A Public Affair.

*Lecture 7

I thought I would like this lecture, turns out I didn't. Sorry Bruce. I started listening to the lecture with a good mind set, because I think public media is what I want to work for, but it didn't do much for me. This is not to say I didn't learn anything, or find anything interesting.

Public Media's ultimate purpose is to serve the public.

I liked this point. Public media is aimed at serving the public, it doesn't have to be non for profit, but it must be aimed at the interests of the public. SBS, despite being a 'hybrid' channel (gaining 20% of funding from commercials), still serves the interests of the public and thus is still public media. The ABC is completely a traditional public media entity. Branching into digital television and analogue and digital radio, the ABC is still able to keep it's public media title. 

The major part that makes media public media is that it must support public and democratic processes and must posses Public Value. A clear outline of what Public Value was presented in the lecture:

Public Value:

1. Embedding a 'public service ethos'
2. Value for licence fee money.
3. 'Weighing public value against market impact'
4. Public consultation. 

Other major components of public media are:

• Geographical universality
• Universality of appeal
• Special provision for minorities
• Special relationship to the sense of national identity & community
• Distance from vested interests
• Universality of payment
• Competition in good programming rather than competition for numbers
• Liberation opposed to restriction of broadcasters

This is something I must learn, despite not being the most interesting lecture, I want to work for Triple J, a network subordinate to the ABC and thus, is public media. Triple J is my most used media source. I listen to the radio station, read the magazine, follow it on twitter and facebook and constantly check the website. It is for this reason, if I were to become a journalist of some kind, my dream position would be at triple j. I love everything to do with it. So I must become very familiar with everything about public media and what is expected from it and what it must entail. So even though I didn't like this lecture all that much....I guess I'm gunna have to force myself to like the topic.