Because We're Living in a Material World...- Lecture 6

Commercial Media is an enormous element of Journalism and Communication and so the lecture discussing it was also rather big and tricky. If I were being completely honest, I wasn't surprised by the truths that were revealed. I did notice a few interesting patterns, however.

First things first: who are the main players of Commercial Media?

Well here's just a few:

    

 

Here's one of the biggest facts you need to know when regarding this form of media:

Commercial Media = $$$$

Basically, Commercial Media is profit-driven media production. It is a business and like all businesses its survival is completely reliant on its success. That success is audience ratings. Thus the business is generating audiences. The way they make profit is through advertising, which is why all those big shot channels always have a dozen ads every five minutes of a show - and on big nights such as the State of Origin or the Logies like the other night, you will notice an upsurge on commercials again.

Perhaps the biggest example I can provide is the fame (or infamy) that is created over the ads during the American Superbowl - in which not only is the advert itself admired or discussed, but the amount of money paid to have the advertisement aired throughout the show is made a big deal. So big in fact that they are typically shown in most talk-shows and viewed again on YouTube mere days after the event. Here are some of the 'highlight' Super Bowl ads:

(By the way, I would say numer 3 was the best purely because of song choice.)

Here's what I found when it comes to Commercial Media:

Everything is fiercely competitive. One of the reasons I am sometimes put off watching regular television, such as 7, 9 and 10 is that they all put each other down. The business politics reminds me a little too much like normal politics - and I know I am not the only person who is tired of watching one channel waste five-ten minutes on a snarky story about a comment or show on another channel that is bad for society. Also, I've heard many complaints around me over the constant changes made to the programming - disjointed episodes to a drama, or putting on a repeat despite advertising something new and unseen. Now I understand they are trying to keep up with the other channels' 'big showtime' schedules (competing with 'The Voice' the last few nights must have been a nightmare for every other channel that was not the 9 network) but it does not build trust in the loyal audiences - it just builds frustration. Take me for example; I've given up on watching shows like NCIS and prefer to either a) watch it online, or; b) wait until the DVDs are released. Channel 10 just lost one audience member for an hour or two per week. That’ll add up for them.

The other point I noticed is that everything to do with Commercial Media is much larger than we could initially imagine. Everything is connected. There is no single business; each organisation has 'tentacles' that typically span over both old and new media. It is fairly common that one organisation will own several channels (take the 9 network which has channel 9, Go, Gem and then magazines and Ticketek and ninemsn, as a prime example), radio stations and newspapers both physical copies and online. Success to them apparently means covering as much in as many methods as is possible.

The major challenge Commercial Media is facing at the moment is that it is seemingly prioritising profit before quality, and by doing that it is failing its social responsibilities. Those include presenting truthful, comprehensive and intelligent accounts, providing a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism as well as being representative of all social groups. In the intense 'desire to please' its audiences, the commercial media market has largely been reduced to what has been called 'Mickey Mouse' news. It is hard to find intellectual content amongst the gossip and reality TV shows.

In the end there is a need for quality. Satisfying that need is perhaps the best solution for Commercial Media. By serving the audience their market will grow and steady revenue be received.


On a completely unrelated note, I found an interesting Australian blog by a seemingly popular journalist who focuses on PR stories:

http://prdisasters.com/?cat=16