Is it the social function to deliver the five points of social responsibility as laid out in the Hutchins Commission of 1947:
The media should provide a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account of the day's events in a context which gives them meaning.
The media should serve as a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism.
The media should project a representative picture of the constituent groups in the society.
The media should present and clarify the goals and values of the society.
The media should provide full access to the day's intelligence.
It is pertinent to view these points in the historical context of the times and the parallels to today's media environment. In America the media was receiving much criticism of their abuse of freedom of speech, commercial interests and anti-government bias leading to diminished public respect. Much of this is happening today with the News Limited scandal and perceptions of bias in their Australian publications as well as the extensive interlacing commercial interests of the seven major media players:
News Limited, Fairfax Media, Nine Entertainment Company, WIN Corporation, Southern Cross Broadcasting, Seven West Media and Ten Corporation.
An example of these intertwined interests is the release of the latest Newspoll and the veracity given to it by many media outlets, on which I made the following comment:
Sandy Kelly Newspoll, owned by News Limited, releases results exclusively to The Australian, owned by News Limited. Maybe ABC News Breakfast should point this out before giving such creedence to these poll results.
Yesterday at 08:16 · · 12 people
Which leads to the question of, "Is it just another business driven to make a profit?":
The perfect example is the use of cross promotion often seen in Current Affair programs, the latest diet or beauty products, that cross the "Ethical Wall" between advertising sales and editorial balance. The pre ad break hook to ensure the viewer stays with the program, the use of pop-ups or in on-line news those annoying ads before the audience can view news footage which is increasing advertising revenue.
236% increase in advertising revenue
The other example is the demise of traditional newspapers as advertising revenue falls.
If the assumption is that the media is just dollar driven, what does the future hold?
Commercial television has had a fair idea for many years on what stories are turn on's and what are turn off's through Ratings, the 8am analysis of the previous days viewing. Now with on-line news the same analysis can be performed by monitoring of users "mouse-clicks". The trend is to tabloid journalism and the the worth of investigative journalism has been brought into question.
Subscription for bigger and better on-line content is a possibility as is the move to more local specific sites perhaps as ad-ons.
The Local
Westside News - Courier Mail on-line local
Alternatively government funded bailouts of the media is a possibility or expanding government control via funding to Commercial Media. This of course is fraught with danger of political pandering for funding and an increased burden on taxpayers.
The advent of the Wikileaks, Crikey, and the new organisations Newsstand and The Conversation, sees a push for more independent reporting which may be the third, and investigative journalists', saving alternative.
The Conversation Interview
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