Mediawatch

Covid quibbling, Iranian opinion and history, ‘Peter Bassett’ update

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 08:19:09 GMT

Another Covid inquiry prompted plenty of pandemic pointscoring - but not so much on the plan for the next one. Also: who speaks for Iranians - and who is Peter Bassett?

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War in the Middle East, political criticism & influence concerns at home, PM still PM

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 20:00:00 GMT

It’s war in the Middle East again, stretching media already stressed by conflict - and nonsense from leaders is not helping. Also: questions about newsrooms’ vulnerability to influence from outside and their inside media companies; poll prompts a flurry over the PM, Country Calendar at 60.

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Midweek - War breaks out in Iran; PM fluffs his lines; TVNZ's interference fears

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:23:00 GMT

Coverage of war breaking out on Iran, influencers' soft power picture shattered, the local angles including a PM punished for fluffing his lines. Also - TVNZ's crime reporting fallout prompt claims of editorial interference.

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Govt moves on rough sleepers, reporting Wellington woes, mystery blogger

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 20:00:00 GMT

The government’s moved on rough sleepers and beggars downtown - by giving the police power to move them out of town. How did the media handle that this week? Also: reporting Wellington's bad news; political ad rebuke - and who’s ‘Peter Bassett’?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Andrew image explodes, goalie's grief goes global, The Press looks back, PM's soc-med scorn,

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 08:31:04 GMT

'That' image of Andrew becomes one of world’s most-reproduced images ever - and a local goalie's grief went global too. Also - The Press looks back on 15 years after the quake; the PM's social content copping extreme scorn

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Immigration issue amped up, ceiling for streaming, over-the-top umbrella

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Anti-immigration political parties have been boosted in many countries. Now NZ First forcing the issue onto the news agenda. Also: is streaming eating itself? And why did one friendly umbrella gesture end up heavily analysed in our media?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

Learn more: Mediawatch: Immigration amping up in election year | RNZ News

In this episode:

0:55 Immigration as a political wedge issue around the world

4:55 NZ First puts immigration on the agenda over its objections to an FTA with India - giving the media a headache with the prospect of more to come.

19:45 HBO leaves Sky TV to launch its own HBO Max subscription service here. Are we already over-subscribed?

22:56 Tech writer Peter Griffin on streaming hitting the ceiling worldwide - and what it might mean for Sky TV (without HBO)

Guests: Peter Griffin, BusinessDesk

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Midweek - terrorist's identity conundrum, private functions go very public & AI on ice

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 08:35:41 GMT

Judgments media made reporting the recent court hearing featuring mass-murderer Brenton Tarrant. Also: how two private functions at one private club ended up being very public - and AI accusations on ice at the Winter Olympics.

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Infrastructure anxiety hits headlines again, AI slop feeds fake news flood

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Solid and liquid sewage is streaming into the sea in the capital, as the government says we need to import gas to ease energy shortages. Flaky infrastructure is an election year issue again - but are the media seeing the big picture as well as the political one? Also: the battle to stop AI ripping off real New Zealand news and flooding Facebook.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - WaPocalypse now, FLOTUS film flop, 'enshitification' outbursts, sweary hero

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 08:16:00 GMT

Turmoil at one of the great names of US media - The Washington Post. Also: the FLOTUS film flop, the sweary hero of our Winter Olympics, an outburst of 'enshitification'

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Bad language on the air & AI in our newsrooms

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Surveys say we don't yet trust AI in our news, but a new report shows our newsrooms are all using it - even if they’re not telling us. Another report says we’re more bothered by bad language on air than we have been in the past. But what kind of stuff really offends us?

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Midweek - Epstein overdrive & icky encounters, more Mauao fallout, Luxon on camera, MediaWorks changes hands

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 08:30:42 GMT

Epstein Files hog headlines worldwide as local angles emerge here. Also: more commentary on the tragedy at Mount Maunganui, the PM copping unfair criticism for his visits to the disaster zones, NZ radio stations under new Aussie ownership - and roadcone nonsense.

