What are the strategic priorities and mission of the organisation?

In this assignment you select and analyse an Australian media organisation (a company, masthead, TV station, regulatory body, etc), and consider the opportunities and challenges it faces in a rapidly changing media environment. By Australian media organisation we mean an organisation with a significant local presence consisting of an Australian office and staff, operating in the Australian media industry.
Aim of assignment
The aim of the assignment is that you learn something about how the Australian media industry works and consider the opportunities/challenges organisations currently have before them. You may also wish to briefly consider the broader social/commercial impacts that arise from the approaches and strategies companies/organisations adopt.
We suggest you divide your assignment up into three parts as follows:
What they do: Introduce your organisation and describe its operations, that is, its size, area of business, and location in its sector. This part should be quite factual and descriptive.
Why they do it: What are the strategic priorities and mission of the organisation? Why do they do what they do? How do they seek to achieve their aims?
What issues do they face?: Outline the opportunities/challenges you think that the organisation faces, given its context in the sector it’s in, and consider the strategies the organisation is adopting or could adopt to address the opportunities/challenges it faces.
For example, for a TV company opportunities/challenges might involve adapting programming to compete with overseas streaming services; for a news organisation it might mean adapting to the multiple ways people consume news now; for a smaller media organisation like the Koori Mail of RRR, it might be how to build audiences and sustainability; for a regulatory body like ACMA it might be how to address the growing concentration of media ownership without significantly damaging the market competitiveness of media corporations; for an industry body like Free TV Australia it might be how to persuade the public and lobby government on an issue facing the industry. Another issue facing nearly all media companies is growing public pressure to address a lack of diversity and to be environmentally sustainable.
Should you wish to briefly consider the broader social/commercial consequences that arise from the approaches and strategies companies/organisations adopt, this might include mention of such things as impacts on journalism, impacts on the development of local content, increased concentration of ownership, and so on.
Choice of company/organisation
We recommend you choose a company/org from the following list, where we know good information is available. NB: these are suggested examples only; if you’d like to explore more widely, ask your tutor:
A large conglomerate
NewsLinks to an external site. CorpLinks to an external site.
Nine EntertainmentLinks to an external site.
Seven West MediaLinks to an external site.
Southern Cross AustereoLinks to an external site.
Nova EntertainmentLinks to an external site.
A News platform
The Herald-Sun (part of NewsLinks to an external site. CorpLinks to an external site.)
The Age (part of Nine EntertainmentLinks to an external site.)
The Australian (part of NewsLinks to an external site. CorpLinks to an external site.)
Koori MailLinks to an external site.
A Television platform
Channel 7 (Seven West MediaLinks to an external site.)
Channel 10 (Paramount GlobalLinks to an external site.)
Foxtel (NewsLinks to an external site. CorpLinks to an external site.)
Stan (Nine EntertainmentLinks to an external site.)
NITVLinks to an external site.
Public broadcasting
The ABCLinks to an external site.
SBSLinks to an external site.
Radio
2SM (Super Network RadioLinks to an external site.)
3AW, 2GB (Nine EntertainmentLinks to an external site.)
3RRRLinks to an external site. (community radio station)
3CRLinks to an external site. (community radio station)
Information and commentary
The ConversationLinks to an external site.
Regulatory bodies
ACMALinks to an external site.
Industry bodies
Links to an external site.Australian Press CouncilLinks to an external site.
Links to an external site.Community Broadcasting Association of AustraliaLinks to an external site.
Free TV AustraliaLinks to an external site.
Media Diversity AustraliaLinks to an external site.
How will I research this?
Your first step should be to find out as much about your chosen company/organisation as you can. Here are some places to look for information on most Australian media companies and organisations:
For organisation structure and mission, check the organisation’s corporate homepage (as opposed to their consumer-facing sites). If available your first stop should be the annual report of the organisation. By law these are publicly available — usually online — for all companies listed on the ASX. Most media-related NGOs also publish annual reports.
Media and news reports in media about media, such as MumbrellaLinks to an external site., AdNewsLinks to an external site., ABC Media WatchLinks to an external site. and the media pages of the GuardianLinks to an external site., The Conversation, etc (there is a longer list of links in the LMS).
General newspaper reporting on the organisation.
Your second step should be to consider a challenge the company/organisation faces.
Most commercial media companies, no matter what sector they are in, face broadly similar challenges, mainly to do with the impact of the internet and platform media on legacy media industries. The first six lectures in the subject are designed to cover most of the major issues all media companies face, for example:
The fragmentation and decline of mass audiences
The challenges of convergence (becoming reliant on external platforms for audience engagement, or competition from new digital entrants, for example)
The migration of advertising revenues to online platforms such as Facebook
Problems of ‘scale’ (usually being too small to compete with larger companies, as seen in the case of Channel 10, for example)
Public pressure to increase diversity in their presenters and content.
You’ll also find the suggested readings for each week useful!
How many references should I use?
Do remember that this is a scholarly exercise, not an exercise in opinion writing! So it’s important to back up your analysis with evidence, which might reference such things as audience demographics, government policies, information on ownership, information on particular companies and their finances, advertising and other revenue sources as well as and other factors which impact upon media industries in Australia.

For a short assignment such as this we ask that you support your considerations with a minimum of two scholarly sources (academic articles; there is a reference list for each week in the modules), plus further resources such as media reports, industry websites and industry reports (for example annual reports of companies, reports about the sector produced by government or regulatory bodies, etc). You can use any referencing style that you like, as long as you are consistent and stick to the style. There are guides here. And you’ll find you save a lot of time in the long run, with this assignment and others, if you use referencing software such as Zotero or Endnote.
We’ve attached some papers from previous years that did well on this topic, although do bear in mind that the brief was wider in previous years — students looked at an entire sector rather than a particular media outlet, company or organisation.
If you have any questions ask your tutor. That’s what we’re here for!

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