This week we have been discussing financing of media. Although there are many methods, we placed emphasis on 5 main types. Your task this week is to describe and justify your vision for financing media. Given the fact that private media is financed in pretty much the same way across the world, you should focus on public broadcasting (TV and radio) or you could pick newspapers. Your "ideal" system could be applied to the USA or any other country.
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Zai-Post #3
ReplyDeleteAs we already know that China has a very different media system between other countries. All television and radio stations and newspapers are belonging to Chinese government. In other words, there are no private media in China.
Back in the early days after the nation's founding, all types of media support by central government, so all funds issued by the government. There had several reasons why Chinese government did it. First, Chinese government need control information sources. Although China had been liberated by the Communist Party, the residual forces of Kuomintang had not been eliminated completely. In order to consolidate regime, the government had to control all information tried to avoid civil unrest. Secondary, in that time, shortly after the war, only the government had the ability and funds to support the development of the media industry. Last but not least, China is a communist and socialist country, government is doomed to control the media content.
However, with the development of media industry, the financial requirements are increase dramatically. Chinese government can’t afford funds to all the TV stations, radio stations and newspapers. Thus, Chinese government wishes these media rely on the commercial advertisements to support themselves, but government still control the major content of the media. Nevertheless, without the government appropriation, all media stations create many different kinds of entertainment programs to attract audiences and advertisers. Thus, the media industry presents the trend of diversification in contemporary China. In addition, after government canceled the subsidies, many small-sized newspapers started to write some editorials criticized the government in order to attract audience. But they would not write those editorials too fierce, after all nobody wants to annoy the government.
Otherwise, my grandmother used to tell me that there were no any media user fees when my mother was a little girl. Except the newspaper, the TV and radio were all free to use, all you need was just buy a television or a radio, but few people can afford its.
Nowadays, Chinese media finance most of it are from advertisings, with the user fee and part of government subsidies. And although the standard of user fee is different in different areas, it is quite cheap. Take my family for example, my family’s user fee is 133.5yuan (about $21.7) per month. However, my grandfather always complains about there are too many commercials on TV. He always said it is worse than before. In addition, many TV stations and radio station in violation of advertising regulations, broadcast a considerable amount of advertising to get funds.
Although we may cannot have private media to increase competition in China, I think we can transform the existing model. First of all, the China Central Television (CCTV) can support by central government directly. And stop broadcast commercial advertising, but use state-owned companies advertising. Because there have 35 present companies in China are state-owned companies, involved in all aspects of people’s livelihood. Such as water and electricity, communication, energy, food processing, and so on. These companies also have some advertising broadcast in each television stations. Thus, those companies can afford the CCTV with the government. So that it is can avoid state media station commercialized.
The local media stations can use a small part of local taxes to support their own media stations. Other part of funds can be solved by commercial advertisements. In addition, according to the degree of the local economic development, increase user fee or decline it.
In this way, the national media station could get guaranteed, and local stations could compete with each other.
Tyler Christman Post #3
ReplyDeleteWhen trying to decide the best media financing method there are a lot of things to consider. Of the five different types we discussed in class they all have both positives and negatives which must be considered to find the ideal system to put in place. Advertising is beneficial in that it can be tailored to the consumer to best fit the needs and interest of those viewing it. It isn’t the perfect or ideal system though. As with a lot of things money can be a strong driving force in advertising. Advertising allows those who pay money for ad space to decide what content will be available to consumers and it doesn’t necessarily serve the best interests of the consumer.
Licensing fees as a media financing method has more drawbacks than things in its favor in my opinion. It can provide media that is unaffected by the market as it is has steady funding regardless of the state of the market. This is a positive because it guarantees a certain expectation of media and the expectation will always be met. The negatives of this method far out way the positives, if funding is steady all the time then that can be a drawback in that there isn’t much room for expansion. If funding is the same then it is very hard to expand and move forward. Another drawback of the financing method using licensing fees is that it allows for an unequal distribution of money. The more a consumer pays the more they have access to content that is unavailable to those who don’t pay the extra fees. This prioritizes some consumers over others.
A third media financing system is the Government. This system involves the government having control over much of the media. This system in my opinion is a negative one in that it allows the government to regulate and decide what media is available to consumers. This means they can choose what and what not to show or give people the access too. Another negative with this system is that because it is funded by the Government its funding can often change. This would definitely affect content depending on the amount of funding.
User fees are another form of media financing. This puts it on the audience to decide what content they want and what content they want to pay for. This allows for the consumer to decide what content they want for the most part and they have access to the content by paying specific user fees. A negative for this method is that it encourages paying more money for more content leaving those who can’t or don’t want to pay more money with a lack of access to some content.
Donation is the fifth financial method we discussed in class. One positive for this method is that it allows consumers to donate towards the content they would like to see available to them. Another positive is that it allows the ability of content to be produced that wouldn’t be possible without donations. As with the other methods donations are no different in that they have some drawbacks. One is that if content relies on donations then the content being provided will be influenced by those donating. This may prevent certain types of content from being available. Another negative of this method is the unreliable funding. Donations can be unreliable and funding may fluctuate from time to time and this may affect the content.
If I had to choose the best system I guess I would choose a combination of some of them. I would use user fees to allow the consumer access to the media they want by paying what they see fit for the content that would be provided. Advertising allows for consumers and the media to kind of interact with one another so some element of that method would be good to maintain. Since user fees require consumers to pay extra money for content and there are people who can’t or won’t want to pay extra fees then some media content like public television would still be available for free. There is no perfect media financing system so I believe it will take time and cooperation to find a system that best addresses the needs of all parties involved.