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Death, devastation and extreme weather test media, NBR copyright crusade confronts customers

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 20:00:00 GMT

The deadly disaster in the north was sparked by weather which was extreme - but no longer unexpected. Media mapped out how it happened and lapses in the response, but copped criticism reporting the role of politics and climate change. Also: NBR's copyright crusade, business news in 2026 - and great sporting headlines.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

Death, devastation and extreme weather test media | RNZ News

In this episode:

1:19 Reporting what went wrong and why after tragedies at Mount Maunganui and Welcome Bay in the face of misleading social media - and claims it was ‘not yet the time’ to raise the role of climate change or politics.

17:34 Business news on TV to make a comeback - and paid political content painting a rosy economic picture.

21:05 Why NBR is confronting subscribers over-sharing content.

23:30 NBR co-editor Hamish McNichol on NBR’s copyright crusade, the appetite for business news and whether election year is just business as usual for the country’s longest-lasting business publication.

40:41 Surprise sacking of Razor Robertson sparks cutting rorts headlines

Guests: Hamish McNichol, co-editor of NBR

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Midweek - Mauao tragedy under media lens, morning news shake-up, the art of the solo promo

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:09:00 GMT

How media reported the Mauao disaster and devastation elsewhere - and political counter-claims at a time of tragedy. Also morning news shake-up ahead, netball's media and money problems, and the art of the solo promo.

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Economic forecasts, weather forecasts, summer break clickbait, TVNZ courtroom dramas & a Wellywood vibecheck

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 20:00:27 GMT

How should media handle the mixed messages on the economy as politicians and pressure groups push policy and public opinion? Also: The fall of The House of Du Val, TVNZ’s courtroom dramas, unsettling summer weather forecasts, a clickbait debate about summer breaks & a vibecheck for Wellywood.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

1:11 Summer weather rage-bait

6:02 Wellywood premiere rekindles good times - before director warns it could be end times for blockbusters

10:18 Media drive debate about anti-productive summer break - all based on social media opinion.

13:31 Pre-Christmas economic stats gave a mixed picture of our economy this week, as pundits and pressure groups push policy and public opinion. And that Willis- Richardson right-wing rumble is off.

20:55 Maria Slade on her BusinessDesk investigation ‘Fall of the House of Du Val’

24:45 Financial state of the media in 2025

26:40 Judge dismisses Talleys case against TVNZ, which faced another defamation case this week backed by NZME’s billionaire director James Grenon.

Guests: Maria Slade, property editor at BusinessDesk

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Midweek - the good, bad and weird of 2025

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:13:39 GMT

Colin Peacock and Emile Donovan hand out Mediawatch’s not-very-prestigious and not-at-all coveted annual awards - such as best leading of the media by the nose; worst live media event, and the Billy Connolly Trophy for breaking news about a single animal.

Colin Peacock and Emile Donovan hand out Mediawatch’s not-very-prestigious and not-at-all coveted annual awards - best leading of the media by the nose; worst live media event - and the Billy Connolly Trophy for breaking news about a single animal.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

'Mother of all debates’ & right v left polarisation of news

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 20:00:00 GMT

The finance minister's pushed back at PR campaign that made news even before it began. The impact of online advocacy on our politics and news was also aired at two conferences this week. A visiting veteran from the US talks about ‘left v right’ and polarisation of trust in the news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: PMs hog the screen - but not ours, Coster at length, WBD-what a big deal

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 08:39:00 GMT

Presidents and Prime Ministers happily hogged the screen in TV specials this week - but not our PM. Ex-top cop Andrew Coster broke his silence at length - and big deals are being done in overseas media.

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The political push for a social media ban, flatpack fever infects media

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Australia’s banning social media for teens, and there’s a slick media campaign for the same here. The PM’s onside, but will the government follow? And why is a social media pioneer resisting this? Also: the media’s fever for foreign flatpack furnishings.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

0:50 How Ikea’s Auckland opening monopolised the media this week

11:00 Midweek Mediwatch - in case you misused it

12:37 A costly campaign to copy Australia’s imminent ban on social media for under-16 has picked up public support - and political backing from the PM and his party to change the law next year. A major media company and telco are also getting the message out.

