Lecture 6

Hello there!

Let’s be honest, when I was given the set reading for this week and had a look at how many pages there were…I was not keen. But after reading the first line and seeing it was about Sunrise, I was hooked! It’s my fave brekky show and I am actually EXTREMELY interested in commercial media.

After doing a mere 6 weeks of media studies (that’s a shout out to MSTU1000!) I know that commercial media is looked down upon by academics and those of high intelligence. It’s a shame to say but my TV experience has been pretty much 90% commercial, 10% public. I always knew it was driven by advertising but it wasn’t until recently that I found out how much of the actual content is driven by fact that “advertisers are the real customers”.

So in the lecture today we covered many of the major players in commercial media. There were the obvious ones, News Limited, Nine, and Ten but I never really considered Telstra and Optus ‘commercial media’. Honestly though, how could I not? They are media services with a main goal of a making a profit! I was kind of surprised at myself for not realising that earlier.

Also covered were the forms commercial media can take (subscription, sponsored and subsidised) and its three functions (commercial, propaganda and social). Some media organisations exist solely for the purpose of making money and will use whatever they can to get the most eyes/ears on their content. They do this because in the end it equals more profit for them from the advertisers! The danger of this is that quality is beginning to deteriorate. A term that was mentioned in today’s lecture was ‘Mickey Mouse News’. This pretty much sums up the idea of news being dumbed down in order to appeal to the masses. I think though, that ‘the masses’ are often underestimated. I, for example, am not of above intelligence by any means but I can still appreciate an investigative piece of journalism over a story on the best bikinis of next season. I mean, I’ll watch both haha, but the hard hitting story is the one that would really grip me.

Kind of leading to my next point that was mentioned towards the end of the lecture… While advertising revenue for commercial radio is on a steady decline, new ways of money making and business strategies will have to be created. As I’m studying a degree of Commerce/Arts this concept was of real interest to me. If I continue with my study of media there may be prospective jobs for me in the future with these commercial media companies. After completing my degree and majoring in Finance I could be dealing with this issue as part of my day to day job! Today’s consumers would be willing to pay for high quality content. It is becoming increasingly recognisable that the standard of commercial news is not absolutely fantastic and if one particular company really ramps up their game I predict a major pay day for them! Perhaps not the complete pay wall concept but just the fact that advertisers will want their stuff on the most watched (in other words, best quality) station.

I also had a quick look at the Global Mail website. I actually think THAT is a clever business idea. It’s got the quality factor that I was talking about before and I have no doubt it is going to get a strong and loyal fan base who will want to see it continue into the future. Funnily enough while looking through the stories, a piece on John Bird, the media mogul responsible for The Big Issue, caught my attention. His aims couldn’t be further away from the goals of the men and women in charge of the organisations we looked at today and I thought that was all a bit ironic.

Commercial media does have its purpose in society. It employs thousands and entertains millions. Let’s just hope a purpose is kept and that a benefit of some type to the Australian public is continued.