Commercial Media: An amateur's guide to the green eyed monster- Week 7

"Honesty is the best policy- when there's money in it."- Mark Twain

Some may call it the big bad wolf of media, some may call it the best thing since One Direction* but all we know for certain is that commercial media dominates what we see, hear and listen to.

I think I’d like to start this review with answering a question posed in the lecture. Can commercial media deliver on both commercial (profit) and social functions (public trust)? Simply put, no. Jerry Maguire springs to mind when I think of the big boss of channel 9, b105 or even the Courier Mail. “Show me the money, SHOW ME THE MONEY!” I reckon it’s a pretty fair depiction. Ah yes, you might say, they can be out for profit, who can blame them, but they can be reliable too. May I simply direct your attention to current affairs programs such as Today Tonight. You don’t have to be linguistic god or even a high school graduate to understand the fact their “reports” are pure gobbledygook. (Windows synonyms you never cease to surprise me) I for one would not even listen to, let alone trust, their obsolete drivel. So I think it’s fair to say that commercial media is out for one thing, and it’s definitely not the public trust.

So, how do they satisfy this green eyed monster? Advertising and/or subscription. Using television as an easy example, let’s assume we’re talking about free to air television like channel 10. The only way they’re going to get money is through advertisement spaces purchased by companies, what makes McDonald's or ProActive want these spaces? What ever gets the most viewership, what makes people want to watch a program? If it’s new, live or unfortunately, if it oozes American. What the audience wants is what the broadcaster wants. Even in the news, instead of airing the same old poverty in Africa, commercial companies are dictated by audience demand to see Zac Efron shirtless on his apartment balcony. Popularity is everything when advertisement deals depend on the ratings of a program. I think this will see an increase of entertainment infused news reports, such as ‘The Project’ and less of hard hitting news seen on the ABC and SBS.

So this week’s analysis has probably cut into next week’s analysis of public media but that’s ok. I’m sure I’ll have some more amateur knowledge to corrupt the minds of my surprisingly large Russian audience with by then.

I know you would rather not be reading this but stop Russian to the end... *ba-doum-chh*

Wow. Bye.

From my-dad-wouln’t-even-of-laughed-then.

*Please Note: I do not in any way shape or form support this boy band fad. I never had, nor will I ever, camp out to catch a glimpse of their hair sprayed, glitter infused frullets whilst screaming at ear shattering decibels. If you are one of these tweenage expletives stop corrupting every form of commercial media with your ridiculous hysteria. Rant concluded.