Lecture 12/09/2011- Dr Bruce Redman "Public Media"

What is Public Media?
A media whose mission is to serve or engage a public.

Who are the major players Australian Media Landscape?
ABC (founded in 1929 as a "nation building project"), ABC 2, ABC 3, SBS (launched in 1980 as a "multicultural" channel), SBS2, Triple J, ABC Radios

Who are the major players International Media Landscape?
BBC & 4 (Britain- Licence Funded), PBS & NPR(USA), TVNZ (NZ), CBC (Canada), DR (Denmark), arte (France), RTHK(Hong Kong), NHK(Japan).

Community Media in the Australian Media Landscape-
4ZZZfm.org.au
31 Digital- Community TV

What is Public Media's role in a democratic society?
It is media that is in support of public and democratic processes.

Public Media should have public value.
 'Public Value' (According to the BBC) is-
1. Embedding a ' public service ethos'
2. Value for licence fee/ or tax payers money
3. Weighing public value against market impact.
4. Public Consultation- Two way street. Influenced a lot by social media and advisory boards.

 Broadcasting Research Unit states that Public Media should contain the following traits.

• Geographic universality
• Universality of appeal
• Special provision for minorities
• Special relationship to the sense of national identity and community
• Distance from all vested interests
• Universality of payment
• Competition in good programming, rather the competition for numbers
• Liberate rather than restrict

What are the various functions of Public Media?

• Nation Building- NBNCo
• National Heritage- Anzac Day Parade, Nature, Historical Figures
• National Identity- Who are we?
• National Conversations- Sport

Commercialisation of Public Media-
BBC worldwide- commercial arm of BBC, makes around two hundred million dollars a year.
The World Game Shop- powered by rebel sport
National Datacast
ABC Commercial- ABC Shops etc

A key mechanism of Public Media is news and news CAFF.
For example:
41% of Australians get their news from the ABC
Each week 12.6 million Australians watch ABC TV.
The ABC is only source of radio news analysis and lengthy interviews with politicians.

Public Media News Style-

• Serious
• Broadsheet style (vs tabloid Style)
• Importance over interest
• Considered (not quick and unchecked)

This often leads people to thinking that Public Media is-

• Boring
• Elitist
• Limited Interest
• Poorly Presented.

The different aspects of Public Media-

• The Press- News etc
• Entertainment- Julia Show, Inspector Rex etc
• Utility- Weather etc
• Social-  Cooking etc
• Propaganda- For example CCTV and Fox News Channel

To do list and challenges for Public Media-

• Produce quality
• Maintain relevance
• Engage in the democratic process
• Be independent from funders and or journalists own opinions

Lecture 05/09/2011- Dr Bruce Redman "Commercial Media"

What is Commercial Media?

• Profit driven
• Not Government funded (for example Sweden) or licence funded (for example England)

Examples of Commercial Media:

• TV Channels except for ABC & SBS which are Public Media.
• Digital TV Channels
• Fox & Austar (Pay TV)
• News Limited (News Corp)
• Fairfax Media
• ARN
• Austereo

Commercial Media's main purpose is to be the "EYEBALLS & EARS" to advertisers and to generate audiences in turn generating profit.

The Main Players and Their Assets (including website links)

• News Limited- News Corp
  20 Century Fox, Fox Sports, Foxtel, National Geographic, Sky News, Harper Collins, The Australian, The Courier Mail, Quest, affiliated with the NRL.
• Fairfax Media
  Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, The Age, Financial Review, Domain, RSVP, My Career.
• Nine Entertainment Co (Previously PBL owned by CVC Asia Pacific)
  Channel 9, GO, Gem, Ninemsn, Ticketek, Acer Arena, ACP Magazines, Australian News Channel.
• Southern Cross Media Group & Southern Cross Austereo
  Southern Cross Ten, Southern Cross Television, Austereo, B105, Triple M.
• Seven West Media
  Channel 7, 7Two, 7Mate, The West Australian, Pacific Magazines, Yahoo 7, The West Australian.
• Ten Corp
  Channel Ten, One HD, Eleven.
• WIN
  WIN Television, Ten Mildura, i98 Radio, C913fm Radio, TPG, Affiliated with St George Illawara NRL Team.

