What are the consequences of the fact that the media is charged with informing the public but at the same time needs to attract an audience in order to make a profit and fund its news-gathering operation?

The answer to this question is  imaginary audience
In general, before we tried to engage to other people, we will tried to first create a mental simulation on how people will respond to our words. By doing this, we create the imaginary audience. This phenomenon doesn't necessarily a good thing to do because there are too many factors that could influence people's behavior.