Lecture 6 - Commercial Media

 The lecture for Week 6 was all about Commercial Media with emphasis on Australia. We learnt that commercial media  exists so that advertisers can promote their products and the media companies can make a profit on this. I found it interesting to discover which major companies run the commercial media show in Australia. When the names Fairfax, APN, WIN, Nine Entertainment Co., Ten etc came up it was no surprise. I think everyone has heard of these guys. But what did surprised me was how many different kinds of media they produced. For example I always thought of Nine entertainment as the TV channel but the company also dabbles in magazines, digital media and events too!

Commercial media can come in different forms: Subscription (such as Foxtel), Sponsored (Such as Nine) and even subsidized (usually by the government). Its functions are also a combination of commercial, propaganda and social benefits but which functions are emphasized most and least is debatable. Many people believe commercial media, because it is driven by profit, cares little for social benefits. But it also relies heavily on its audience numbers to receive advertising so cannot risk falling out of favour with them. Commercial media must also abide laws set down by Government Agencies to ensure that its content is suitable.

A quote given in the lecture: Comment is free, but fact is sacred

I liked this quote a lot. Anyone can give an opinion or spin a story, but knowing the facts is far more valuable.  In today's world the programs and news shown on commercial media seem to be spiraling ever downwards into the trash can. How much of what we perceive to be fact actually is? How do we know that what we are being told is truth since the companies main goal is to make money?  Bruce discussed this in our lecture, talking about how 'dumbed down' programs are becoming. We get 'Mickey Mouse News' and news 'intended to please' rather than the real stuff but the only plausible reason commercial media would do this is because the audience watches it! There must be a lot of people out there with a hidden love for "A Current Affair" and other trashy news shows. Or maybe it is just very cheap to run.

Here is John McManus opinion: Commercial = Corrupt, lack of quality, profit over-rides social responsibility


I think there is some truth in what John McManus says, though of course he is making a huge generalization. Commercial media is facing some serious challenges in modern society, with less investment from advertisers and greater competition in the market. With less money how can we expect commercial media to produce quality material? And we know that this form of media is driven by profit rather than social gain so the cheaper shows will always win out. That is unless there is a large enough audience and budget worth spending extra money on.

 Less revenue = less investment = less money for quality production = more bought-in content = More repeats of US sitcoms, more reality TV

Not what we want right?!

We ended the lecture with some ideas about how this problem could be solved: Better quality, greater competition, move existing customers over to digital, the government can buy out some of the newspaper