Commercial Media Form

• Subscription (Foxtel etc)
• Sponsored (Chanel 9 etc)
• Subsidised (for example Stephen Conroy's Government digital TV boost)

Commercial Media Function

• Propaganda
• Social
• Profit

We look at the "Hutchins Commissions" findings and compared these to current commercial media.
Furthermore we discussed the ethical wall which divides Commercial (Advertising/Sales) & Social (Editorial) types of Commercial Media.

Commercial Media Controls

• Government Regulatory Bodies
• Internet Censorship- Chinese Government has banned Facebook.
  - Egypt tried to close down the Internet as it was fueling the riots.
• Journalist Licencing - East Timor and Indonesia require journalists to be licenced to practice.

As media becomes more commercial we see the following happen.

• Dumbing down
• Tabloidisation
• The 'desire to please'
• "Mickey Mouse" third rate news

Challenges for Commercial Media

• Advertising revenue for broadcasters is down and sliding as the advertising dollar is now spread far more widely across different media entities.
• Loss of revenue= Less investment= Less money for quality productions.

Modernisation of Commercial Media

For a long time media outlets had very little way to tell which parts of their publications/broadcast etc where actually being accessed and used. With the onset of Commercial Media on the Internet these corporations now have the ability to see what sells. By monitoring what people look at online they have learned that tabloid beats genuine news no matter how important.

Business Solutions for Commercial Media

• Quality
• Greater competition
• Move existing customers to digital
• Paywalls

Alternatively we may see a shift from large corporate media dominance to media in the public sphere online for example wikepedia, crikey, perez hilton etc, all of which are largely focused on citizen journalism.

Column: Andrew Bolt, Read 05/09/2011

Her is a  link is to todays segment with Andrew Bolt on MTR radio.

MTR Radio today,September 5

I also stumbled accross this old column of Andrew Bolt's, posted in relation todays discussion on MTR. Interesting point of view and very relevent in Australia's current political arena.

Column - A tip for Quentin Bryce. Shush.

Online News: The Courier Mail, 05/09/2011

More human remains found at Beerwah site where police are searching for Daniel Morcombe

Let's hope that the find the rest of Daniel's remains are found so he can be laid to rest and his family can have peace. May justice be served.

Online News: The Courier Mail, 31/09/2011

High Court scuttles Julia Gillard's Malaysia solution for asylum seekers
It looks as if Julia Gillard will be going back to the drawing board in relation to the Malaysia solution, as this afternoon the High Court found the plan to be flawed.

Ralph Mayer slugged with $12,000 bill by Somerset Regional Council

This is so sad, when a Council can not keep its promise. Mr Mayer did the right thing by his community to help them out in a devastating time . Makes me angry because the council's behaviour will stop other people being good samaritans.

Lecture 29/08/2011- Dr Bruce Redman "Web News"

In today's lecture Dr Bruce Redman discussed web iterations and the current and future challenges of online news.

Web Iterations

Web 1.0- Information Web
The begginging of web. The progression of offline media, lots of information and advertising.
Web 2.0- Social Web (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc)
Networking and the development of Prod-Users (Producer Users)
Web 3.0- Semantic Web
Use of meta tags to deliver specific content. The focus becomes on the individuals and promotes hyperlocalisation.

We are currently in the ever developing Web 3.0. Will will begin to see the web packet information personalised just to us individually? We are already seeing advertising on sites like facebook personalised to our interests. This is just the beggining.


Current and Future Challenges of Online News

One word ENTITLEMENT.
Newspapers have come accross a challenge as they see the rates of sale of newspapers fall and the viewing audience turn to the web to read the paper. Online news for so long has been offered for free,  giving people a sense of ENTITLEMENT to the product. The future for alot of  journalists hangs on the outcome of newspapers charging a subscription fee to view their content online. Dr Redman showed us an example of how the UK Times is adding value to their product to charge for it. You can still read the headlines on the times for free but at some point you have to pay for TIMES+ . Not only does this offer you unlimited reading but access to other services, discounts etc. Will we see other newspapers take on the same process?

We watched this funny clip in our lecture, thought I would share it.

Online News: Ninemsn, 29/08/2011 6:45am

Bones are Daniel Morcombe's

May sincere condolences go out to the Morcombe family. I pray that these findings will bring closure to an agonising and horrific experience.