The Consequences Of Commercial Journalism And Commercial Media

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Commercial media represents archetypal platforms of a two-sided market; on one side, they offer information to their viewers, and on the other, they offer entertainment and adverts to their customers. In this paper I will argue that good journalism is undermined by commercial media due to the role of advertising and circulation as a source of revenue for media outlets. Both commercial media bias and the use of sensationalism demonstrates, unequivocally, that the commercial economics of the media conflict explicitly with its partisan politics. A model of advertising-free journalism will be explored to determine the viability of media that is free of commercial pressure. Additionally, defenders of commercial media will be examined in establishing the implicit influences of commercialism that cause unethical behaviour. Commercial incentive creates a conflict between good journalism and commercial media that is too great to be ignored or looked over, and thus the goal of informing viewers is often compromised.

The dependence on advertising puts pressure on the type of journalism that would be encouraged (McChesney 2004). As media outlets need advertisers to survive, concerns are raised over the likelihood of advertisers creating distortions in media content. The result is often distorted news and information that demonstrates a bias for the owners and advertisers, and consequently results in a breakdown in the quality and integrity of journalism (Baker 1994). The most well-known and documented case of commercial media bias is represented by the influence of tobacco companies over US media (Blasco and Sobbrio 2012). In 1954, the American Cancer Society released a result of a study on 187,000 men proving that cigarette smokers had a se...

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... is also present in commercial media and acts as an obstruction to the publication of good journalism. Stories may be concocted, include misinformation and newsworthy stories may be omitted, in hopes of attracting more customers. Scripps debunked the possibility of removing advertising from profit-driven journalism in the hope of freeing journalism from commercial pressures, which confirms that good journalism cannot exist in this form. Analysis of commercial media defender, Rupert Murdoch and his company’s actions exhibit that participation in the commercial media industry drives unethical behavior, due to profit incentives, even without explicit advertising pressures. The current state of commercial media confirms that journalism is at a crisis point. Good journalism will continue to be undermined for as long as profit drives the commercial media industry.

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