THE DAY ALBERT DIED

Assignment #3- Factual Story telling

Albert Ball

Alternate link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnueTYRfXVs

LIGHTBULB Moments...

Smoking Campaign 

Can you believe that this advertising campaign was withdrawn as it broke industry rules and was thought to be potentially harmful to children’s minds? The ad offended 774 readers – when one considers that the deaths from smoking exceed all deaths from HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined What the hell were they thinking!

Other cool Anti-smoking Ad Campaigns:

LIGHTBULB Moments...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.  These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassions, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen, they are much like a stained glass window, it is easy to sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is reviled …. Only if there is light shining from within.” 

- Dr Elisabeth Kubler Ross

PUBLIC MEDIA

- Lecture 7

The last Bastion of long-form public media?

Public media is a rather refreshing form of media as its main focus is… oddly enough the PUBLIC. Rather than the profit driven, die-hard aspects of commercial media, public media strives to support the public in terms of providing news platforms and distribution mechanism, as well as upholding the democratic processes.  Essentially, it’s all about public service, value for money in terms of licensing fees and, public collaboration with consultation. 

The functions of public vs. commercial media are very different, commercial media encompasses their ethos around aspects such as propaganda, profit, pay-walls and of course other forms of commercialism where as public media focuses on National building, heritage, identity and conversations. This is not to say however that public media cannot turn a profit, so long as the ultimate purpose remains on public service. 

This ethos of public service is ingrained into the ideologies of public media. Organizations such as the ABC and SBS have created many well-known and successful television programs and radio stations using the communication styles of the press, entertainment, propaganda, utility and social aspects.

The ABC was founded in 1929 as a ‘nation building project’ and since then they have created a media empire, which totally harnesses the view of public service.They have created such television programs as ABC news, Australian story, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Compass and Catalyst. Statistics say that 41% of Australians get their news from ABC and 12.6 million Australians watch ABC TV programs. ABC also has such radio station as ABC local radio, National radio, Jazz, Classic FM, and Country and of course the well known Triple J.

SBS boasts such television programs as Housos, Rockwiz, The world Game, living black and World news Australia.

There are however both pros and cons when considering public media.

The ups and downs of Public Media

Public media is usually credited with the delivering of serious, hard-hitting topics and current affairs and where the importance of the event out weighs the ability of the event to elicit public interest and sensationalism.  The information which is published is considered to be reliable, holding validity and the sources are checked, giving public confidence in their commitment to deliver the correct information.

Public media makes use of the Broadsheet style which supplies considerably less sensationalist than the tabloids – giving facts first not enticing morsels to attract sales.

Broadsheet vs. Tabloid?

“Public media is such a special vehicle for voices to be heard ... for visions and viewpoints ... ignored by commercial media.”

-Robert Richter

Take Tripple J – A personal favorite!  - You’ve got to ask yourself, How absolutely refreshing is it to listen to talk radio with out leaky bladder infomercials and other intrusions of dysfunction!!! Sustaining listener numbers is a result of great programs, good music, quirky and articulate presenters and no Adds!

There is however a number of challenges that face public media, the content is often accused of not being as entertaining as the commercial competitors. The demographics that the public media targets is also considered to be on the verge on being rather elitist, not for the man in the street so to say and not always in touch with the young upwardly progressives who have broad interests and are dependent on instant details and quality technology. Public media is charged with having limited interests, being rather poorly presented and actually out of touch with modern standards.

In their defense, the Public media is constantly trying to better itself by producing high quality programming that is relevant, informative and engaging to the public whilst trying to be independent.  The independence is the difficult part, maintaining neutrality and warding off allegation of bias is hard for the public media to achieve when the legislation controlling them stipulates what they can and can’t do and how they are to spend the Government funding. This creates a perception of compliance from opposition viewer and indeed mistrust when it comes to it acting as a watchdog of government happenings when it is the government that funds them. When they do, it may well be said that they are perhaps “biting the hand that feeds them.”

What ever the media – one fact holds true and that is bring on the competition! Competition breeds progress, quality, accountability and democracy. Qualities that in the first world we hold as a norm and are very grateful that we as the journalists of the future are allowed to grow in an environment of free speech and civil liberty. The government may well hold the purse strings of the public media in this country but they cannot and should never own the content!

LIGHTBULB Moments...

Fundamental Ideology is Alive! 

It exists in every corner and echelon of society and its philosophical by-product is fear. You have to ask your self, how far have we really come from the Holy wars of the Dark Ages?

Fear breeds intolerance, it distorts truth and has predisposed to many of the wars throughout history. So, how do people who fear the unknown, who fear change coexist in today’s world; where one set of rules does not apply to all of mankind?  The reality is that they don’t. These perpetrators of fear make sense of their world by closing it out, by only acknowledging their truth and by enforcing their doctrine and philosophies on everyone around them. They become the fundamentalists who are the racists, the fascists and the persecutors of free choice.

