A discussion on the media

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, January 18th, 2015 - 24 comments
Categories: blogs, journalism, Media - Tags: , ,

The team at Scoop are running a series called “The State of the NZ News Media – A Public Conversation”.

The first piece, by Scoop Editor Alistair Thompson, is called “Reinventing News As A Public Right – A Public Conversation”.

The second, by Alison McCulloch, is “Stop The Press”.

Both are well worth a read, of course, and they also invite us to join the discussion via a mailing list. The future of Scoop (Operation Chrysalis – “Reinventing Scoop Together”) is a particular focus.

(Just while we’re on the subject of media, no doubt Cameron Slater’s new media venture will see the light of day at some point – see Pete George’s “Freed from what?”)

And just while we’re passing…

https://twitter.com/ow/status/556545199258611712

24 comments on “A discussion on the media ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Skinny 1
    18 January 2015 at 11:56 am

    A lot of people are tuning out from the media they don’t read, watch or listen to what’s happening outside of their own world. I questioned a guy that I knew deliberately switches off to the news media. He raised some relevant points about it’s usually grim etc. I guess there would be a connection to people not bothering to vote and general apathy on issues.

    • Macro 1.1
      18 January 2015 at 5:43 pm

      I stopped watching TV 4 years ago, and haven’t read a NZ newspaper in years. Doesn’t stop me voting though.

    • Tom Jackson 1.2
      18 January 2015 at 6:11 pm

      Well, perhaps people are taking a more realistic attitude towards NZ media. Globalisation means that the real decisions are taken overseas, so John Key is really nothing more significant than the governor of the equivalent of Kentucky or British Columbia, or perhaps the mayor of a reasonably large metro area.

      If you’ve ever lived in one of these places, the media is usually third rate and obsessed with the things that matter at that regional level of politics and the stuff that interests the local hayseeds and regional bigwigs. In short it looks a lot like the NZ media – even down to the horrible, ill-fitting clothes worn by the news anchors.

      There’s plenty of real news. It’s just covered in foreign papers.

    • Colonial Rawshark 1.3
      18 January 2015 at 6:21 pm

      The MSM only speaks largely to the top 20% of NZers nowadays, and renders most other people invisible. Thousand dollar gowns at the Ellerslie races any one? How about that nice show on how to do up and sell your rental property in Parnell for a good little profit? And all the gourmet cooking shows! Families I know who are trying to keep their grocery bills under $150/week watch those all the time, for their relevance.

      Although to be fair, if you are poor and you are Maori, you’ll get some MSM focus whenever there is a gang altercation or case of benefit fraud.

  2. adam 2
    18 January 2015 at 1:45 pm

    Do you think they will take a submission that the are nothing more than propaganda, and should just call it a day? Nah probably not.

    There is no 4th estate in NZ

    There are no milk cows on our farms

    There is no depression in NZ

    we can all keep perfectly calm…

  3. Herodotus 3
    18 January 2015 at 2:02 pm

    Scoop (Alistair T) have done some great work here.
    IMO what is really lacking in our media is some good political satirists with a suitable platform to air their work. As it is far more damaging belittling the actions our leaders and government with the cleaver use of humour. Instead we get feed a stage managed 20-30 sec sound bite that has been prepared by the PR keepers and delivered by S&W impersonators. e.g. the release of John Keys diary !!!
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11366197
    “..Yesterday I misunderstood the question when I was asked what day it was.
    I should have said Monday but as usual the media were up to their old tricks, and twisted my words. What I’d said to them was, “At the end of the day it’s not Monday.” Which is correct, because at the stroke of midnight or just after, it’s Tuesday…”
    Cutting, relevant and sums this up 🙂

  4. ropata:rorschach 4
    18 January 2015 at 2:29 pm

    I find the TV news unwatchable, trite, and infested by empty-headed narcissists. At least newspapers still report stories with minimal parading of the reporter’s ego in front of a camera.

  5. Lanthanide 5
    18 January 2015 at 2:39 pm

    Given that about 90% of “live crosses” don’t actually serve any purpose in reporting the news, one has to wonder how much longer they’ll go on for when it boils down to a reporter standing in front of a building with a phone on a selfie stick.

    • tracey 5.1
      19 January 2015 at 1:17 pm

      we got by without “live” crosses when I was young… you had the news reader and a tape that got played. Fewer people in front of cameras and more focus on news (not opinion) behind the camera.

  6. Truth Will Out 6
    18 January 2015 at 3:19 pm

    It doesn’t help that the so-called opposition parties present bugger all opposition to some of the issues which the Key led regime need to be called out on.

    A very good example was South Canterbury Finance.

    Labour stayed quiet on that due to a combination of political expediency and highly risk averse political strategy.

