Lecture Eight - Public Media

"The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens" - Nigel Milan (former Managing Director of SBS)

Public Media unlike media has the ultimate purpose to serve the public instead of making a profit. While we may associate Public Media with the ABC and SBS in Australia there are many other forms of Public Media which we engage with daily, including the Internet and Blogging.

What is the purpose of Public Media?
In many ways the purpose of Public Media is to provide more serious news to the public in a world that is increasingly becoming more tabloid like. Public media is also 'supportive for the democratic process'.

Some of the Historical Functions of the ABC public media include:

- Nation Building
- National Heritage
-National Identity
- National Conversations.

These functions are still relevant today, with the Australian identity often important us.

Just under half of Australians get their news from the ABC illustrating that despite the array of commercial media options Australians are still engaging with public media. One of the biggest challenges for the public media is to ensure that they are independent. The ABC has been criticised in the past of not being independent, with former treasurer Peter Costello believing that the news programs on the ABC tend to be more supportive of the policies of the Labor party and the Greens.

Public Media is important to inform and entertain with the people in mind. We are supposed to at the centre of Public Media, however just like Commercial Media there are still questions over the future of Public Media, with different financial models currently being investigated worldwide.