JOUR1111 Lecture 7

Public media has a mission to serve and engage the public. It is the type of news we should be consuming, the equivalent of our daily intake of fruit and vegetables. But of course, commercial media provides the public with a more tasty meal, albeit full of junk food which ultimately attracts the mass audiences. That being said, everything in moderation is fine! I admit that I am far more likely to consume commercial broadcast media than public media.

However, 41% of Australians still receive their news from the ABC, the major public media organisation in Australia. While commercial media just wants to break the story, public media checks and rechecks the ‘true’ story. Public media publishes serious stories and places importance over interest, so instead of celebrity ‘scandals’, public media covers political activity. With 12.6 million people watching ABC TV every week, this just goes to show that people still want quality.

Public media has the responsibility to produce quality, to make themselves relevant, to engage with democratic process, to inform the public and to be independent. Public media certainly walks a fine line when it comes to remaining independent and portraying an unbiased view of politics.

While public media is held in common by the people, it is the government that allocates the funds. You can see where the tension arises as the media serves as the government watchdog, alerting the public as to their actions and reminding them of election promises that may have slipped their minds. Essentially, public media is stuck in a position where they must bite the hand that feeds them.  As the government has control over legislation and funding of public media it is inevitably highly politicised.

“The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens”

Public broadcasting treats their viewers as citizens with a vested interest in current and political affairs. In addition, as it belongs to the people it needs to provide public value in the sense that it is embedded with a public service ethos, it consults the public, it places public value over market impact and simply provides the value of the license fee money.

I often find it hard to think of commercial and public media being in competition. Both provide a very different service and yet they seem to be complementary. A person often craves some ‘junk food’ and would rather be entertained just as a person may get tired of commercial media and want a dose of ‘healthy’ or serious news.