Public Media

I came across this image while visiting http://bigjournalism.com/dloesch/2011/08/08/what-media-bias-a-compilation-of-media-hatred/ 

I found the article, following this picture, on the website really interesting and somewhat relevant to the lecture about public media. The picture shows journalists protecting President Obama. Are journalists allowed to express their own opinion, especially in the public media to which the government helps to allocate funds? Dr.Redman mentioned in the lecture that one of the challenges that public media faces and needs to work on is, it's independence.  He stated that public media companies in Australia, such as ABC and SBS are not owned by the government. They are held in common by the people but there is obviously a tension between being a watchdog of the government while being allocated funds by the government. Public media is starting to get more and more independent though. For example, there is a website called 'The Drum' run by the ABC which allows journalists to state their own opinions about issues daily.

The purpose of public media is to serve the public and, unlike commercial media, not to turn a profit. However he highlighted that there is commercial dimension within public media. The examples are as follows. BBC worldwide makes a lot of money, SBS has the world game shop and also makes money out of translation services, ABC commercial makes money by running ABC shops. 

Public media also promotes nation building, enables the public to learn about their national heritage, have a national identity and enables people to have national conversations. In Australia, 41% of Australians get their news through public media. This in itself shows the importance of news in public media.  The News "style" of public media is mostly serious, and focuses on importance over interest. It is considered, not quick or unchecked. Dr.Redman pointed out that this is the reason why ABC usually puts up news last. They always confirm the news is true before posting information up. Hence, I believe that public media might be a little more reliable than commercial media due to the fact that it does not rely on profits. The public media does not necessarily need to rush and publish a new story to compete with other companies, giving it time to check if the story and the details in the story is true before publishing it.