Lecture on Public Media

Monday's lecture explored the attributes of Public media on a national and international level and highlighted the key differences between Public and Commercial media.

Nigel Milan, who was a former managing director of SBS, argues that "the difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens."

The primary objective of public media is to serve or engage the public. Supported by the government and funded through by taxpayer's money, the form is not supposed to be a market-driven entity and although it might engender a profit, this should never be its ultimate focus. Within Australia, media institutions such as the ABC, SBS and their subsidiaries (ABC2, 3, SBS2 etc.), along with Radio ABC, Triple J and Classic Fm are typical examples and heavily utilised forms of public media.

On an International scale, institutions such as the BBC (funded by television license fees, UK), Channel 4 (UK), PBS and National Public Radio (U.S.A), TVNZ (New Zealand), arte (France), NHK (Japan), RTHK (Hong Kong) and DR (Denmark) exist with an identical purpose to Australian public media, although there are variations in their operation, in accordance with their own laws and codes. They are funded by license fees, donations, government contributions and taxpayer money.

Community Media forms are local outlets for the dissemination of news and information and can have public and student contributors.

The Role of Public Media within a democracy is to facilitate conversation and support of public and democratic processes. The grounding principle is that it should always have public value.

Public media should include programs that cater to a large range of people, generally aimed at universal appeal. Provisions for minority groups should also be included as opposed to mainstream issues and ideas. It should not be concerned with things like ratings or profit but rather quality and entertainment. It should function within issues of nation, concerned with nation building, national heritage, identity and conversations. Cooking programs and entertainment shows are also a feature of public media, designed to serve and interest the public. However, there are always commercial aspects to everything which is exemplified through the appearance of shops and services such as the ABC shop, the World Game Shop and translation and data cast facilities.

The ABC - founded in 1929, ABC is broadcast all over the world through radio and television and includes a lot of programs that are not made in-house. Independent works are preferable and cheaper to broadcast.

The SBS - launched in 1980 under the banner of a 'multi-cultural' channel, this company ranges from programs such as Skynews, to music shows such as Rockwiz, documentaries, foreign programs and world sports. A lot of unique and quirky stuff that is increasingly rare within mainstream or commercial media channels will be broadcast through the SBS.

Aside from a slew of television programs, and films, Public Media is also heavily concerned with the news, although it operates in a different manner to news broadcasts by commercial stations. Within Australia, a tremendous majority of the population rely on the ABC for their news, with statistics revealing that the number is as high as 41%. The style of public media news is seen as the deciding factor, as it is less tabloid-like, foregrounding important and serious issues and presenting well researched and fact-driven pieces. The downside of this style, is that it is seen as boring and elitist, failing to spark interest to those who might tune in for the first time or who just want the headlines.

Some problems and criticisms that the ABC faces is the danger they risk when they are critical of the government and political factions, as these are the institutions responsible for its maintenance and funding and it is never a good idea for you to bite the hand that feeds you. There is also a belief that public media is performing too well and are capitulating to commercial pressures by focusing on ratings and competition with other channels over their ingrained responsibilities to the public.