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There are many different ways to evaluate the media. Two of these perspectives are the market model and the public sphere model.
Market Model
The market model is the dominant perspective within the media industry.60 It’s similar to most economic measures of firm, namely in its emphasis of profit analysis. It’s useful as media firms often act as typical companies, raising capital, competing with other media firms for market share and developing new products, with the results affecting investors, employees and audiences.
As such, the market model can explain why certain firms behave in certain ways at certain times and places. A firm that offers a product exactly identical to those of other firms within a given market cannot charge higher prices for that product than do the other firms, lest they repel customers within that market. For example, in the New York City metropolitan area, the telecom company Verizon is gaining customers from other companies by offering almost exactly the same channels as those other companies but at lower prices.
There are advantages to society if media firms operate as businesses, namely efficiency, responsiveness, flexibility, and innovation.61 One such example is CNN, which became the model for many other news networks.62 However, the market model can be limited. Society as a whole has an interest which transcends profits. Therefore, the market model can be complemented by the public sphere model.
Public Sphere Model
Since the market is based on consumer purchasing power, the market view can deviate from the democratic ideal of equal opportunity per person;63 markets are undemocratic since those with wealth can have more influence within the model. Private media can also, at best, not hurt or, at worst, harm democracies as it makes more business sense to sometimes grab hold of consumers’ attention by pandering or shocking them; with respect to social morality, markets simply meet demands, and usually have no concern for public welfare.
Therefore, profits cannot be the sole sign of a healthy media industry, and a slew of other public interest criteria, like diversity and substance, need to be used to assess its health. The limitations of the market model can be rectified by the public sphere model.
In the public sphere model, the media is evaluated by the extent to which the public interest is served. This model is very conceptual in that it is difficult to concretely analyze. But generally, the media is a public force: it is both vital to dynamic democracies and authoritarian control within totalitarian systems. The public sphere then meets social needs by providing a valuable resource to all regardless of the ability to pay. One such example is the United Kingdom’s BBC, a publicly-supported broadcasting company.64
60 Croteau, David and Hoynes, William. The Business of Media.
63 Croteau, David and Hoynes, William. The Business of Media. p. 21-22
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