Content is Free but Facts are Sacred - Commercial Media Week 6 Review

 This weeks lecture was on Commercial Media in Australia. 

When thinking about the media landscape in Australia a few corporations come to mind. Televisions such as 7, 9, 10 and their affiliates (e.g 7mate, GO!, etc) cable television (Foxtel, Austar) , and companies such as Fairfax media, SBS, abc and the Australian National Radio are all elements that make up the landscape. 

The main and sole purpose commercial media exists is because it provides eyes and ears to advertisers. Advertisers are the real customers of commercial media not readers listeners or viewers.

So, what is commercial media anyway?

Its profit-driven media production that is not government funded or license funded. It only survives or fails depending on its business success. This business success is measured by how much of an audience is generated thus how much profit is made from advertisers.

Some of the major players in commercial media include: 

 ·      News Limited

·      Fairfax Media

·      APN

·      Nine

·      Win

·      Southern Cross

·      Seven West Media

·      Ten

·      Telstra

·      Optus

·      Macquarie 
·      Austar 

There a several challenges that commercial media have to overcome in order for it to continue comfortably. The advertising revenue for broadcast media (radio) is down and is continuing to decrease, a trend that is also occurring in television. Because of this loss of revenue there is a loss of investment therefore less money for quality production.  This is why there is more bought it content (American sitcoms) and reality television.

 So what does this mean when looking at the future of commerical media? one must ask these 4 questions:  

1.   how does Commercial Media contie to make profits if advertising revenue is declining?

2.   How does it continue to serve the advertisers audience and the public good?

3.   What kind of audience are we expected to get?

4.   What cumulative effect does this have on the practice of journalism and public communication? 

Before we see the end to commercial media completely, there are some solutions. The main thing to consider is quality as it is believed people will pay for it. some other ideas include: greater competition, moving existing customers to digital and paywalls on internet (which is no longer and idea but a reality)