20:23 Social media pioneer Rabble aka Evan-Henshaw Plath on why he’s campaigning against a law change to take teens of social media.

Guests: Evan Henshaw-Plath / Rabble

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Midweek - Luxon rolls on but Dallow's done, intimate image exposure, RNZ boost, premature Xmas

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:16:00 GMT

PM pushes back the rumours of a rolling, but Dallow leaves TVNZ. Also: the ethics of intimate image exposure, RNZ's numbers boost - and when is it too soon to wrap up 2025?

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Coup claims, Kiwisaver rev-up & do our media get the economy?

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 20:00:00 GMT

The government pledged to ‘build the future’ with its first election policy this week - and TVNZ aired a special about our economic problems. Do our media give us the big picture on our economy? Also: fact-free stories about rolling the PM - and Covid-19 hindsight flip-flops.

In this episode:

1:12: Even as he launched his first election policy this week, pitched to ‘build our future,’ Christopher Luxon faced a flurry of reports his own future as PM and party leader was in doubt. But they were high on rumour, chatter and opinion - and almost fact-free.

15:30: TVNZ aired a special show - ‘You, Me and the Economy’ - this week, zeroing in on the problems and possibilities in our economy.

17:48: Bernard Hickey, founder of independent outlet The Kākā on media coverage of our economy. and if the ‘burps and farts’ of party politics obscure important issues. Also: how subscriber-based public interest journalism can flip the script.

35:46: The report from UK’s Covid 19 inquiry has slammed the former government there for indecision and confusion, and delaying lockdowns that cost lives. One broadcaster seized on it to slam the government here, even though he changed his own position several times.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

Guests: Bernard Hickey

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Midweek - Field family funeral, newspaper bounceback, highway chickens

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:21:49 GMT

The Field family's funeral livestreamed, newspaper readership rebound, Press shines a light on who owns Christchurch, but Stuff slips up on the story of a jobless man. Also: why did the chickens cross the road in Tāmaki?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

EV angst, NZ Geo confronts financial fragility

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 20:02:00 GMT

EVs were booming, but incentives have been stripped back and recent reports of fires have fueled safety fears. Has media coverage amped up the danger? Also: a year ago a NZ Geographic revealed its own flaky finances to persuade supporters to step up. How did that work out?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

1:06 For a while the EV market boomed with incentives in place, though they came at a cost. Now the incentives have been dialled down - and so has demand. And a steady stream of stories about the fire hazards have spread like wildfire.

13:18: Dr Troy Bailsden on how to ‘pre-bunk’ alarmism about EV safety - and where to find facts on the real but remote risks of batteries.

19:51: Magazines devoted to longform journalism are struggling to stay in print. A year ago award-winning NZ Geographic urged subscribers to up their backing to keep it going. One year on publisher James Frankham on how that worked out - and what’s next.

Learn more: Mediawatch: Angst about EVs blows up in the headlines | RNZ News

Guests: Troy Baisden, James Frankham

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Midweek - more Trump v BBC, Tararua tavern tensions, Emile's Irish slapdown

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 08:53:35 GMT

Trump vs BBC escalates, Irish and Scottish footballers - and Ronaldo - make epic media moments, Emile's Irish podcast slapdown. Also - Tararua tavern tension, Mercep rocks out at Metallica for 1News.

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BBC under pressure from outside - and within

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 20:00:00 GMT

One edit in one episode ended up at the epicentre of major crisis for the world’s biggest public broadcaster. Trump might take the BBC to the cleaners over it while media rivals crank up the damage to its reputation. But is the BBC’s real impartiality problem internal?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

0:45: How the media responded to the shock news that the BBC’s boss and head of news quit after revelations of editorial failures - and President Trump threatening to sue for $1bn.

17:20: Ex-BBC Panorama editor-turned-mediawatcher Roger Bolton on the BBC’s response to its problems, the media hostility BBC faces from rivals and claims of political influences at play within the BBC.

32:02: Other big news this week: the shocking IPCA report that kept newsrooms and their lawyers busy; and Te Pāti Māori’s meltdown in the media.

