Week 6: Commercial Media

"Commercial = corrupt; lack of quality; profit over-rides social responsibility." - John McManus

What is commercial media?
     - Profit-driven media production
     - Not government funded (or license funded)
     - It survives or fails on business success
     - Its business is generating 'audiences'
     - Creates audiences to generate profit though selling advertising to them

The major players in commercial media, as pointed out by Dr Redman, are News Limited, Fairfax Media, WIN Corporation, Seven West Media, Ten, APN News & Media, and Nine entertainment co.

Basically, commercial media is the epitome of everything I despise in journalism. Everything is profit orientated and lacks real substance and style.

"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 becomes more commercial, they do so at the expense of their social function. This is seen as a zero-sum game. Profits come before quality." - Prof. Michael Bromley

I couldn't agree more with this statement. I view Australia as a particularly sheltered country when it comes to world news. All you have to do is look at the Courier Mail. The first page will dedicated to the One Direction fan fair, and you have to look thirty pages in to discover anything about the impending war in Syria (which of course only gets a single paragraph in the whole section). But a war far away that has little to do with Australia won't sell papers, so they slap a giant picture of five teenage heartthrobs on the front page to make sales, and call that "current affairs". It's infuriating.

"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."                   - C.P. Scott

I truly hope people learn to rely more on good internet news sources than the 7pm project or The Courier Mail. I think it's great to watch and read these things as long as additional news is read and watched to contrast and compare. Dr Redman introduced us to the news site The Global Mail and I've been in love with it ever since. I also like The Age, New York Times, an american YouTube journalists called Phillip Defranco, and the Global News podcast.