JOUR1111 Week 6

I ask for forgiveness this week, as I am feeling incredibly under the weather. This week's recount of the lecture will most likely be a painful and boring churn out of what was infact, a very interesting lecture.... 

While Dr Bruce spoke this week on commercial media, the only sound that was running through my mind was 'Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching'! Newspapers, telelvision and radio were all mentioned in the lecture and all acted as examples of commercial media acting as key players in the world of advertising and profit.

Media outlets such as Foxtel, Austar, Austereo, Fairfax Media and Channel 10 all fall into the commercial media category. There are a few defining characteristics of such media, as Bruce detailed in the lecture, such as it not being government funded and it's survival based on success rates of businesses. An interesting point (I thought) was that commercial media seeks to 'create audiences to generate profit through selling advertising to them'.

Another interesting part of the lecture was the questionability of commercial media in regards to the deliverance of both social and commercial functions. The Hutchins Commision (1947) outlines the social responsibilities of media in democracy:

• a truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent account of the day's events in a context that gives them meaning
• a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism
• the projection of a representative picture of the constituent groups on society
• the presentation and clarification of the goals and values of the society
• full access to the day's intelligence

....What a mouthful! These points have been well established, with organistions in place to help enforce regulations, however commercial media somewhat overlooks these responsibilites. Corruption of the news being delivered on through this outlet is evident, with profit coming before quality. In order for such sources to remain in production, they must sell their soul to the capitalist conglomerate with selective thoughts on what is important in order to make money, thus limiting their readiness to provide a full, comprehensive and unbias account of the daily national and international news.  

'Tis a scary state of existence when the news in which we trust is being fondled by money hungry giants who seek to make big bucks at the expense of an informed society.