“All we want is money. You can Trust Us”

Commercial Media landscape in Australia

•           Why commercial media exists
•           What is it
•           Major players
•           Form function
•           Challenges
•           Possible future

Lecture 6 explored the media landscape in Australia, highlighting the functions and failures of commercial media, as well as the major players.

As derived from the term, the main function of commercial media is to allow advertisers access to an audience. The maintenance of commercial media all rests on business success. Thus, it is profit-driven media production, existing only for the purpose of revenue. While we may watch television believing we are the ‘patron’, in a sense, realistically it is the companies behind all the advertisements. The advertisers are the real customers. Not a particularly avid TV-watcher myself, the only use I see in the advertisements is a reason to leave the room for a few minutes. But I suppose without government funding, commercial media needs mechanisms to stay on their feet, and advertising is the simplest method.

While this is so, there is an ethical wall between commercial and social responsibilities of commercial media, described by Bruce, to be ‘a little like the separation of church and state’. There is a sort of inversely proportional relationship between the two; while commercialisation is the main mode of survival, they also have social responsibilities to the viewers. The more they focus on the commercial aspect, the more this can detriment the social side. Thus it seems the key is to achieve a balance. A good example given was of channel ten, which somewhat branched away from 7 and nine to target a younger audience, showing programs appealing to teenagers and young adults. As a result, it could sell the channel to advertisers pursuing a youthful audience. The social side of commercial media is based around trust. There must be a certain level of trust for viewers to watch and accept news on a channel. This is why, (especially channels 7 and nine), commercial media is always asking us to trust it. Part of this trust, however, means targeting viewer interest, as opposed to national interest. 

The ‘dumbing down’ of commercial media, the tabloidization and sexualisation of news, and 'Mickey Mouse' news were used to describe the way commercial media is simply looking to give viewers what they want to see, not what is important or relevant. Bruce explained that the number of clicks online news reports receive can now be tallied, and it was startling to hear that Scarlett Johansson’s breasts received more interest than 40, 000 deaths in Somalia.

The reading for the lecture was an excerpt from a book exploring 7's sunrise program, and the reasons behind its success when compared to nine's morning show. It explained that nine is now seen as somewhat archaic in the way of attracting audience, as well as levels of innovation. Sunrise is always running stories perceived as 'interesting', avoiding politics and affairs outside Australia unless highly interesting or unavoidable. In the annual data collected it was evident that when stories were run on topics surrounding countries outside Australia, which had no effect on anyone in or from Australia, it was most common then, for people to change channels. The overarching aim for commercial channels was to hold audience attention, and minimize channel changes. This was done by running the stories deemed most interesting to the majority of viewers, not the most important or relevant. Another aspect of sunrise's possible success was their cheerful, positive attitude towards all the stories. Their journalism was taken more as a performance than reporting, so overall, sunrise is more of a show than a news report.

Among the ‘Mickey Mouse’ news programs, Bruce mentioned A Current Affair, which reminds me of a program I saw recently on the show. It was an overdramatised ‘report’ on a man who had been harassing his neighbour, calling out rude words, and threats. It consisted mostly of dramatic music, repeated, slow-motion shots of the man heatedly shaking his wire fence and a journalist relentlessly confronting him outside his house, then being outraged at his belligerence.

Amidst the current challenges facing public media, there is a growing decline in advertising. Less advertising means less revenue, hence less money to pay for quality shows, hence less quality shows, hence, a rise in US sitcoms and reality TV, hence less viewers, hence even less advertising. The downward spiral continues, hence smaller stations, especially in radio, are constantly fading into nonexistence. As a solution to decline, some newspapers or stations are purchased by the government, not an ideal scenario for a democratic society. As it is, the Australian government regulates all media content and the Film Censorship board, rates and evaluates all films to be brought into the country. Government control of commercial media can lead to ‘State Press’ and propaganda (eg. Fox News in US). It can also, in an extreme, lead to the necessity of licensed Journalism. Do we really want State selected and regulated access to information?

Almost half the lecture was taken up by an extensive list of all the ‘major players’, the world’s huge corporations who simultaneously own and control multiple media outlets. One I found particularly amusing was when Bruce mentioned that despite B105 and Triple M’s feigned rivalry, they are actually both owned by Southern Cross Broadcasting, so essentially their revenue ends up in the same place.

Here is a sample of the list of major players on Australia’s and the World’s commercial media scene.

News Limited & News Corporation : newspapers Cable TV no Free to air, film mags, books, sports; Fox sports, Foxtel, Sky news, 20^th Century Fox, MRL, Courier Mail, the Australian, Quest, Harper Collins.

Fairfax: Newspaper and digital media; Sydney Moring Herald, the age, financial review, Brisbane times, domain, my career, RSVP

APN: regional newspapers, digital media, radio, outdoor advertising; Gympie Times, 97.3 fm, 4KQ, Adshell, Find a.

Nine Entertainment Co: (Formerly CVC), nine, go, gem, Extra, ninemsn, Women’s Weekly, Cleo, Cosmo, zoo, street machines. Ticketek, Acer Arena.

WIN: free to air TV, radio, sport, Tele-communications; WIN television, Ten , fm stations in outback Australia, St George Illawarra, TPG

Southern Cross Broadcasting: free to air TV Radio; Southern Cross, B105, triple M

Seven West Media: Free to air TV, newspaper, magazines, digital media; 7, 7two, 7 mate, Sky News, West Australian, Yahoo7, Pacific Magazines; Who etc.

Ten: free to air TV; ten, oneHD, 11. Channel ten decided to pursue a young audience – carefully selected shows to try and specify audiences so they could sell that, and the companies who wanted young market, would pay them for advertising.

Telstra: phones, telecommunications; bigpond