Lecture 6 Reflection - Commercial Media

Today’s lecture was all about commercial media, and the reasons why it exists and continues to grow.  Prior to this lecture I honestly did not have a clear understanding on what commercial media exactly is, but now I do!  It is very interesting how much money goes into commercial media, compared to public media.  It is a shame that there is such a different amount of support for the different media outlets. 

Commercial media is definitely a world of its own, it is basically all about money and power.  I did not realise how much the commercial media outlets own, they have money is all different types of businesses, and when they own so much they are able to exercise even more control.  From what Dr Redman was saying in today’s lecture commercial media does seem rather corrupt, with more of a concentration on profits then social responsibility.  The big question is if commercial media will be able to deliver both commercially (profits) and socially (public trust), or is it just all about the money? 

We also discussed government content control, this scares me.  I know compared to a lot of other countries Australia has great freedom, but at the same time we are very regulated and controlled.  If content was to be controlled in Australia we would miss out on a lot of important information.  Government content control always makes me wonder what the government is trying to hide from us.