    The whole process was a complete farce and has been utterly riddled with conflicts of interest, and the standard cronyism and corruption which surrounds everything Key touches.

    But where was Labour on it?

    Hiding in the corner, pretending it wasn’t happening.

    Same with the banks, utterly rorting this country and exploiting the financial illiteracy of the masses.

    And where is Labour on it?

    Morphing into National-lite with their silence, presenting no opposition.

    When Dirty Politics came along, the media ran with it and Key took a hiding.

    Key and his acolytes can claim all they like that it had no effect, but Key’s own reactions reveal the degree to which it rattled them.

    And the MSM were not entirely kind to him over it either, backed into corners themselves because their own support for him ran out of corners to hide in due to the sheer distastefulness of his actions and his relationship with an obviously psychotic blogger.

    So the fact is that if the opposition parties actually challenged a lot more of the crap that has gone on (and is going on) around Key, the MSM would almost certainly have no choice but to run with it.

    Even the Editor of the Herald described the Sky City deal as John Key running a banana republic without the banana’s, so it is fair to say they do not always do him favours.

    The media has SOME of the current state of affairs to answer for, but not all of it.

    The fact is they may have little choice but to manufacture news in the vacuum created by the opposition’s consistent unwillingness to oppose many of the things which are really screwing New Zealanders.

    Labour could help themselves by giving the MSM some meat to actually sink their teeth into.

    Watching so many people wringing their hands in this forum, claiming that Labour is somehow a perpetual victim of the MSM, is frankly intellectually dishonest.

    Labour is a bigger victim of it’s own unwillingness to present strident opposition to Key’s consistent erosion of democracy and the integrity of our systems of government and justice.

    It could just be that the MSM is waiting for Labour and the other so-called opposition parties to do their jobs, which is to actively oppose Key and what he is doing, emphatically.

  7. dave 7
    18 January 2015 at 4:53 pm

    New Zealand media are crap why would we waste our time or viewing to give these want to be never to be any ratings at all until they start doing there jobs properly give harger his own show and let him loose. then there might be something worth watching.

  8. Weepus beard 8
    18 January 2015 at 6:00 pm

    I’m starting to rethink my opinion of Pete George.

    He simply cannot be pinned down. Argumentative, fiercely independent, and sometimes infuriatingly obtuse. Also, ultra-political, but strangely unbranded by either the right or the left.

    He seems to get an earful from all sides but that does not dampen his enthusiasm one bit.

    Perhaps he really does just want to clean up government.

    • Colonial Rawshark 8.1
      18 January 2015 at 6:23 pm

      😯

      • Weepus beard 8.1.1
        18 January 2015 at 6:33 pm

        Lol. I can understand your shock but he doesn’t just micro-argue topics here, it’s all over the place.

        And he hates Slater with as much passion as he’s able to muster, so in my book he’s ok.

        • Murray Rawshark 8.1.1.1
          18 January 2015 at 8:18 pm

          Hating Slug Boy does rate as a positive. I thought his piece on Freed was OK, but I couldn’t bring myself to comment and encourage him. That probably says something about me 🙂

          Scoop runs some interesting stuff. Stuff doesn’t run interesting scoops. I’ll try to support Scoop in some way.

        • Pete George 8.1.1.2
          18 January 2015 at 8:31 pm

          I don’t hate Slater. I agree with some of what he says and commend him for some of what he has achieved. But I hold him to account, which I think is important for someone who rates himself as the biggest baddest blogger around with even bigger ambitions.

          This post on possible ‘pay for post’ is more important (but has implications for Freed): Curious – Whale Oil versus Uber post

          Ironically I pinged mickysavage for overplaying ‘Dirty Politics’ this morning and he missed this which could be much closer to it.

          • Weepus beard 8.1.1.2.1
            18 January 2015 at 8:46 pm

            Yes. I noticed that too, although forgot quite quickly with the kids’ summer holidays being in full swing.

            Even the titles one week to the next were enough for any observer to be suspicious that Slater had done a complete about face on Uber having been paid to do so.

            PG, I know you don’t want to necessarily be known for it, but Slaterwatch is a venerable pursuit in today’s New Zealand and you have a talent for it.

            Also, I’m not as charitable as you on Slater. I do hate him because I think he promotes societal hate and division for his own profit.

  10. Bunnykinz 10
    18 January 2015 at 10:20 pm

    A political journalist admitting that the political media singles out only one party for scrutiny:
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/65159674/a-gameplan-that-may-just-work-for-little

    The horrible thing is that she doesn’t seem to have an issue with a supposed independent media acting as National’s attack dogs.

    • tracey 10.1
      19 January 2015 at 1:20 pm

      It is an odd mixture of an article… I read it yesterday and couldn’t quite work out if she was taking a stance or not.