Lecture 7 Public Media

As opposed to commercial media, public media is defined as media whose mission is to serve or engage a public. Public media include traditional publicly-funded broadcasters and networks ... as well as public uses of new platforms and distribution mechanisms, such as the internet, podcasting, blogging. Increasingly, the term ‘public media’ is less associated with taxpayer supported media; it may be for profit so long as its ultimate purpose is to serve the public and not to turn a profit.


Quote from Nigel Milan, 'The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens' 
Their main goal is to connect to their audience, not to make a profit from it. Make no profit means they need some help and in this case, they are mostly funded by the government. Isn't that a dilemma? They want to deliver true
and trustworthy news to the viewers but they are receiving help from the government. They cannot criticize the government's mistake publicly but they want their audience to know. How can they draw a clear line between government and citizens? Now that I see commercial media has their challenge to choose between quality & profit, public media is facing this too. 


Back in my hometown, I did not spend much time on TV station that is categorized under public media except for prime time news. Mainly because they are biased towards major political party, didn't report the big news truthfully and often send wrong, biased messages to the audience. Anyway, they make better quality program such as documentary and heart-ripping stories to the audience. While commercial media may neglect these social news, public media will cover it for us. 


I can't help but to compare and try to choose which one is better. Commercial or public media? I have this pros & cons list in my heart. In the end, I found the existence of both media are equally important. They need to be there to balance the choices of audience where they want more entertainment or information. Let's hope the commercial media will find it's way to make a show that is profitable with good quality and public media will be cleared from it's dilemma.