Focus: Lecture - Public Media

To contrast with last week's lecture about commercial media, we looked at the complete opposite of it, and it's called public media.

But first, in honour of my city, let's take a look at the public media in Hong Kong.

Back in Hong Kong, the only public media organisation I know of is Radio Television Hong Kong, or RTHK in short. They have produced so much interesting contents and feature for the viewers and listeners alike. Not only that, they also help produce education TV programmes with the Education Bureau for primary school students and they used to put them on-air every weekdays. However, they now distribute them online instead of broadcasting on television. RTHK also produce and broadcast programmes and meetings happening in the Legislative Council Building, the place where politicians debate about many issues in the Hong Kong society.

So. What is public media? According to the lecture, it is a media that aims to serve and engage a public, and they support public and the progress of democracy. Every public media should have a public value, a so-called 'public service ethos'. The productions of public media should also of value of public's fee that has given to them, in the case of Australia, it would be taxpayer's money. Not only that, in order to provide high standard content, they have to listen to the public audience as well: they need consultation that is opened to public. They receive fundings mostly from government through taxpayers' money.

The key mechanism of public media is mostly news and current affair (a.k.a. CAFF). The styles on reporting news are mostly serious and very precise, and they tend to not trying to attract audience since they see importance and unbiased standpoint as top priority. Their news are very considered, breaking news usually need to be verified and checked before publishing. However, not everything about public media is news and things happening every day. The programmes they produced can be very entertaining and useful as well. Such as comedies, education, history, entertainment, and everyday life topics (e.g. cooking shows and etiquette). In some countries, they also have the duty to spread propaganda.

Putting side by side with the commercial broadcasting media in Australia, there are 2 main public media organisations in this continent. ABC and SBS. They both broadcast on radios, televisions and online. ABC is the nation's first public broadcasting network. They provide very highs standard news bulletin and discussions, as well as different kinds of contents for audience from toddlers (Giggle and Hoot) to old fellas (Antique Roadshow), while SBS is a multicultural branch that passes intercultural harmony and understanding between each other. They also broadcast foreign news programme from other places in the world, such as Italy and Russia.

Opening shops help generate revenue
to produce high quality content

Sometimes, public media organisations have more than one source of fundings. They would commercialise and sell programmes in DVD and merchandises through their shops. Not only that would help ease the operation of public media, it also provides more resources for them to produce more high quality contents as well.

I think even though commercial media has all the resources and money to create or purchase exciting and audience-driven shows, the inner value is still missing and in my opinion, they are not as honest as public media. Moreover, public media provide news and truth of current affairs that is unbiased, complete and sincere, I believe people should watch and listen more from them, other than watching stuffs that sometimes propagate on one-side's opinion and standpoint. Being a well-informed audience is important and applying their knowledge in everyday life is crucial for developing critical thinking and skills. It seemed like public media is not as boring as other people say at all!

D.