Lecture 6 -  Commercial Media

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      Within the lecture listened to today, the commercial media world was uncovered and discussed as to what constitutes commercial media and the challenges it is faced with. I have grouped each points learnt into main categories below. This particular lecture was extremely interesting yet a little hard to follow sometimes due to the pace of the power point, otherwise I was intrigued by the many functions and capacities commercial media is able to have. 

            The Australian Media Landscape
      Commercial media examples include: Win, Seven, Ten, GO!, Gem, One, Eleven, Foxtel, Austar, News  Limited, Fairfax, etc whilst Public Media examples include: ABC, ABC News, SBS etc

·         Why does commercial media exist?

·         The main objective of commercial media is getting the audience to the advertisers, to sell the "product" as such, in reality, advertisers are the real customers.

·         What is commercial media?

·         Commercial media is basically a profit-driven media production that is not government funded or license funded. It also survives or fails on business success and its main objective is generating audiences. Basically, what happens is that you create audiences to generate profit through selling advertising to them. The major players which are involved within commercial media are mainly: News limited, Fairfax Media, APN, Nine, Win, Southern Cross Broadcasting, Ten, Telstra, Optus, Austar

·         What do the major producers produce

·         The major producers mainly produce Newspapers, cable TV, Film, Magazines, Books, Sports, regional newspapers, digital media, radio, outdoor advertising, free to air tele-coms and more. Below are a list of example that Commercial media is involved with: 

·         Fox sports, NRL, Sky News, 20^th Century Fox, The Courier Mail, National Geographic Channel, Brisbane times, Financial Review, The Age, domain.com.au, mycareer.com.au, RSVP, APN News and Media, Gympie Times, 97.3 fm, Finda, ADShell, Nine Entertainment, GO, Gem, Ninemsn, Nine, Woman Weekly, Cleo, Cosmo, Ticketek, Acer Arena, St George, TPG, B105, Triple M, Aus Stereo, Seven West Media, Pacific Magazines, Telstra, Optus, Macquarie

What is the form and function of Commercial Media?

The form of commercial media is in three major categories: Subscription, sponsorship, subsidization. Whilst the  function of Commercial media is more focused upon the propaganda used and social aspect

What is Commercial Media’s role in a democratic society?

Before this question can be answered, another has to be asked, can commercial media deliver on both commercial and social functions? 

Social responsibility of the Media in a Democracy

Within the media forum, there should be five main guidelines that should be followed by at all times:

 1. A truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning

2. A forum for the exchange of comment and criticism

3. The projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups of society

4. The presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society   

5. Full access to the day’s intelligence.

To keep these particular responsibilities under control, there need to be certain rules and requirements in place such as Formal State Requirements, Legal Prescriptions, State Oversights, Statutory and Voluntary requirements. To guarantee that commercial media upholds its social functions in a democracy, there needs to be a distinct, ethical wall set up between the commercial and social spheres (advertising/sales and editorial positions). Jurgen Habermas discussed the public sphere by stating its defintion: "The space between commerce and government where people can debate freely and form public opinion."

Functions – commercial, social and policies

·         C.P. Scott stated his particular opinion on the functions of commercial media: "The first duty of the media is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free, but facts are sacred." This quote is extremely thought-provoking, when is a comment counted as fact or truthful? 

New (social?) controls on commercial media

·         New controls that have recently been implemented within commercial media are through Government agencies where content is regulated, state press subsidies and now licensed journalism.

Style of Commercial media

According to John Macmanus, commercial media is "corrupt, lack of quality, profit over-rides social responsibility. Professor Michael Bromley somewhat agrees with this statement as he comments: "In this regard, one thing stands out above all others – the view that the very nature of the commercial equates to a corruption of the social. In other words, as media become more commercial, they do so at the expense of their social function. This is seen as a zero-sum game. Profits come before quality" 

Results of the Style of commercial media

Due to the style of commercial media, four main results have arisen such as dumbing-down of news stories, Tabloidisation, the desire to please the public and  “Mickey Mouse” news

Challenges for Commercial Media

Jonathon Holmes from Media Watch commented on the challenges for commercial media by stating:

·        “There was a time, not so long ago, when running a media company - be it one that specialized in newspapers, in radio, in television, or in all three - was a pretty simple job. Keep the costs within bounds, use your clout to ensure that governments didn't permit too much competition, make sure your content delivered audiences of a quality and in a quantity that your advertisers expected, and the money rolled in.”  There are many challenges associated with commercial media such as the advertising revenue for broadcast media is down and continues to slide down, the loss of revenue therefore means less investment and less money for quality production, subsequently, more bought-in content that is less original which then equals to more repeats of US sitcoms and reality shows. Back in the olden days, the connection between content and sales was indirect, and difficult to measure. Many needed a car, a unit, or a job and used the paper to find one. Many browsed the sports pages or the lifestyle sections or the magazines. Therefore, the evidence is in the number of clicks that each story attracts, this is what is measured. 

Is there any good news for Commercial Media
One piece of good news for commercial media is the taking up of the digital revolution, however is this true? Is commercial media actually moving into the technological revolution?

The future of commercial Media – A bunch of questions

How does Commercial Media continue to make profits if advertising revenue is declining?

How does it continue to make profits if advertising revenue is declining?

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

What kind of audience can it expect to get?

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


Some business solutions:
The quality of commercial media needs to be better, bigger and have greater content. There needs to be greater competition too and a large move for existing customers to move to digital. Perhaps, an alternative business model could be implemented?