Public Media. Lecture 7.

Ahh Public Media. Something I can be more fond of rather than its opposite, Commercial media. The Public Media can be dramatically described as the media for the people. Rather than relying on the money value the public media is clearly used to serve citizens. It can be noted however that Public Media can also be for profit as long as its main objective is to serve the public and not the profit. Within Australia the avenues that we can access the Public Media is predominantly through the SBS and the ABC.

In the lecture it was shown that the Public media should have 'Public Value'. That 'Public Value' has been described by the BBC as:

• Embedding a 'public service ethos'
• Value for license fee money
• Weighing public Value against market impact
• Public consultation

The prime functions of the Public Media include

• Nation Building
• National Heritage
• National Identity 
• National Conversations

For me the Public Media that is predominately accessed is the News. This is also one of the key mechanisms for the Public Media. The only time I ever watch television I always have it switched to the ABC and am either watching Q&A or ABC worldwide. In the lecture interesting facts were shown that came as a surprise the two that stood out were:

1. 41% of Australians get their news format he ABC
2. Each week 12.6 million Australians watch ABC TV

This brings a warmth to my soul knowing that we are not all about the trash and some of us Australians are getting a decent education even if it just through the News. 

The Public Media do however face challenges and these challenges included:

• To produce quality
• To make themselves relevant
• To engage with the democratic process
• To inform the public
• To be independent

The realisation of how big of a job the Public Media have for themselves in ensuring this To-Do list gets done makes me want to tip my hat to them even more.