Lecture 8

Last week's lecture focused on commercial media, so this week's lecture follows that by introducing the topic of public media.

Public media can be described as

• media whose mission is to serve or engage a public
• increasingly less associated with taxpayer supported media
• it may be for profit so long as the ultimate purpose is to serve public
• two mains forms of public media in Australia are SBS and ABC

What is public media's role in democratic society?

Public media is media that is in support of public and democratic processes. Public media should therefore have public value.

Public Value, as described by the BBC, is

• embedding a 'public service ethos'
• value for licence fee money
• weighing public value against market impact
• public consultation

In 1985, the Broadcasting Research Unit defined public service broadcasting as involving

• geographical universality
• universality of appeal
• special provisions for minorities
• a special relationship to the sense of national identity and community
• distance from all vested interest
• universality of payment
• competition in good programming rather than competition for numbers
• guidelines which liberate rather than restrict broadcasters

The ABC

• founded as a 'nation building  project' in 1929
• tacit answer to idealised national image
• seen to reach far and deep into Australian minds

The SBS
 

television channel launched in 1980 as the 'multicultural' channel

• major production resulted from Paul Kating's 'Creative Nation' initiative
• was previously fully publicly funded
• now includes advertising - 'Hybrid' funding 80/20

What are the various functions of public media?

• national building
• national heritage
• national identity
• national conversations

The News 'Style' of Public Media

Positive perspective -

• serious
• broadsheet style
• importance over interest
• considered, not quick and unchecked

Negative perspective -

• boring
• elitist
• of limited interest
• poorly presented
• out of touch

Challenges for Public Media - their 'To Do' list

• to produce quality
• to make themselves relevant
• to engage with the democratic process
• to inform the public
• to be independent

The Future of Public Media

"an expanded vision for public media that places engaged publics at its core"

"educating, informing and mobilizing its users"

"an essential feature of truly democratic public"

"media both for and by the public"