Wk 6: Commercial Media

Just before I wrote this blog, I sat down on the couch where everyone was watching Channel Seven’s Today Tonight. They were presenting a story about milk. Black and white footage and ominous music was played as we learnt companies are adding waste products to their milk... a product which they took from the milk in the first place. I mumbled something about it not being real news and left the lounge room in disgust. Then I went to the kitchen, where I drank a big glass of milk, take that Helen Wellings! Below is an excerpt from the ABC show The Chaser's War on Everything criticizing both A Current Affair and Today Tonight. For all their lack of etiquette, I think these boys have some pretty valid opinions.  

Before I moved house, I very rarely watched commercial television. I hate it, so I was very interested in this week’s lecture, particularly the question why does commercial media exist?.

Commercial media exists because advertisers pay for it, and they pay for it because we watch it. For me this was an interesting concept, a company that has to please someone other than their clients, in order to get clients. Like any other business, the aim is to make money. If commercial media companies fail in doing this, the result is that we get low-quality, anti-intellectual television. Imported shows, re-runs and reality TV are cheaper options that are seen all too often. Below is another report I found by A Current Affair on brands of frozen chips. It’s this sort of news that makes me reach for the remote.

A Current Affair - The Best Frozen Chip

This sort of reporting is one step ahead of propaganda stories, like those seen on Fox News. In these stories events and opinions are often exaggerated or bias, almost to the point of un-truthfulness. However, this may be something we should expect from a show that depends on a large audience for its success. Fox news is currently the most watched cable news channel in the world, so apparently their methods are working.

The only problem people seem to have with commercial TV is that they don’t actually like commercials. This has caused a slip in the revenue of broadcast advertising which further lowers program quality, as advertisers stop investing their money in television. The only way to fix this problem is to continually pump out quality programming; shows so good that we sit through the ad breaks. Commercial Media must supply this to all sorts of consumers, or advertisers will invest their money elsewhere.

The pressure is on to entertain, and the ethical wall protecting good programming seems to crumble a little more every day.