Green eyed monster

This week the topic of commercial media was looked at. First, we compared commercial and public media.

Commercial media                                               vs.                               Public media

- Channel 9, 7, 10                                                                                   - ABC, SBS

- Go!, Gem, 7mate, 7two, one 11                                                           - ABC2, ABC3, ABCnews24

- Extra                                                                                                    - SBSTWO

- Foxtel, Austar

- News Limited, Fairfax Media, APN

- ARN, Austereo

Commercial media: Advertisers are the real customers of commercial media. 

So, commercial media is not to benefit us, the audience? Commercial media is driven by profit. It is non-government funded and relies on business success; it's business is generating audiences. How confusing. 

Commercial media uses Form & Function to generate audiences and bring in the big bucks.

Form = Commercial = Subscription, sponsorship and subsidies.
Function = Commercial, propaganda and social.

In a democratic society, commercial media must be truthful, comprehensive and intelligent. It must have an exchange of comment and criticism. It must be able to represent groups in society. It must clearly represent and clarify the goals and values of the society. It must have full access to the day's intelligence.

To keep it all under control, there are certain elements that are employed to monitor all of the above. They are:

• Formal state requirements
• Legal prescription
• State oversight
• Statutory 
• Voluntary

To guarantee social-communication functions, there is an ethical wall between commercial and social. 

On the commercial side is advertising sales; on the social is editorials. Keeping this balance allows for peace within 'The Public Sphere' ((Jurgen Habermas) A space between commerce and government where  people can debate freely (and form public opinion).)

Commercial media is now facing new challenges, such as: 

• Less revenue
• Les investment
• Les money for quality productions
• More brought-in content
• More US repeats

All of which leads to more repeats of US sitcoms and reality TV. 

What they NEED is quality, greater competition and to move existing customers to digital. 

A new interesting step for commercial media has recently come in the form of an online medium of news reports. This new websites utilises talented journalists all over the world and allows them the opportunity to write what they want. It's really quite an interesting site! 

Check it out here!