Herrera--Post #3
ReplyDeleteTo try to figure out an ‘ideal’ way of financing a newspaper in a specific country is a difficult task. Many factors need to be taken into consideration, such as that country’s economy, culture, social acceptability, etc.
I do think that the ideal (not necessarily the most reliable or realistic) way to finance newspapers in a country would be based solely on sales, which would be user fees from those who subscribe or agree to a per-use fee. This way, a newspaper doesn’t have any outside influence from the government (from government subsidies) or important information becoming secondary to visually appealing advertisements that take up half of a page. This does present its own problems, however, in that it would require newspapers to report mostly on “news that sells.” This could also be a potentially dangerous situation because real important stories could be put on the backburner to push stories about the Kardashians or restaurant reviews to the front page, which is obviously the most important in any reading material. As a positive, however, having sales as the main financing would allow newspapers to have a greater option of free speech, free of any other distractions or influences from the government.
Our book says that in the United States, advertising makes up an astounding 87 percent of financing in newspapers. I find this an incredible statistic because it shows that consumerism is large focus of our country. To be realistic, I think that a balanced mix of adverting, sales, and donations would be reasonably ideal. It would allow both for funding options from advertisers and from selling your news without only running articles that are completely sensationalized or insignificant to the lives of many readers. While I understand that donations are usually only given to non-profit broadcasting, or something similar, it would certainly be another option for newspapers so that its information flow could be more balanced.
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ReplyDeleteAshley- Post#3
ReplyDeleteAs much as I like public television (I could watch the Red Green show for hours) I do think it could be financed better. We learned that American public television is supported by donations and government funds. I have no issues with people offering money to support programming but donations are unreliable and the time wasted for pledge drives could be better used. The idea of the government getting involved of with media makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Such involvement is at best unpredictable and at worst a way for our government to gain control in a sphere of influence it doesn't belong. Media is a job best left to the private sector.
When it comes to financing I'm a fan of advertising. However, commercials during programming tends to make people more distrustful of the medium and I would not want to damage the goodwill given to public broadcasting. Sponsorship would be an ideal set up for me as it would generate revenue and be a more subtle way to do so. The sponsors could be local vendors that might not have the revenue to advertise on private broadcast or an organization that has a vested interest in the current programming. This would allow public television to respond to the needs of its viewers more effectively while still delivering both local and diverse programming. My version of public television is essentially private television for the little guy.
To generate extra revenue in case sponsorship isn't enough or just to be able to create more original programming I think that public television could have a pay per view subsidiary that could broadcast educational programming (targeted at schools), sporting events (for games that wouldn't get air time), and other niche products.
The important part of this is to create a place for small businesses to advertise, provide interesting and local content, and turn a profit. Non-profit is a dirty word to me.
Diaz- Post #3
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to come with the “ideal” financial system for a country to follow, especially the United States, because there are many elements that go into whether it will be successful or not. My plan will be designed for an imaginary country that isn’t as large or as commercial as the US and will be focused on television rather than all forms of media.
I believe that the media has become too commercial. The focus has been directed and influenced by money and profits rather than the content of the material produced. I would put regulations on the amount of advertisement is allowed to be broadcasted. Only 50 percent of a station’s expenses may be funded by ads.
Different forms of user fees would produce the other 50 percent. In an effort to promote healthier lifestyles there would be a tax 5 percent on all visual communication purchases. This included any cable packages, Netfix, or Hulu. That tax would be given back to the stations to apply toward their expenses.
The government would also give a grant to any station that makes 25 percent of the content produced educational or in compliance with the higher standards act. The higher standards act is an initiative to keep the quality of television high. In order for something to be considering in terms with it the content must be educational, must be void of any crude behavior and language, be family friendly (tv rating y-14 or under), or have international significance.
This plan may not be perfect, but I feel it is on a better track to promote a better quality of content and perhaps a better quality of life too.
The different methods to finance in media is comparative to one another is beneficial. The first method is advertising. Advertising provides the audience with ads and sells space to vendors. Sponsorship, is a combination of non commercial and commercial. It also uses has time and space underwritten to the vendor. Non commercial vendors. Libertarian countries have been known to use more advertising. This also due to the market based economy. License fee, is another method that is used to pay for both radio and television public service broadcasting. A person who owned a television set or radio pays license fees.Mandatory license fees tend to be in European countries and with media systems and social responsibility philosophy. Also there is the concept of government appropriation.Government appropriation is a method of financing and criticizing main reasons.First, criticism is the difficulty of media organizations to plan production and delivery of content. The second one license fees and hi dement appropriation for financing media permits for the government not to have too much control over media content. Users fees is another method if finance it permits a media organization by law to charge an individual audience meme we access to the organization.With it being a subscription where the user pays a flat and predictable fee for regular access to a newspaper. Also a per use fee, where the user pays fir each instance access to media content.User fees generally determine the response to perception what the market place will support.The last method is donation, in which the individual or institution , usually donations are made to a no produce radio and television station. I feel that there is not just one method they could work and I feel it is a variety of some I think that is what makes the methods of marketing work and by taking advertising , marketing it plays a role in the methods of finance. I also think the license fees could be done away with and allow each household 2 television by allowing consumers televisions, it's promoting the brands of tv and if the government wants to be involved they could choose the brands when the program is switching from license fees. I think this helps other countries have less cost for television, but it could also promote economy through sales and promotions of products.
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