Learn more: Mediawatch: BBC under pressure from outside - and within amid edit scandal | RNZ News

Guests: Roger Bolton

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Midweek - Shocker coppers, BBC bloodbath, Te Pāti Māori meltdown

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 08:25:39 GMT

Two top BBC bosses quit in wake of Trump editing scandal, Police top brass blasted by damning IPCA report, Te Pāti Māori meltdown prompts more media criticism.

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Saving the marriage between journalism and the people, Duke of Yuck

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Surveys say our trust in the news is slipping seriously, but the latest one asks Kiwis why and what might get it back, and an RNZ editor’s new book zeroes in on how to repair the relationship. Also: the downfall of the ‘Duke of Yuck’ yields unexpected local angle.

SHOW NOTES

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

0:58 The serious slide of New Zealanders’ trust in news, journalism - and the media general. The latest one asks Kiwis why they’ve lost trust and what might get it back.

7:29 RNZ’s Tim Watkin on his new book ‘How to Rebuild Trust in Journalism.’ He sees the relationship like a marriage on the rocks - and the media are the cheating partner that needs come to terms with the fact the public just aren’t that into them any more.

30:29 Melanie Bunce - the Kiwi director of the new Centre for Media and Democracy in London - says our high levels of news readership moderate the effect here, but warns that political actors are exploiting and amplifying distrust.

36:52 Unexpected local angle on downfall of the ‘Duke of Yuck

Learn more: Saving the marriage of journalism and the people | RNZ News

Guests: Tim Watkin, Melanie Bunce

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Midweek - Police v Stuff, Dame Noeline's media blitz, NBR bails up its own customers

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 08:29:00 GMT

Police back away from taking Stuff to court - but issue a warning. Also: Dame Noeline Taurua blows the Silver Ferns saga open again with a media blitz on Monday, and NBR goes legal on its own subscribers.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

OTT on CGT, punching below our weight on media freedom, big rejig in Māori news

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Labour bit the bullet on capital gains tax this week, but the political point-scoring was a zero-sum game. Also: a big rejig of Māori news & current affairs funding - and while our leaders have been on the world stage, we’ve been accused of punching below our weight on global media freedom.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

00:45 The media have been telling us for years any political party offering a CGT is DOA at the polls. How did they react this week to Labour saying they’ll do that next year?

8:00: New Zealand’s leaders have been talking up our country in Asia and in northern Europe this week, but this week we were cellar dwellers in a new ranking of develeped nations supporting media freedom around the world. New Zealander Melanie Bunce, director of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy in London, explains why.

21:03 A big rejig of funding for Māori news and current affairs means less spent on the established TV news programmes and more on news from the regions and digital-first content, available via a new national news hub. Te Māngai Pāho’s The long-serving kaihautu Larry Parr explains the plan.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - severe storms test media, netball keeps media at bay, AI gives voice to the dead

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 08:24:00 GMT

Severe storms bring the best out of media - but climate change mentions raise hackles. Also: netball's top-brass keep exasperated media out of their internal business - while the Silver Ferns do the business on the court, and RNZ's new podcast 'Nark' uses AI to give voice to the dead.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Hearts and minds battle on ‘mega-strike,’ Talley's v TVNZ in court

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Lawyers went toe-to-toe in court for weeks over a series of TVNZ news scoops about health and safety - and the broadcaster’s own newsgathering. What can we learn from this high-stakes defamation case? Also - the government fired up a confrontational PR campaign to tell the public this week’s ‘mega-strike’ was about politics, not pay. Did the media get the memo?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - loud calls to call off the broadcasting watchdog, sorry - but not sorry

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 08:18:00 GMT

One complaint to the BSA has the PM claiming 'overreach' and his minister pledging reform - while politicians and lobby groups call for the watchdog to be put down. Paula Penfold ponders personal impact of reputation-ruining scoops.

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Pāti-political rift plays out in media, what counts as broadcasting and who decides?

