JOUR 1111 Lecture 6: Commercial Media

"Advertisers are the real customers of a commercial media organisation, not its readers, viewers or listeners"

 In my opinion, this sums up the motives of many commercial media companies. Privately owned and profit driven - generated by advertising.

Lecture six basically went through all the major competitors in the world of commercial media, and the different ways that corporations branch out in order to gain the attention of viewers.

One of the biggest challenges commercial media faces is that a loss in revenue equals less investment. Without the ability to invest, there isn't as much money for production, leading to more bought content from overseas. This bought content tends to be old programs prominently from the US.

An interesting point that was raised was the challenges this sort of media faces when balancing commercial (profit) and social (public trust). Do these coporations care about providing true and accurate broadcasts? Or is it all about the 'Benjamins' ($$$)?

Much of the criticism of commercial media is based on its perceived inability to serve the local community because of media consolidation. Freepress.net defines media consolidation as the act of a large organisation buying into local media outlets, and as a result having control of the 'flow' of information that is provided to the public. With this regression in diversity of ownership and programming, comes less viewpoints. Coverage
of local events is affected, and the community is prone to propaganda through excessive advertising.

"Comment is free, but facts are sacred." - C.P. Scott (Editor / Owner of The Guardian)

There is a feeling that the tabloid news that is seen on commercial stations, puts more emphasis on pleasing the viewer, rather than deliver 'real' and quality news. This is indicative of the whole commercial attitude - putting ratings before quality, a clear contradiction of the Hutchins Commission.

This idea of media consolidation helps me understand what Bruce said about private companies creating their own competition. For example, I was surprised to hear that radio stations B105 and Triple M are both owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting.

There is no doubting that commercial media has a tendency to put money before public interest. By definition, 'commercial' is concerned with or engaged in commerce. I guess all we can hope is that the public don't expect anything different.