JOUR1111 Lecture 6

Commercial media = media to make money.

Big names in the broadcast and distribution of media like Foxtel, Ten, Seven and Nine are really only a useful tool for the real beneficiaries of commercial media... the advertisers. A popular TV show with high ratings is an advertising playground and advertisers cleverly use these opportunities to bombard viewers with the latest products, styles and the newest addition to the McDonald’s menu. There is little wonder why I always crave McDonald’s after watching television!

And with the new news and semantic web, consumers are being handed to the advertisers on a silver platter and are unwillingly but certainly not unconsciously assailed by ads. Who can ignore the ads that coat a webpage or the commercials that interrupt your favourite show every ten minutes?
Commercial media is first and foremost a business and like almost all businesses their highest priority is to make a profit. Sure, they have a responsibility to be entertaining but it all links back to money; the more they please their consumers, the more dollars they can rake in. The focus now is on ‘Mickey Mouse’ news or profit over quality and has lead to the tabloidization and the ‘dumbing-down’ of news to appeal to the masses.

The great influence of advertisers on commercial media is reflected in the organisation, News Limited. Rupert Murdoch’s big money makers include 20^th Century Fox and Foxtel and on the opposite end of the spectrum are the newspapers like The Australian and The Courier Mail. As said by Dr Bruce, newspapers are only a vanity project for ‘Uncle Rupert’ and once he is gone, what is the likelihood that they will survive without him? With much easier and visible ways to advertise, the advertisers have very little need to use a medium that seems to be on its way out and so there is very little money left in the newspaper game.

Commercial media treads on a fine line between the drive for money and fulfilling its social functions with regards to upholding public trust. It has a role in a democratic society to provide ‘full access to the day’s intelligence’, truthful and comprehensive accounts and project a ‘representative picture of the constituent groups in society’. Commercial media often slips over into the field of propaganda (e.g. the political opinions of Fox News in the US). I feel that powerful figures within media organisations do not have the right to manipulate the opinions of the public simply because they have access to the eyes and ears of many people.

Commercial media organisations have to be wary they do not overstep the ethical wall between their advertising and political agendas else sacrifice their responsibility to the public.

“Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted”

Greater competition will encourage commercial media organisations to lift their game. It is not all bad news for commercial media as many people want quality and so are willing to pay for it.