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 20:00:00 GMT

The broadcasting watchdog has told alternative online outlet The Platform it can consider complaints about it - just like TV and radio. Part of the problem is out-of-date media laws. Mediawatch asks the media minister and his opposition counterpart: what counts as broadcasting these days? And how should it be accountable? Also: how Te Pāti Māori’s tensions played out very differently in different media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Gaza ceasefire, Platform v watchdog, Metro moves, self-selected polls

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 08:30:00 GMT

Media coverage of the Gaza ceasefire, Platform's Plunket pushes back on broadcast watchdog, Metro magazine 'restructures' its full-time staff - and should self-selected polls be allowed in news?

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Netball’s PR nightmare, online harm examined again

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Netball’s a national sport - and it's natural the media want to know if something’s going wrong at the top. But have media made the game’s current coaching drama worse- at the worst possible time? Also - what to do about online harm was aired in a Parliamentary inquiry this week. But was the purpose of this to prevent regulation that could make it safer?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Winston's window stoush, Māori news funding, RNZ ins-and-outs, Graham Bell

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 06:30:00 GMT

Row over Gaza protest targeting foreign minister's house gets political - and an actress is cut from an ad. Also: RNZ picks new audio chief as two stalwarts depart, Police Ten-7 star Graham Bell, quake clarification for Emile.

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Seismic shift on quake-prone properties; ‘Not now’ on Palestinian statehood, current affairs catch-up

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 20:00:00 GMT

The rules are changing for earthquake-prone buildings - and many in the media are praising the savings. But the devil is in the details. Also: how the media responded to our position on Palestinian statehood - and a year and a half after huge cuts to TV current affairs, what’s left - and what next?

SHOW NOTES

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

1:07 Owners, councils and the government all celebrated the savings from new rules on earthquake-prone buildings this week - along with many in the media.

16:09 How the media responded to the announcement at the UN of our position on Palestinian statehood - long after it was actually decided.

25:05 It’s been a year and a half since huge cuts were made to TV current affairs on local TV. Miriama Kamo and Mark Crysell of TVNZ’s now-defunct Sunday show about what happened after that, what’s left - and what’s next.

Learn more:

Guests: Mark Crysell, Miriama Kamo

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Watchdog rules on coverage of teen tragedy, Black Fern feedback & US golf goofs

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 08:30:37 GMT

The Media Council rules RNZ lacked balance reporting the tragic tale of a transgender teen. Also - RNZ cuts arts and culture programming on air, more blowback on Black Ferns coverage claims and US golf fans shame themselves on TV

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Short-term focus on long-term problems; Trump vs media; tackling taboo topics without grievance

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Bad news about the economy piling up - and piling pressure on the politicians in charge of it. But are the media shining light in the right places? Also - Trump vs Kimmel and free speech, two stalwarts of TV current affairs promising to tackle taboo topics to increase the peace, not polarisation.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

1:04 A long look at how bad news about the economy has been piling up and piling pressure on the politicians in charge - even as things might actually be on the up and the long-term problems are being overlooked.

15:36 Trump and MAGA and FCC v Kimmel and the media and free speech.

19:10 Two stalwarts of TVNZ current affairs - Miriama Kamo and Mark Crysell are back with new online show - The Elephant - promising to tackle taboo topics but without grievance that’s often found online.

Learn more: Mediawatch: Long-term problems, short-term coverage | RNZ News

Guests: Mark Crysell, Miriama Kamo

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Trump vs comedy & free speech, TVNZ & RNZ's trust, Black Ferns blowback

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:48:20 GMT

Trump's aggression puts media on the back foot; good news for RNZ on public trust - and for TVNZ after a spot check for bias; blowback for the Black Ferns after lack of coverage claims; local current affairs and drama back on TV

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

News desert warning, pros & cons of property, Ferns falter, more Phillips fallout

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Hardly a news bulletin or newspaper goes by without stuff about houses and property. But what kind of coverage is it? And what effect does it have? Also - a former editor warns news deserts are creeping up on us, the Ferns falter - and media doing the right thing for the Phillips family. Social media? Not so much . . .

