In Australia, the last major public media source is the ABC. Founded in 1929 as a "nation building project" the ABC was meant to join together the people of Australia and become the media institute for Australia. It was meant to symbolise the Australia that we thought we ought to be. And in many ways it did achieve this. At the time, the ABC, whether as a radio or television broadcast, was the station to tune into, for its reliability and relevant stories. It could be trusted by the public. In contrast to modern times, Australian pride was something that was a focus of day to day life. Nowadays people feel the need to compare themselves to America or England; countries who seemingly hold a lot of power and are "cool". Using just my friends as a generalisation for the whole of Australia maybe rather stretching the truth, but I know that they would rather be proud of something that was the same in Australia as it was in America, than something that was entirely Australian. Basically, the idea of national pride for Australia has changed a lot since the 1920's. Maybe that in some ways, is why the drift to commercial media by the average man is increasing so rapidly. People feel the need to keep up with the cool countries and commercial media offers them this connection, through reality TV rather than shows about national heritage, or boring stuff.
That isn't to say that public media doesn't still have its merits. 41% of Australians get their news from the ABC. This is an encouraging figure because it says to me that those 41% understand the reliability of the ABC in contrast to Channel 7. In my journalism tutorial we were shown a short clip on Media Watch about a story whose details had been manipulated such that the original story was completely changed. It demonstrated the lack of commercial media to seemingly complete research on a story properly, leaving large gaps in the articles, creating areas for assumption. What frustrates me most about this though is that the commercial media sources such as Channel 7, do not in any way lose face or lose audience members through articles like this. The mass population still assumes that getting their news from a commercial source is better than a public media source, even if the public media source has better facts or put more effort into their story.
Each week 12.6 million Australians watch ABC TV. ABC is a good public media source in the sense that it contains a lot of cultural shows, which appeals to a wide demographic. Just because commercial media is all about "appealing to the masses" doesn't mean that public media can't offer a diverse range of stories either. I think that sometimes people forget that public media is diverse. They instantly associate it with being serious, boring and of limited interest. However, that is just one of the many brilliances of the ABC as a public media source. It continues to broadcast the same general types of shows and is known for those shows. So whilst people might not like the seriousness of the ABC, its consistency offers a certain level of comfort for viewers. I mean where else are you going to be able to watch the Eurovision contest? Yet even after all this hype public media is not without its faults. Its shows are a tad dull and appeal to an older demographic. In attempts to up its cool factor, ABC2 was created. Although it does contain some interesting shows, it was rather like your mum trying to be hip and cool to get along with your friends.
Ultimately, what I learnt from the lecture in collaboration with my own viewing of ABC and other similar sources, is that public media is serious media.
I mean, you wouldn't expect to see an episode of Big Brother on the ABC.
Image available: http://www.embelton.com/embelton-wins-abc-studios-project-in-brisbane/
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