LECTURE #7 - COMMERCIAL MEDIA

Lesson 7 – Commercial Media = MONEY MONEY MONEY!

Commercial media summed up in one phrase = PROFIT-DRIVEN Media Production.

This form of media is not government funded (or licence funded) and essentially it is just a business - a business focused on generating an audience. The larger the audience, the larger the profit produced through selling advertising space. Therefore the bigger the audience of a commercial media outlet, the more money it makes.

Commercial media, although profit driven, plays an integral role in delivering the news of the world to its customers, although at the end of the day is dictated by the dollar.

Commercial Media, like it or not, comprises most ‘mainstream’ media in Australia and therefore is very hard to avoid.

THE MAJOR PLAYERS and JUST SOME OF THE COMPANIES THEY OWN:

FOX 

FOXTEL

NRL

COURIERMAIL

THE AUSTRALIAN

QUEST

SKY NEWS

HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANEL

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

THE AGE

FOXTEL

MY CAREER.COM.AU

BRISBANE TIMES

DOMAIN.COM.AU

FINANCIAL REVIEW

RSVP.COM

9

GO

GEM

NINEMSN

TIKETEK.COM.AU

ACER ARENA

WOMENS WEEKLY

ZOO, CLEO and COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINES

TEN MILDURA

i 98FM

TPG

ST GEOEGE ILLAWARA

C91.3FM

WIN TV

B105

TRIPLE M

SOUTHERN CROSS TELEVISION

TEN

ONE HD

11 (HELLO)

7

7MATE

7TWO

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN

YAHOO

NEW IDEA, WHO and BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS MAGAZINE

  

The purpose of commercial media in the Australian Media Landscape is to act as the eyeballs and ears to advertisers. Commercial media delivers what the public want, however so we as the public really know what we want, or just know no different? To me it seems to be a viscous cycle in which soft news is becoming the one and only form of information audiences are consuming when through many sources of commercial media.

This can result in a dumbing down of the audience, tabloidization* and “Mickey Mouse” news* - all eventuating in a generally ignorant public, which is of course the exact opposite aim of journalism.

The real issue is when the function of profit driven media turns from commercial and social to the extremes of propaganda and programs begin to push a personal political agenda. You only need to take a look at FOX NEWS to see this blatant, publicity driven advertising which people actually pay for!

Speaking of dishing out the dosh, the forms that commercial media come in can be summed up by the 3 S’s – Subscription (e.g. Foxtel), Sponsored (e.g. Chanel 9) and Subsidised (e.g. Govt $$$).

Aside from the extreme can commercial media deliver both commercial (aka profit) and social (aka ‘public trust’) functions? I believe in many cases the answer is yes, they can. Formal state requirements, legal prescription and state oversight all help to “keep the bastards honest” in the world of commercial media.

The challenges for commercial media are also becoming more and more apparent as the industry develops. In the modern media environment mouse clicks determine success of a story. The scary but believable fact is that stats reveal people prefer to read tabloid journalism (don’t get me started!) than hard, real world news – no matter how important.

Another challenge for commercial media is the loss in ad revenue, paper advertising is dramatically increasing (that one’s mostly down to EBAY) while internet advertising is on the up and up as this article from the ABC’s ‘The Drum’ illustrates: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-02-17/wurley-all-the-way-for-mainstream-digital/1947114 

Obviously big business has caught on, as today, 7 out of the top 10 news websites are owned by newspaper publishers.

IN CONCLUSION, in this lecture we’ve learnt that commercial media is profit driven and an integral part of the democratic system and an important part of the Australian Media Landscape. However, as the audience it is our duty to be critical about what we choose to view when it comes to our news and allow ourselves to get our information from a multitude of sources, both commercial and public.

To hear more about what public media is all about, tune in next time!

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*Tabloidization – A newspaper of small format giving the news in condensed form, usually with illustrated, often lurid or sensational material