The Extent Of Commercial Media-Lecture 5

Looking at the above two images, its clear that, it’s an ad of Coca Cola from two different centuries. The first image is from the year 1890 used for a newspaper and the second is the recent ad, from online news. The fact is that commercial media existed then and now, but now in an advanced form. Advertising is a very powerful influence on commercial media.

Commercial media is a media, which is known mainly to be a profit –media driven production promoting more of corporate interests. Its not government funded and is considered to be risky. Some of its major players are: Ten, Fairfax media, Southern Cross Broadcasting, Optus, Telstra and so on.

All these media players, from free airtime to newspapers and magazines are in the run, of earning money. The main forms of commercial media are Subscription, sponsoring and subsidizing. The main function of this media type is its commercial aspects.

According to John McManus (Market Driven Journalism 1994) – Commercial media is something where profit over-rides social responsibility. The fact is that news these days has become more of a source of entertainment rather than education. In a way the quality of communication and participation is declining.

Looking at its aspects, it is clear that this media-type does not hold social responsibility and where profit is preferred over quality. In a way, it has considered to be a non-violent action towards public media.

As a result, the style of this media is falling, resulting in tabloidization (decline in the standard of quality in media), and many more. One of the main challenges for commercial media is that due to the fall of advertising revenue. There is a fall in investment, which means there will be less money for production.

The Commercial media lecture was a very straight forward concept. Therefore looking at the whole detail, i view social responsibility is a very important factor, which every corporate needs, especially in media. Also one of the main question arises is that should commercial media totally be shutdown. Also due to its fall, is it going to economically affected?  Some issues, which are still need to be considered.

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