Commercial Media

-Lecture 6

FORM = subscription, sponsored and Government subsidised.

FUNCTION = Commercial (To make Money) Propaganda (Information dissemination)

In a world driven by financial profits, bottom lines and share market ratings, it was only a matter of time until the world of media fell prey to the insatiable greed of profiteers! Enter commercial media or the broadcasting of television, radio and other media programming by privately owned corporate media moguls, opposed to state sponsored organizations. Audiences and users seem happy to pay for the choice and the variety offered by these non government and non license funded enterprises. The commercial media companies on the other hand are profit driven, with the success of their ventures reliant not so much on quality news and programming but more on the generation of audiences who have the ability to produce large profits through popular airtime advertising.

Link to 'pay TV comes to Australia' - Here

An online report stated that in the essential media report polling conducted in March 2010 a significant slump in public trust as regards the commercial media in Australia was noted while the ABC kept or improved its levels of trustworthiness. “When reviewed in March of 2011 it was found that compared to March 2010, 5% of voters said they had no trust at all in it. That’s now 17% (18-24 year olds went from 4% saying they had no trust to 22% saying they had no trust). Newspapers didn’t see such a big surge in no trust— but it still doubled from 4% to 8%. No trust in commercial radio doubled from 6% to 12%.” Bernard Keane – Crikey online

Link to Crickey Online - Here

The parody is that while the credibility gap in our media is reducing, the profit margins of commercial media keeps expanding – this points squarely at the fact that the Australia public and global consumers are prepared to pay for entertainment more that quality news!

Table Below: Commercial Media Giants in Australia

Commercial Media Giants in Australia
FAIRFAX	WIN	APN	SOUTHERNCROSS	Nine	Ten	Seven West Media
Commercial ventures
Newspapers	Free to Air - TV Radio	Regional newspapers	Free to air radio and TV	Free to air TV	Free to Air	Free to Air
Digital Media	Sport, Telecomms	Digital Media		Magazines		Newspapers
		Radio		Digital Media		Magazines
		Outdoor Advertising		Events		Digital Media
Companies
The Sydney Morning	Win Television	97.3fm		Nine MSN	Channel 10	Sky News
Herald	i98 FM	Clasic Hits	Southerncross TV	CVC	Channel 11	yahoo 7
theage.com.au	10 Mildura		Brisbane 105	Ticketek	One HD	Pacific Magazines
Financial Review	C91.3 FM		Tripple M	Acer
Brisbane Times	St George			Womansweekly
Domain.com.au				Cleo
MyCareer.com.au				Zoo Magazine
RSVP				Cosmopolitin
				Go TV

If then, in a first world democracy, where the truth belongs to the people, how does the commercial media comply with it responsibility to society?

Over a half a centaury ago, a group of academics urged U.S. journalists to take on more responsibility to society... and suggested that if they did not, they risked losing some of their freedoms.


Enter Ethics in Journalism:
The commission known as, The Hutchins Commission of 1947 listed five requirements for a free and responsible press:

1. A truthful, comprehensive, and intelligent

Account of the day’s events in a context which

Gives them meaning;

2. A forum for the exchange of comment and

Criticism;

3. The projection of a representative picture of the

Constituent groups in the society;

4. The presentation and clarification of the goals

And values of the society;

5. Full access to the day’s intelligence. 

Commercial Media

Must therefore deliver both

Profit                          Public Trust


Factors which underpin public trust are honesty, reliability, and ethics. These  are regulated by Government agencies who regulate content, provide subsidies to compliant newspapers and to some extent especially in areas where free press struggles to exist, license journalists
 –  i.e. if we don’t like what you say you may very well not have the funding to be saying it!

But not all is left up to Government legislation and the meeting of formal state requirements  and government watch dogs – as a professional body journalists are more that capable of voluntary self regulation - , the Australian press council is such a body.

The people however maintain the power in the world of free speech.  Journalist Jurgen Habermas says that the space between commerce and government is where people can debate freely and form what is known as public opinion. The public are responsible to demand that the ethical wall exists so social accountability in the media prevails and often it is the Editorials that are the soap boxes of public opinion.

The protection of free speech is also ensured by preventing large media giants from monopolizing the commercial market. Limiting the % of control prevents commercial media from becoming corrupt and a place where profit over-rides social responsibility and quality is lacking. This according to John Mcmanus (Market driven journalism 1994) is the style of commercial media.

But it does not have to be, the down side of market journalism may well be the scourge of tabloidisation, the provision of Mickey mouse news and the dumbing down of fine writing as commercialism of journalism bends to fiscal demands, the up side however is that Australian newspapers are placed to take advantage of this new world order. Distribution via digital means maintain readership numbers even though revenue from newspaper ads continue to fall. Audience want and will pay for quality but the need convenience which digital commercial media affords. In an arena of healthy competition quality will prevail and Crikey some of them just make plain good reading!