PUBLIC media: Lecture 7!

So the last lecture was all about Commercial media where as this week's lecture was all about the other kind of media,  Public Media.

So if commercial media is profit driven, public media, being opposite, is audience driven.

Mission statement: to serve or engage a public.
That's it! Pretty simple stuff, but that's not to say that, because it's not profit driven, that it does not make a profit.  But rather the profit is put back into the broadcasting, and back to the people through public media. It is just not owned/run by the government but rather by common people, such as me and you. But it still needs funds from the government which leads to a dilemma...

"There is tension between being a watchdog of the government while being allocated funds by the government. It has to bite the hand that feeds it."

The public media are channels such as ABC, SBS, Channel 4, NHIC Japan, NPR, CBC and the list goes on. People usually have to standpoints about the style of these kind of channels. People such as my grandfather or my dad absolute love these kind of channels. They are serious, broadsheet style, they present news of importance over interest and the stuff they produce has been well thought out, as opposed to being quick and unchecked. There are also very little advertisements and it is very straight to the point about what it is broadcasting, and most of all it reports the news majority of the time, unlike the profit driven commercial media which focuses on drawing the audience with the kazillion ads and the hosts talking about what they think we want to hear- gossip and the most interesting stories. News is an extremely important mechanism of public media. However, as more common with people such as me, or even perhaps SOME of the younger generations who aren't as fond of the news as the older generations might find these channel's style quite boring, elitist, uninteresting, poorly presented and out of touch. This could be because we are so used to commercial media delivering the things that would attract us, where as public media is delivering the stuff we NEED TO KNOW.

What do the public media stations believe is the role of public media?

BBC states:

Public media is:

1) embedding a 'public service' to others
2) it should have service for the public
3) value for license fee money
4) weighing public value against market impact
5) public consultation


It is all about public servicing broadcasting, it needs to be:
- Geographical universality: available to everyone
- Universality of appeal: it should cater for everyone not just particularly people and/or groups.
- Special provision for minorities
- Distanced from all vested interest

So what are the overall functions of PM?

-Nation building
-National heritage
-National identity
-National conversations

Public media communications/functions:
-'The Press'
-Entertainment
-Utility
-Social
-Propaganda

So what should public media continue to do to keep/expand it's audience?
1) Quality is important, and if done right, can become a great advantage of commercial media
2) Make themselves relevant
3) Engage with the democratic process
4) To inform the public
5) to be independent

But most of all is needs to continue to have public value. It needs to continue to be audience-motivated as opposed to profit-motivated. We need public media to find the important stories around the world that is often left out of the commercial media news. I find when I need to know directly what is happening around the world, I go to the sites of public media. For me, it is straight to the point, not as opinionated, and as previously stated it is all about importance rather than interest.

THE END. :)