Simon East • Media & Communications in Ministry • Semester 2 2010

Errington, W. & Miragliotta, N. (2007) Media & Politics: An Introduction. South Melbourne, Australia:
Oxford University Press.

Chapter 9 – Week 11 – Public Broadcasting

222 words

1. It has been said that the ABC suffers from a tendency to bias and, more
particularly, the promotion of left-wing, politically correct views. Do
you agree with this view? Why/why not?

Complaints about the ABC appear to be mostly from politicians rather than the public (p.174).

Based on the recent ‘scrapbook’ assignment, I found the ABC to be the least biased of the seven

news sources I examined. They appeared to stick to the facts of the event rather than adding

extra commentary. Commercially-driven news sources have a mandate to ‘sell’ news and so

may present stories in order to be popular and engaging (controversy = reward). The ABC

conversely is there to present news for the public good.

But as Errington & Miragliotta point out (pp.172), organisations are influenced by their leaders

and cultural ethos. Perhaps this has slowly grown a progressive-liberal flavour.

2. What are the benefits and costs associated with allowing a public
broadcaster to raise funds from commercial advertising?

The primary benefits of allowing commercial advertising are the increased revenue – giving the

broadcaster a greater capacity to sustain operations, be less vulnerable to political manoeuvres,

and improve its role as the fourth estate, keeping the government accountable.

The issues with this, however, are:

 Previously-uninterrupted programs may be interjected with irritating commercials

 Actual content is given less air-time

 Unless ads are carefully controlled, some could introduce a bias into news or current

affairs

 Programs could be prioritised based on revenue-potential rather than importance or

public-benefit

 ‘Crowd pleasing’ programs could begin to dominate the network

 The goal of providing alternative programming is at risk