim at the lowest common denominator).
Personally I'm glad that commercial media is facing harsh times. These challenges can hopefully lead to reform which makes it more about its social function of informing as well as entertaining people. It is possible to entertain a wide range of demographics as well as supply all the essential news and information that people need. It's just that no one has really done it yet.
I think these examples show exactly what commercial media is all about. They show they trivialisation of news and current affairs. The promotion of egotism and to a certain extent, ethnocentrism are very apparent. The last example also indicates manipulation, even if it is a parody...
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