Mediawatch Midweek 27 March 2019

Mediawatch’s weekly catch-up with Karyn Hay on Lately: This week Colin Peacock talks to Karyn about a rare outlet for the voices of our youth on air; a student paper pulling up trees in Dunedin, data journalism that shows we don't know how lucky we are - and more assessments of the media coverage of the attack in Christchurch and what followed:

Christchurch media coverage praised

Media commentators have been weighing up how the media have responded to the March 15 atrocity.

 

Newsroom’s co-editor Tim Murphy  - a former editor of The Herald - summed it up nicely in his look-back The media did us proud.  

"For all its perceived and real failings, this week New Zealand journalism served the public well. Many public institutions and leaders likewise. An event this profoundly important and serious tends to bring out the best in people."

But he struck a note of warning:

"For too long the day-to-day one-dimensionality of what passes as news, the collapse in the finances and resources of commercial media and the heightened partisanship in the community around politics and social issues have lowered public expectations and appreciation of journalism and why it matters."

Local reporters were heavily used by international media like BBC and CNN etc until they got their own people here. They probably have no idea how stretched our media companies were by the crisis.

There’s an interesting interview with Stuff boss Sinead Boucher here on an online forum for editors around the world. She gives details about how Stuff - which has the biggest newsroom in Christchurch by far - responded on March 15 and after.

But Stuff is up for sale. Will the next owners be committed to news coverage in a time of crisis?

Unedifying on-air rows across the ditch

While our media won respect from people here, mediawatchers in Australia are not so proud of what’s unfolding in their media:  a toxic set-to between politicians and on-air hosts accused of fanning the flames of Islamophobia in the past and political point-scoring.

Check out some of the exchanges in last Monday's edition of the ABC TV show Mediawatch.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale went toe-to-toe had with right-wing pundit Andrew Bolt’s programme on Sky News.

RICHARD DI NATALE: People like you, people like your mates Alan Jones, indeed the entire rancid News Corp empire, from Sky to Fox News, from The Australian to The Daily Telegraph, you are its mouthpiece. You are the sewer ...

ANDREW BOLT: You are making a disgusting allegation. Name one racist that I have had on this show. That I have given a voice to.

Bolt then hit back by accusing the Greens of going soft on ISIS and Islamic terror:

"Meanwhile in New Zealand, tragedy has brought unity," said ABC Media Watch host Paul Barry

"What a shame the media here have not followed suit," he said.

A 'Critic'-al contribution

Also worth a mention is how non-hard news parts of the media contributed.

One small example: Otago University student mag Critic ran a photo essay by Aiman Amerul Muner, a freelance photographer. He was at the scene of the Christchurch attacks the day after the shooting, and photographed the Dunedin memorials beautifully.

Coincidentally Critic has broken a story about Otago University that's made headlines nationwide.

"A Critic investigation has revealed multiple instances of sexual assault and rape at Knox College where college leadership failed to take action despite incidents being reported to management. Critic spoke to four students who said they had been sexually attacked by fellow students during their time at Knox, ranging from drunken assaults to threats of physical violence."

Nine To Noon led with the story this morning, spending half an hour on it.
Not only is the alleged sexual abuse and assault serious on its own - as are the claims that complaints were unaddressed - news editor Esme Hall and editor Charlie O'Mannin have shed light on weird traditions of the College.

Some are initiation-type rituals and uptight dining room rules  - and until 2015 women were only allowed to use the billiards room with permission from a man.  

But moves to change have met stiff resistance in the past from those who lived there.

Here’s a short version of the story’s main points. 

With all that's happened lately, Critic te Arohi's editors opted for an aptly therapeutic colouring-in cover. Nice!

Voice of youth gets a rare outing on the air

Several editorials published the day after the mosque attacks noted the sad irony that the attack ruined the day for kids who took part in the climate strike protests.

The Press for example the day after in an editorial headlined Horror replaces hope in Christchurch

“The horrors of the world came to them, on an otherwise quiet afternoon in a sleepy city in autumn. This too was a local manifestation of a global movement, but where one had been full of youthful promise, the other was nihilistic and destructive. “

For once though - until the attacks - high school age kids voices were heard in the media. They are almost absent in our media most of the time.

However, Otago Access Radio airs shows made by local school kids giving “aspiring young broadcasters to learn new skills and have fun while organising and creating their own radio shows.”

Youth Zone has just launched an impressive new app with Youth Zone shows and series, video content, a gig guide. Kids can also submit their own audio, music or stories.

OAR had some great discussions led by kids on YouthZone about the climate strike - also on their OARsome Morning Show.

I checked back in at random with AOR’s YouthZone on Tuesday last week - five days after the mosque killings  - to see how or if they would talk about that.

Willow, Aisha, Jordan, Loiusa -the RowdyRuff Girls (a feminisation of the RowdyRuff  Boys in case you’re wondering) aired a 50-second silence for the fifty people who died.

It was emotional. listen here: 

Then they carried on playing their favourite retro pop tunes from long before they were born.

John Clarke was right?

Each year the slow journalism quarterly Delayed Gratification puts together a meta-list that tracks the ‘best country’ indices published by NGOs and international development bodies across all the major categories that make societies worth living in - from their commitment to press freedom to measures of happiness and economic wellbeing.

"In our most recent round-up, we computed the definitive roster of best and worst countries for 2017 - and the results are instructive for anyone thinking they’d rather be anywhere else than Brexit-battleground Britain at the moment," they say.

Likewise for us wondering how New Zealand stacks up. Check out the chart below:

In spite of this past fortnight, maybe John Clarke was right after all . . .