Public Service Broadcasting In Australia

Fairfax media, originally John Fairfax and Sons, was founded by John Fairfax in 1941 and for over 170 years has grown to become one of Australia’s largest media companies. The company’s operations include the distribution of newspapers, magazines, radio as well as operating digital media throughout Australia and New Zealand. Some notable figures from Fairfax Media’s current Board of Directors include company chairman Roger Corbett, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Greg Hywood and Chief Financial Officer, David Housego. This report provides a situational analysis regarding the current stage the business’s lifecycle and the internal and external influences on the business. This is followed by an

The television industry is one of the most rapidly changing media industries to date. Its evolution from black and white, to colour, to digital and now three-dimensional viewing, there is nothing slow about its development. Focusing particularly on commercial free-to-air (FTA) television, the FTA television industry plays a critical role in the Australian ecosystem. Due to its free delivery, it generates $3.2 billion per annum in economic and advertising surplus (Venture Consulting, 2015). This is why the value of commercial FTA television to the Australian public remains high whereby FTA television is watched by more than 14 million Australians daily (Free TV Australia, 2014). However, television nowadays is much more than a medium of entertainment and information. It is also used as a method for engaging in social interaction (Morely, 1986, p. 22), and this digital divide of interaction is what harms the television industry. The launch of streaming services not only confronts the traditional ‘linear’ TV format by allowing users to select what they want to watch and when they want it, it also broadens the offering to almost any device (Spooner, 2015). The research methods in the television industry despite its strength as a medium, must however, walk hand in hand with the fast progression of new technology and challenge the rise of digital omnivores.

In the late 1950s and into the 1960s responsibility played a large role in how news was distributed. Three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, were among the outlets with formally trained news anchors who brought forth a sense of unity in the country. But, as the years progressed and people began to develop special interests, the ways news was relayed transformed (Turow, 1997, p. 40).

The public can now have a say in what they see, and this differs from ‘old guard newsrooms.’ Liquid journalism is intertwined, being a very fluctuating version. Generalizations do not seem to be the same words one would associate a journalist with. TV was free, but now people pay for in time and money. They are constantly looking for profit centers. Antitrust rulings keep companies from owning too much, and the companies are no longer stopped from syndicating by fin-syn. Buying smaller channels is a way for bigger companies to make money, too. CBS and NBC were the first two major companies for broadcasting. The FCC limits the sizes of conglomerates, questioned by the NRA. Critics argue that owning so much of each media type (radio, tv, newspaper) decreases competition of

The purpose of this paper is to explore the pros and cons of the proposal to eliminate federal funding to The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). In doing so, first we will explore several facets of this issue including first the cost of funding from both a governmental and taxpayer perspective. Secondly, understanding the services provided and the audience served is integral in this discussion. Lastly, we will consider government’s role in media and education. The conversation, however, must start with the history, values, and goals of this organization.

The source comments on why the market in Australia is so concentrated which include, favourable monopolistic laws and few safeguard regulations, decreases in funding for public broadcasting, restrictions preventing new companies from starting in media due to onerous licencing and regulations preventing new entrants and short term outlook biased toward profits rather than national interest. (McCutcheon and Pusey 2011). Media concentration also causes only certain views and information to enter the public sphere, and may be biased instead of impartially examining both sides, as large corporations follow their own views or agenda. This is why the role of a public broadcasting service is crucial, which will be discussed later.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Australian Story is a TV series that has journalists interviewing people who are considered to have or who inspire other people in their lives. In the 18 years on air, the program has received accolades for its unique personal approach and has gained a strong following from audiences around the nation. Understanding that the Australian Story brief demands “Unique stories that feature fascinating characters and original storylines with unexpected 'twists and turns ' and compelling visuals,” I am proposing a candidate on whom the Australian Story team could base a future episode.

“reinvention” of the BBC during the 1990s, relating a managerialist “politics of forgetting” to the

Republican-led threats to public media funding is nothing new. Consider that only two years after the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 became law, Republican President Richard Nixon sought to slice its funding in half (Frank, 2012). CPB has also survived repeated attempts to

Media was just as ever-changing as the society it was taking place within. During this time, media was just beginning to become a nationwide phenomenon. In May of 1874, the “Imperial Press Law” decreed that there would be freedom of the press. This opened the door not only for more forms of media to be readily available, but also for media to now be interwoven with politics. Newspapers

On average Canadians spend more time watching television, listening to the radio and browsing the Web than they do anything else (Rowland, 2015). What is seen, heard and read has an influence on culture, providing information and resources for information gathering, deliberation and analysis that enables democracy to function (Fenton, 2012). The public radio station was created to support that idea – flush out the subjective, at times propagandist, profit-driven private media and replace it with educational and objective information that would serve the interests of the public. After examining the historical context of public broadcasting in Canada, this case study will analyze the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), looking at its early

In response to the rise of television and the competition from commercial broadcasting, BBC urged to an intellectual shift in the understanding of its role and the purpose of public service. It had to reinvent itself in order to maintain an independent service, and protect it from the political and commercial pressure. Sir Ian Jacob, the Director-General from 1952 to 1960 almost outlined every notable step of the BBC’s reinvention in the next two decades. Firstly, Jacob (1954, cited in Tracey, 1998: 9) claimed that public service broadcasting should be ‘best available in every field’, and allow the public to make the choice rather than making choice for them. The BBC was expected to consistently fulfill

Over the centuries, the media has played a significant role in the shaping of societies across the globe. This is especially true of developed nations where media access is readily available to the average citizen. The media has contributed to the creation of ideologies and ideals within a society. The media has such an effect on social life, that a simple as a news story has the power to shake a nation. Because of this, governments around the world have made it their duty to be active in the regulation and control of media access in their countries. The media however, has quickly become dominated by major mega companies who own numerous television, radio and movie companies both nationally and

In the 1990’s technology was the main focus of all countries around the world. Companies such Microsoft and Apple had a huge impact of technology in general especially the technological advances in digital television and pay television. This has gained most Australians the abitily to choose freely what they would like to watch such as movies, news, sports for more than 24 hours a day. These varieties has also open the channel to more technological development and business

BBC is the only media outlet that is not funded by any organization or advertisers. Anyone who owns a television has to pay the license fee, which helps fund the BBC. In the most recent famous case, Prime Minister Tony Blair 's administration became furious over a report by a BBC freelance correspondent that the Labour government had “sexed up” the evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in order to build public consensus for sending British troops to war. Although it later became apparent that evidence of these weapons was inconclusive, an inquiry into the matter (which also involved the suicide of a government official responsible for unauthorized comments) led to the resignation of both the head of the BBC Board of Governors and the BBC director-general (Hutton Inquiry, 2004; Dyke, 2005). In a study of the