Week 7: Public Media

Now quality is what I like for my TV programs. Now I am very biased in this view, I can admit it, but I really like the things that the ABC and SBS have to offer. Q&A and Insight are brilliant shows (and I know many people agree), all the period drama pieces and the remakes of classic literature are brilliant too. All I have to say is Pride and Prejudice (the BBC production obviously, not the movie). Also I was brought up on the Friday night murder shows that play on the ABC as its about the only time my mother watched TV. That was always a big thing in our family, sitting down with our nachos and watching the Friday night murders as a family.
And who is better than Margaret and David for movie reviews (except maybe Mark Fennell on Triple J which is still counted as public media and part of the ABC). And The Chasers and Hungry Beast, those shows are so great, especially for people of our generation. And what channel is best for news? SBS, of course!
When I lived on the Coast (the Sunshine one), one of the highlights of coming to Brisbane was going to the ABC shop in Queen St. That shop always has cool stuff.
One of the subjects that was brought up in the lecture was that some people view the ABC as elitist and boring, of limited interest, poorly presented and out of touch. Now I strongly disagree with most of these. As you may have been able to gather from this post and others, I clearly don't find the ABC boring, but that isn't to say that it can't be. There are many programs that are played that I wouldn't watch and if it is still playing the bowls then obviously that is one of the most boring things I have ever seen (yes I have watched it...). But most of the time it has really interesting programs and it doesn't have adds. That is one of the ABC's best qualities. I could possibly cry if it follows SBS and gets add breaks. I can see how people view it as elitist but in my opinion it has something for everyone. I don't think I have met many young people who have seen at least some of Chris Lilley's shows and there are shows like Q&A and it has inventing shows and things like Spicks and Specks and The Gruen Transfer. How can all this be out of touch? As for poorly presented, well, it looks fine to me.
Bias on TV is like a game of soccer or any sport really. Whatever the referee calls, there will always be one side that doesn't agree. The referee can hardly ever make anyone happy. Its just his or her job to call what he or she sees and try to keep it fair. I think many shows on the ABC and SBS are like this. One political party is always not going to be happy and say that the show is biassed, and if both sides keep saying or thinking this then the show is doing a good job (probably). Like on Q&A the other night, the religion debate, the crowd seemed to be mostly siding with the Cardinal but then most of the tweets were in favour of Dawkins.
If you don't have something like Austar then how are you possibly going to see the latest Premier League games and highlights? SBS of course (and you have to love the soccer. Messi is a god). And there ain't no one out there that knows soccer as well as Craig Foster and Les Murray.
Oh and the ABC plays Dr Who, therefore it beats every other channel.