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Kirk's killing, rugby (over)reactions, more Phillips fallout

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 09:17:38 GMT

Charlie Kirk's killing prompts strong reactions - even at this distance; 'historic' beating for All Blacks - and more muted coverage of winning Black Ferns; more media fallout from the sad Marokopa saga.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Fugitive family & public interest, Te Pāti Māori v MSM, AI news to save newsrooms?

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 21:00:00 GMT

After fugitive father Tom Phillips' violent death, media made judgements about the public interest, the interests of the children - and what interested the public. Also: Te Pāti Māori seems to be disengaging from non-Maori media - and an ex-RNZer pioneering automated news to boost newsrooms.

SHOW NOTES

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

0:00: After the hunt for Tom Phillips came to a violent and deadly end this week, the media had to make quick judgments about what was in the public interest, the interests of the children and the public appetite for details.

0:00 Te Pāti Māori won the Tamaki Makarau by-election with a candidate who made a name for herself as a TV journalist, but has distanced itself from non-Māori media during and after the campaign. It's also criticised the conduct of unnamed reporters - and made claims of other bad behaviour, but failed to back it up.

0:00 AI doesn’t have a great reputation yet for getting it right, but ex-RNZer Peter Fowler who’s pioneering automated news powered by AI reckons it can be a force for good - or even survival in smaller New Zealand newsrooms.

Learn more:

Guests: Peter Fowler

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Fugitive father saga ends, row over doco and access, left v right

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:17:00 GMT

Media go big on the epic - but tragic - tale of fugitive father Tom Phillips; angst over over exclusive access for doco makers- and a columnist's criticism of Mediawatch.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Exaggerating Amazon, end of the ‘foreign ban,’ RNZ flags change in music and arts

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Amazon investing billions and creating hundreds of jobs in tech here made breathless headlines earlier this week. But it turned out to be old news - and less than previously announced. How did that happen? Also: how the media handled the end of the ban on foreigners buying flash homes here - and more changes at RNZ.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

00:50 The PM and Amazon teamed up to announce billions of dollars invested and hundreds of jobs created here. Great news - but old news.

17:55 RNZ’s proposing changes to music, arts and culture coverage which would cut back production of some radio programmes - and close the youth-focused digital platform Tahi.

25:15 How the media handled the end of the ban on foreign buyers - or should that be overseas active investors? - picking up high end homes here

Learn more:

Guests: Peter Fowler

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Friday night lights-out, harsh spotlight, bolt from the boot

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 09:45:00 GMT

Reserve Bank chair's after-hours exit fails to blunt media interest, harsh spotlight on new political candidate, the farmer who survived a bolt from the boot, political reporter returns - and the return of The Mish.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

RNZ’s bid to stop the National slide, minding your Ps & Cs

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The new plan to stop RNZ National losing listeners - and a harsh review of the network’s capability and culture. How’s RNZ’s boss handling this - and what listeners really want? Also - rude words that sparked complaints but didn't break the rules.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

00:48 RNZ National’s been losing listeners for years, and now they have a new plan to stop the slide, sparked by a harsh review of the network’s capability and culture.

09:50 RNZ’s CEO and editor-in-chief Paul Thompson explains changes being made at RNZ and responds to the report by former news chief Richard Sutherland.

In an earlier version of this interview, it was stated that Sutherland’s report recommended RNZ hire a new high-profile presenter- and that “presenter change at Morning Report" was listed in it later under the heading ‘Easy Wins.’
In fact, the report listed ‘“Morning Report presenter move” under the heading ‘Early Wins’. This referred to Sutherland's recommendation that both Morning Report’s presenting roles move to Auckland, along with more of its production. Sutherland’s report didn’t propose changing presenters of any programme.

27:50 More from Paul Thompson about the current political environment for the media, RNZ operating with reduced budget, the pressure to prove that people trust RNZ - and how he responds to senior politicians who say they don't.

40:50 Media watchdogs have ruled that two rude words that recently appeared in the media did not break the rules.

