Media and information industry Essay Example

Australian Media Industry Analysis& Reflection

1. Industry Analysis

After my graduation, I plan to work within the media industry in the Australian market. To be specific, I aspire to work as news broadcaster in one of the country’s most notable television stations. It is important to note that the media industry acts as a fundamental source of information to the underlying people. It further offers a great extent of job opportunities to people of different cultural backgrounds. Certainly, it also contributes immensely as a major taxpayer to the government of the day. According to FECCA (2016), information access is a crucial aspect needed for enabling a direct and true representation of multi-cultural Australia. In fact, targeted media and diverse as well as representative reporting are indeed a fundamental way of ensuring that migrants as well as indigenous people are empowered; possess information, resource-capacity and pertinent tools needed for them to participate free within the overall Australian society as a whole while still enhancing aspects related to social; cultural and economic contributions (Champion & Chapman, 2005). The immediate effort to avail information and stories, which directly related to all members of a given society, is a crucial component of developing a sense of community cohesion and overall understanding.

In addition to public broadcasters in the TV subs-sector, Australians further enjoy three well-known television network that include; Nine Network; the Seven Network and Network Ten. The digital free-to-air broadcasts were first initiated in 2001 as analogue transmission was to be completely phased out by 2008. In comparison to other countries, the Australian opted to retain the foreign-ownership restrictions within its 1992 Broadcasting Act. The Act does not allow foreign control of a broadcasting license while ensuring to limit the foreign ownership of broadcasting to 20%. The television sub-sector has continued to record immense growth with more than 25% of current Australians having direct access to pay television services by the end of 2005. Newspapers and news websites are owned by two National Corporations; News Corporation or Fairfax Media. The Australian is the national daily newspaper that is globally distributed as ‘The Australian Financial Review’. The industry also enjoys a wide radio coverage system with 2BL and ABC being the most popular ones at the moment.

Regulation of this industry is highly limited to a specific set of areas. It is crucial to note that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is the broadcasting regulator for both television and radio sub-sectors. It also serves as the co-regulator for the Online Content Schemes. The Commercial Television Code of Practice is the underlying set of regulatory frameworks that are registered under the ACMA. The Australian Press Council is a self-regulatory framework specifically for the print media. According to PwC (2015), the Australian entertainment and media market is set to grow to $43.4B by the 2019 year end. It is also expected that by 2019, internet advertising will account for more than 50% of the overall Australian advertising market.

2. Profession Skills

As I mentioned earlier, my aspiration is to work as a news broadcaster in one of the country’s well-known television station. A successful Television broadcaster is required to possess at least 3 or more years of reporting experience. The candidate is expected to be able to identify, arrange and conduct interviews and, also have the capacity to go after exclusive and distinctive elements of stories in the field and from the office. The broadcaster should be a journalist that possesses a stronger background of knowledge in both international and domestic events. In addition to this, the broadcaster is expected to show a sound comprehension of stories that fairly-resonates with the TV’s platforms diversified set of audiences and knowledge of its Charters and company’s overall Code of Conduct. It is also important that the broadcaster show immense abilities to travel far and beyond for purposes of news coverage.

In relation to the educational background, a TV broadcaster just like any other journalist in Australia should possess at least tertiary education. By the end of 2000, it was estimated that the media and entertainment industry received more than 600 students from different universities graduating with Bachelor of Journalism or even undergraduate degree that majored solely in Journalism with another 50 or more graduates with Masters Qualification.

To be successful in this field, the TV broadcasters are expected to have a definite grasp of English words pronunciation; a very top notch grasp of current affairs for news affecting both the local and the foreign countries as well as extensive communication and interviewing skills that comes in handy during live interviews and conversations. There a good number of schools in Australia that provides tertiary educational background that relates to journalism and news broadcasting as a whole. However, in some cases, a news broadcaster is internally-groomed by a company to specific criterion that fits with their particular ways of delivering news to the audience. For instance, sports and financial news presenters receive different set of trainings that well fits with how such information should be disseminated to the public audience.

3. Personal Skills

Personally, I am good at communication and interactive skills given that I have learned a lot in many of the classes as I am undertaking Diploma in Communications. As a top notch student in communications, I have learned the skills and ways of selecting possible interviewees and the best way of conducting efficient communications with them at any given moment in time. I am also well-versed with current and general-knowledge affairs, which come in handy in formulating effective interview queries. However, one of my major weaknesses is that I have not learned to pronounce some words. I have a deep accent that could prevent the audience from understanding some of the words during the broadcast. However, I am optimistic that this can be done away with in due time. I just need to engage in extensive set of practices to come with a rather basic accent, which is a fundamental requirement in the news coverage activity.

References List

Champion, D. & Chapman, S., 2005. Framing pub smoking bans: an analysis of Australian print news media coverage, March 1996–March 2003. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, vol.59, no.8, p.679-684

FECCA. 2015. ‘Telling stories for all Australians’. Australian Mosaic. Accessed from http://fecca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FECCAMosaic-44.pdf

Mishkind, B. 2000. This is the International Section of The Broadcast Archive: Australian Broadcasting. Accessed from http://www.oldradio.com/archives/international/austral.html

PwC. 2015. Australian Entertain & Media Industry must have a go ‘to Grow’. Accessed from http://www.pwc.com.au/press-room/2015/entertainment-media-outlook-grow-jun15.html