Public Media, how are you, I know we haven’t spent much time with one another lately, but you know I love you right? Come on you could never stay mad at me, we’ve had such great times together, remember Summer Heights High, Gruen Transfer? Remember all those sleepless nights spent together, just laughing and watching well made documentaries? I knew you couldn’t stay mad at me forever, come over here you. Hilarious introductions aside, this week during lecture 7, the topic of Public media was discussed, rounding off the little two piece lecture of media types.
Now as can be deduced from my overlong love letter, I love Public Media and always have. Looking back on my youth, I’ve always held a particular fondness for public media, the shows always had this different feel to them, like they were made for the love of television or radio, not for the money, the news especially. I remember being little watching the 7:30 report before bed and always wondering why channel 9 or 10 didn’t seem to have the same amount of info, that same feeling of definite knowledge about the topic. The shows were also very unique, there wasn’t the usual cavalcade of cheap nock offs, each one had it’s own unique flavor and shape to it, something that distinguished it from the others. Admittedly though, not all of these shows were Australia, however when you consider that many of them were imports from the BBC, my fondness still remains.
Though the world of public media has given me my far share of great memories, I’ll also say it has given me many a sad one too. A great (though sad) example of this would be the ABC’s News24 channel. Unlike Sky News, which obtains substantial funding for its news, News24 gets no extra funding at all and has to survive on the good will of others. This isn’t bad in the sense that the quality has gone down, though that does suffer, it’s bad because it emphasizes the general publics feelings toward public media. Here is a group of people trying to provide good quality round the clock news, for free, yet the government won’t invest an extra cent, far more concerned with the troubles of boat people and elections that are still years away. The public wont even ask the government to do such a thing either, far to concerned with the trivial problems of popstars and celebrities. This in my mind, is the typical approach given to much of Australia’s public media and it’s a real shame, because I believe with a little extra money and attention, we could have a truly great channel on our hands.
One problem that is becoming more prevalent as well, is that public media is starting to see an increase in commercialization. For example channels like TVNZ in New Zealand (I know, I thought it was The Czech Republic too) begun having the occasional ad spliced in between programs, as a way of creating extra revenue. As the ads begun to show more frequently and the money begun flocking in, it was only a matter of time before TVNZ became a fully fledged commercial media enterprise. This was a bad move in my mind, as similarly to what I said in my early blog about commercial media, they are eventually going to have to start thinking solely about the money, not about the quality and eventually they’ll become like every other commercial studio around, providing boring comedy and cliched drama.
Finally I would like to talk about the style of news in Public media as compared to commercial media. While commercial media blurts out news whenever it can, regardless of the facts or authenticity, the ABC (SBS to some extent), take a very labored approach, not releasing any information until they are certain the facts are 100% true. This has led to the ABC consistently providing a high level of news over the years compared to it’s fellow competitors. This might be seen as a miss step in today’s society, with the majority of people wanting their news hard and fast, but it’s good to remember that this slow deliberate news style has payed dividends in the past for the ABC and then some.
Public Media to me, is something that I’ve always aspired to be a part of. While others have fallen for the glitz and glamour of commercial media, I’ve always seen public media as something entirely different, a bastion for the free thinkers and a realm of solitude for those hungry for more. Dr. Redman really did provide an exceptional lecture this week with regards to public media and it has personally heightened my desire to be apart of it.
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