Learn more: RNZ’s high-stakes National plan | RNZ News

Guests: Paul Thompson

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: TVNZ starts charging, NZME loses cash, RNZ gains listeners

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 10:29:55 GMT

TVNZ launches its first paid-for product, NZME announces a $400k loss and the composition of its new editorial board - and RNZ's listenership snakes upward for the first time since 2022.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Image problems, clawing cash back from AI crawlers, gentle political whispers

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 21:00:00 GMT

One woman became the unwilling face of a political cause she strongly opposed because her image was for sale online - and one outlet faked photos of a whanau to 'protect its mana.' What are the ethics of stock images? Also - 'gentle whispers' of political succession, and can the media claw back cash from AI crawling their content online?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

00:15 ‘Gentle whispers’ heard - and a tangerine suit seen - half a world away sparked speculation in the media this week about a spill for the PM and a succession for his finance minister.

06:22 Image problems - and the ethics of stock photography: one woman became the face of a political campaign she strongly opposed because her photo was for sale in a stock library - and a media outlet used AI to create a fake whanau for a piece about poverty.

23:05 Will a new bid to charge AI for crawling the web for content mean the media might be able - at last - to claw back cash from those harvest their stuff online? If so - how can it be done? Turns out it’s complicated . . .

Learn more:

Guests: Corey Fuimaono, Tanmay Desai

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: RNZ's radio plan, conflict of interest complaint, ugly ad

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 04:32:00 GMT

RNZ's strategy to stop the loss of radio listeners sparks a strong reaction from pundits - and the listeners. Also - a political party proves a point using the official complaints process- and irritating ads for insurance.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Statehood stoush, poll ’predictions,’ RNZ’s loss of listeners, do media deliver what Kiwis expect?

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 21:00:00 GMT

How the media handled controversy over recognising Palestine - two political opinion polls in a day. Also: RNZ prepping out a plan to stop the loss of listeners as a former news chief tells the top brass to make big changes and - do Kiwis believe the media deliver what they promise?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

1:16 The intense debate in the media this week over Palestinian statehood, sidetracked by party political rows about our government going slow on it - and a chorus of claims in the media that was just a gesture anyway.

16:18 How the media handled two political opinion polls in one day ‘predicting’ the next election outcome.

21:52 RNZ’s prepping a plan to try and claw back listeners lost by RNZ National - and a blunt review from its former news boss urges the top brass to make big changes.

27:13 Do New Zealanders think our media deliver what they promise? We ask the brains behind some new data on that - Storm Day from Accenture Song - and if it can help the media get the audience onside.

Learn more:

Guests: Storm Day

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Assassinations in Gaza, poll chaos, ad backlash

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 08:15:00 GMT

A crew of Al Jazeera journalists are assassinated in Gaza, two political polls in a day fire up the media, and an ad from Hobson's Pledge prompts a backlash - and a debate about ethical use of photos.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

NCEA not achieved, Trump’s tariff ‘surprise,’ magazines on the block

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The media graded NCEA as ‘not achieved’ after the government proposed dumping it this week. Headlines here called Trump’s 15 per cent tariff on our exports ‘a surprise.’ But was it? Also - the prospects for some of our most popular and enduring magazines, which are up for sale across the Tasman again.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Reality TV on the public purse, RNZ tweaks, Donnell goneburger, french lesson

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:30:00 GMT

Public purse picking up part of the bill for local reality TV, RNZ tweaks Morning Report, Hayden Donnell goneburger from Mediawatch, Colin taught a French lesson.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

FBI-NZ; paywave politics, media's Gaza dilemma, MEX folds after 160 years

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The headline-making secret visit of the FBI's top guy, the politics of paywave, and starvation in Gaza hitting home for news outlets. Also: the Marlborough Express folded this week after 160 years in print. What is lost when local news goes online-only? And is it a sign of things to come for others?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Starvation in Gaza, announcements of announcements, polling on a whim

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 08:20:00 GMT

Pressure goes on The Platform over a tweet from its founder, the government gets the media to cover an announcement of an announcement, and a polling company chief puts out a question on a whim - with interesting results.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Bitter butter battle, Saudi cash chaging the picture for sport on screen

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 03:06:00 GMT

The bitter battle over butter prices topped the news agenda this week, prompting a ‘please explain’ from the finance minister to Fonterra. Are media are missing the main point? Also: pundits say Sky buying Three for $1 strengthens its on-screen sport play - but the cash Saudi Arabia’s suddenly splashing could change the big picture.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

01:00 The price has been rising for months, but all of a sudden the bitter political battle over butter became bulletin-leading stuff this week. Did the media miss the point by zeroing in on this - and the political posturing?

