Week Seven: Public Media

This week’s lecture looked at the Public Media; its role in society, the major corporations involved and the media they produce, and challenges they face and the future of public media.

In essence, a public media corporation is one whose purpose or mission is to serve and engage with the public, and not to gain profit. Public media corporations can make a profit, but this profit will ultimately be fed back into the corporations’ media production. In Australia, there are two major players in public media; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).

For eighty-nine years, the ABC has changed to reflect our national identity in its attempt to be what Dr Redman describes as “a tacit answer to the kind of nation we though we ought to be.”

The ABC is a government-funded corporation, owned by the citizens of Australia. Based on the BBC model, it was initially created as a ‘nation-building’ project in 1923 to create a sense of unity by equally spreading information among the then young nation. The ABC has always been regarded these days as a highly professional and reliable source of quality information. It has always been aimed at acting as what Dr Redman described as “a tacit answer to the kind of nation we though we ought to be.” Thus, just as our national identity has changed over time, the ABC’s character has changed accordingly. Initially, the ABC took the approach of reflecting the mother country, and many ABC presenters appeared to speak with a stronger English accent than most BBC presenters. These days, the ABC is focusing on connecting with younger generations in a similar way to Chanel 4 in the UK – though it is no easy task to get rid of its perception as being ‘Aunty ABC.’

The ABC’s pride and joy is its ‘News CAFF’ – productions like 4Corners and Q&A that are about importance over interest. Like many other public media corporations, the approach is ‘broadsheet’ over ‘tabloid’. Robert Richter described the public media as the “last bastion of long-from investigative journalism.” The ABC has demonstrated this; investigations into live cattle export, the moonlight state and high tension within the labour party all resulted in genuine political outcomes in parliament. Once again, this demonstrates public media’s role in democratic society. In addition to News Caff, the ABC produces numerous shows to connect with younger generations; Triple J, Good Game, ABC3 and Hungry Beast just to name a few.

The SBS receives significant funding from the government, on top of revenue from ‘The World Game Shop’ and the semi-commercial business model that it employs. Thus, there is some advertisement but revenue ultimately feeds back into further SBS productions. Launched as chanel 0/28 in 1980, the Special Broadcasting Service has a strong ethnic and multicultural focus. It produces shows like Living Black, Insight and Go back to where you came from, as well as entertainment productions including Wilfred and Rockwiz. The most successful productions to come from the SBS are the World Game, and SBS World News Australia – shows that are relevant to all Australian citizens.

 So what is the role and purpose of public media in democratic society? All public media, by definition, aims to engage with and serve the public. Although different corporations around the world define this aim differently, they are all heavily focused on the following:

•       Public consultation
•       Geographical universality
•       Weighing public value against market interest
•       Distancing produced media from vested interests.

The BBC defines its purpose as “embedding a public service ethos.” 

In addition to this purpose, the public media serves an even more significant role; to be completely unbiased in terms of political issues, to be completely removed from any specific political ideology, and to hold the government to account.  This means that corporations funded by the government (i.e the ABC) must conditionally bight the hand that feeds them. This relationship seems absurd, but such is the democratic role of public media. The importance of public media in democratic society cannot be denied. As Dr Redman put it, “the minute the government starts to like the ABC, we’re buggered.”

There are a number of  key problems that face public media in Australia. Firstly, there is the need to remove the ‘mature aged’ stigma that comes with non-commercial television. Secondly, there is the issue of funds. In the UK, a television subscription licence is used to generate funds, on top of government funding and revenue from ‘BBC Worldwide.’ This is not the case in Australia. The ABC must rely on just two means of income; government funding (which is limited) and the revenue from ABC Commercial (selling footage to producers and programs to the public). This is barely enough money for the kind of quality productions that the ABC demands, and ABC News24 had to be created without any additional funding. TVNZ in New Zealand faced similar problems with funding, and made the decision to go commercial. Advertising became increasingly prevalent on TVNZ until the station ultimately became consumed by commercial owners. Thus, New Zealand effectively lost its public media. Although the ABC and SBS struggle with funding and  public perception, they are safe for now. The Australian public media is a treasure in a capitalist media landscape; its downfall would be an immeasurable loss to social minority groups, the general public and democratic society.