Public Media; Can it survive the battle against commercial media?

The lecture following mid semester holidays focused on public media linking to the previous lectures topic, commercial media. As I watch little (if any) public media, prior to this lecture I knew close to nothing on the topic. The lecture opened with the quote:

 “The difference between commercial broadcasting and public broadcasting is the difference between consumers and citizens”

This quote spoken by Nigel Milan effectively summarises many people’s view of public media, more often than not being seen as the good in the battle of good and evil. Unlike commercial media, public media is not profit driven with its ultimate aim rather being to serve or engage the public. It is generally funded by the Australian government and has no advertising. ABS and SBS are examples of public media within Australia. Particular points made in the lecture  which I found I could really relate to is that public media is often seen as; boring, elitist, of limited interest, poorly presented and out of touch. I myself find the news on commercial media channels much more interesting and relatable. This can be seen as one of the challenges for public media. In order to still attract viewers it is imperative that their shows and news remain relative to the people of the 21^st century.