The ABC has recently announced its Five-Year Plan, which aims to transfer more of its limited resources from radio/TV (linear broadcasting) across to internet media platforms (digital broadcasting).  Linear broadcasting will continue into the foreseeable future, but there are likely to be significant cutbacks reflecting changing audience preferences for digital broadcasting.  In order to better understand the rationale for this plan it is helpful if you first read the Background Document.  Commentary on this is also provided on the ABC Friends National website.  Some of the points made in this background document are provided below.

• There is an increasing number and diversity of information/news sources via digital broadcasting, whereas once there were only a small number of radio/TV broadcasters and hardcopy newspapers (linear broadcasters).
• Many of these digital sources are partisan, reflecting pre-existing attitudes in their delivery and analysis of news events.
• This highlights the need for continued non-partisan sources of information/news in the form of a publicly funded ABC, free of commercial and political interests.
• Australia has had the ABC for over 90 years, but what form should it take into the future? Audiences are increasingly moving away from linear broadcasting of the past.  Providing for this increasing digital audience appears to be one of the key motivations underlying the ABC’s Five-Year Plan. For an article which identifies the loss of younger generations to various institutions, including the ABC, refer to Trent Zimmerman.
• One problem associated with an increasing shift to digital broadcasting is that limited resources will need to be taken away from linear broadcasting to fund the digital.
• Apart from keeping up with the developing dominance of digital broadcasting, a proposed positive outcome with digital broadcasting is the future digital generation of content should be easier and cheaper than producing linear broadcast content (although it is not clear why this would be so). A negative outcome is greater opportunity for mis/disinformation to emerge, which will be a challenge for all media organisations who wish to be accurate providers of information/news.
• Digital competition is also driving a growing consolidation across pre-existing commercial media, to ensure maximum income with limited resources (e.g., advertising income). This has come at a cost with less local/regional news coverage.
• Partisan sources on digital media are producing greater social polarisation in Australia.
• As a publicly funded organisation the ABC is well placed to address this growing deficit in local news and to counter the polarisation with social cohesion. Without commercial pressures the ABC is better placed to engage in collaboration with local organisations and provide local coverage and greater diversity.

A key point motivating the Five-Year Plan appears to be the movement of audiences away from linear to digital broadcasting.  But in spite of relatively less funding to the ABC it plans to follow this audience, plus meet a growing problem of less local/regional coverage by commercial broadcasters.  Sounds like a plan, but are there problems with it?

Concerns have been expressed over this plan, with one former ABC journalist (Paul Collins) arguing that it panders to the personal expectations of an audience rather than presenting factual/cultural content that may fall outside of those expectations.  The result is that individuals might rarely be exposed to information outside of their individual echo chamber.  In this way the ABC will fall short of some of its charter obligations, which include programs that inform the individual (stuff one didn’t think was relevant/important, but is) plus the presentation of cultural and intellectual diversity across the Australian community.

This concern is in response to statements in the Background Document which include “… The ABC must have an audience-first, digital mindset …” (p.8).  What is meant by ‘audience-first’?  And then in the Five-Year Plan “… closer alignment of content to audience needs, interests and preferences …” (p.1).  How closely should the ABC adhere to audience preferences?  While catering to the needs and wants of specific sectors within the Australian community is commendable, the ABC needs to be there for all Australians, reflecting diversity of culture and attitude.  It should do this in an honest and critical way as required in the ABC Charter.  This reflects a subtle but significant difference between catering for diverse audiences and pursuing the aim of growing/retaining an audience.  If the primary purpose of a public broadcaster is to present information/news which is of public importance, with rational/critical analysis of that news, then it cannot do this by seeking to meet the perceived wants/biases (preferences) of any sector within the community.  A well-informed public should be a result of the ABC achieving its charter obligations.  In contrast, the primary purpose of commercial media is to grow/retain an audience to make financial profits.  These are different media models.

With the growth in digital media there is an increasing number of news sources, from the ABC and News Limited down to individual publishers with their online blogs (as you are reading now).  The proliferation of these multiple news sources is often reflective of an increasing divergence in how people interpret each news event, with individuals congregating in news/attitude silos.  As this happens, strong allegiances to specific news sources develop … the polarisation referred to earlier.  A news provider might then be defined by the attitudes of its audience.  One could argue that this has often been the case with TV/radio and print media and is too often a dominant feature in the relationship between a media provider and their audience, creating those personal echo chambers.  If a primary goal of a commercial news broadcaster is to retain and attract an audience, one strategy is to pander to the partisan biases that exist within a community (biased reporting that supports the preferences of that audience).  This is an inherent trap for commercial media, who depend on audience numbers for their income, either in terms of subscription or advertising dollars.  In the end who determines the content, the broadcaster or the audience?

Publicly funded broadcasters such as the ABC do not operate under commercial pressures.  The ABC is not directly dependent on audience numbers for its funding and so news can be reported regardless of any perceived audience bias … hopefully as honestly and critically as possible.  Nonetheless, we need to be wary that the ABC does not fall into the trap of thinking that audience size is primary rather than the validity/integrity of what it broadcasts. Thankfully, catering to diversity does seem to be still recognised in the final paragraph of the background paper, when it comes to deciding which sport events to report on (refer to p.16 of background paper; Sport).  If audience numbers are what is important, then the ABC should focus its resources exclusively on the most popular sports.  But what about those competitions/events that are under-represented by the commercial media?  These are the types of events that a public broadcaster should be supporting.  It is not clear if this is in contrast to those earlier statements which appear to focus on ABC audience numbers.  Should audience numbers be a primary concern for the ABC, as they are for commercial media, particularly if this means taking resources away from achieving other goals?  Given its Charter obligations it is debatable whether the ABC should be chasing audience numbers as the commercial media does.

One might argue that a public broadcaster should lead rather than follow in order to serve the national interest, specifically in terms of the quality of content and inclusiveness of coverage.  Will a loss of linear broadcasting mean that individuals are left to choose what they think will be relevant or important; but then one doesn’t know what one doesn’t know.  The result might very well be a loss of diversity for each individual, and so for the Australian community as a whole.

Somehow the ABC needs to change in such a way that the possibility of diversity of experience for the individual is retained whilst moving with the inevitable changes in broadcast technology.  An important caveat should be that in attempting to provide a more personally relevant experience for the media consumer the ABC does not follow the curating approach of commercial media in providing entirely biased content for each individual.