Lecture 7

Lecture 7 focused on public media, a follow up to the previous lecture on commercial media. In Australia, public media is recognised through the ABC and SBS. The ABC, is a media broadcaster I am familiar with. Growing up with ABC local radio as the soundtrack of my kitchen, the news anthem our signal to leave for the bus at 7:45 every weekday morning, ABC news as the news of choice and programs that followed such as Four Corners, Australian Story, Q&A, Spicks and Specks and The Chaser a bulk proportion of my television intake, it is safe to say the ABC played a strong role in my exposure to the media. Although as a child and teenager this could grow tiresome and was defiantly not considered 'cool', I now choose it over commercial channels on a regular basis. This lecture made me grateful of my ABC influenced upbringing.

Public media's main focus is to cater for the public and being taxpayer supported, this only makes sense. In a democratic society, public media is free from awkward situations with advertisers and is, instead, an unbiased media that is in support of public and democratic processes. There is also a strong focus on nationalism on the ABC. It broadcasts nation building content, focusing on our identity, heritage and conversations. The SBS on the other hand is much more international, focusing on news of the world and is a great source for this. However, public media will often have to face issues relating to finance and funding. The ABC has felt with this by creating the ABC shop which, thankfully, is now a great source of income.