"The difference between commercial broadcasting and public media is the difference between consumers and citizens." - Nigel Milan (former Managing Directer of SBS)
What a great little quote. A quote that very much sums up my own opinion in a, lets be honest, much nicer way. Now, we all remember commercial media is profit driven. The definition of public media is:
"In general, a media whose mission is to serve or engage a public...it may be for profit as long as it's ultimate goal is to serve the public and not to turn a profit."
- WGBH Educational Foundation Conference Open Content and Public Broadcasting (19-21 September 2006)
The main reason's why we need Public Media are
- Public Value - embedding a public service ethos
- Value for licensing fee
- Weighting public value against market impact
- Public consultation - Geographic universality - access to the whole of the country
- Universality of appeal - cater for all interests
- Special provision for minorities - eg, SBS in Australia
- Relationship to the sense of national identity and community - National building, heritage, identity and conversations
- Distanced from all vested interests
- Liberate rather than restrict broadcasters
Public media has a huge role on impacting a country, and ensuring those companies which are purely commercial and ensuring the public has access to many different avenues of not only news but of light entertainment. A huge area of this though is the news where Public Media really is in place to ensure we are able to have a less bias account of the news, as we trust public media news more than we would trust news programs such as 'Today Tonight' and 'A Current Affair'.
41% of Australian;s get their news from ABC, however, there is the argument that public media news can be elitist, of limited interest and possibly out of touch as some people would prefer to watch news casts such as 'The Project' rather than ABC 7pm News. Public media is getting less prominence, and investigative journalist is slowly decreasing as we as a world have less resources in Journalism. The problem with this is that investigative journalism is the journalism that changes the world, and acts as a reality check to many companies, individuals and even nations.
While Public and Commercial media outlets are very different, they do have the same challenges. They both need audiences. To sum it up: Without an audience, there is no ratings, without ratings no profit, without profit no journalists.
Basically, like any media outlet, public media must follow the Journalist Code of Ethics to remain honest, independent and relevant. The Australian code is found here.
It is safe to say it is a hard road ahead for Journalists in yet another area. It seems the more I study this course, the more I'm being persuaded to take a different career path... But what is rewarding if it's not a challenge?
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