17:25 Pundits reckon Sky buying Three strengthens Sky’s stranglehold on the top sport it sells to subscribers. But this week The Herald reported TVNZ bidding for next year’s FIFA World Cup and the upcoming Olympics as well. But globally, Saudi Arabia’s sticking stacks of cash into sport and broadcasting right now. A journalist who’s just seen that play out in the US says that could change the picture worldwide - and here:

Learn more:

Guests: Liam Dann, Adam Leventhal

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: 3 for $1, screen sport shake-up, commentary classics, frenchifying Emile

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:30:00 GMT

Sky buys Three for $1. Also - a shake-up sport on screen, some commentary classics, the Frenchification of Emile Donovan - and was Wrexham FC in Welly the real thing?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Politicians pressured by ads, ministers go multimedia with 'helpful' handouts

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Campaigns targeting politicians in the media are getting more intense - and politicians are getting more multimedia with their own messages for the press. Are these the same old tactics using new tech? Or a new push to dodge media scrutiny and shape the story?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Chung email scandal, Stuff withdraws blood story, newsreader's political turn

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 08:04:00 GMT

A media frenzy over Ray Chung's lurid email about Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, Stuff retracts a story about AI blood testing, and a former newsreader enters the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Covid inquiry 2, fiscal holes set for re-run, TVNZ bias check, French-ification flurry

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The backers of the second official inquiry into the Covid response say it’s crucial for preparing us for the next pandemic - but the media mostly zeroed in on whether big-name politicians would show up. Also: TVNZ checking itself for bias, a fresh flurry of media French-ification; and do we need to brace for more ‘fiscal hole’ fury in Election 2026?

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

In this episode:

1:22 The backers of the second Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response said it was crucial to learning lessons for the future, as well as allowing people to have a say. But the media mostly zeroed in on whether big-name politicians would show up at hearings that are still six weeks away.

17:03 Remember in the campaign for the last election - and the one before that - how the big political parties made big claims in the media about billion dollar-deep holes in each others’ policies? We might have to brace for more in 2026.

32:50 TVNZ says it’s planning to check itself for bias. But why - and why now?

37:21 A fresh flurry of French-ification in our media inspired by Les Bleus on tour.

Learn more:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/mediawatch/566737/mediawatch-pandemic-probe-media-focus-flipped-to-politicians

Guests: Dan Brunskill, economics reporter for Interest.co.nz

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: local papers fold, more BBC & ABC Gaza fallout, RNZ exec goes, peacock persecution

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 10:12:00 GMT

The closure of more local newspapers, further fallout for the BBC and the ABC over editorial handling of Gaza, senior RNZ exec resigns - and peacock persecution.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Awkward opinions test broadcasters’ backbone; a picture of health; more political media criticism

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Mediawatch looks at a sudden slew of stuff on screen about life at the coal face in health, hospitals and hospices. Is the up close and personal approach also political? Speaking of political . . . bosses at two big broadcasters have ended up in the gun this week over other peoples’ opinions about Israel and Gaza - and political leaders line up the media for more criticism.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Christchurch 'lone wolf' narrative questioned, a fiery interview on Newstalk, TradeMe's Stuff deal final

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 08:19:00 GMT

A new podcast questions the 'lone wolf' narrative around the Christchurch terror attack, Newsroom asks some hard questions about the state housing sell-off, Stuff's TradeMe deal gets finalised - ZB's Hosking clashes with education minister on 'Māorification'

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

OMG! Is it WW3?, AI telling us what we want to hear?

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 21:00:00 GMT

It was hard for media all around the world to work out what happened in the Middle East. But claims that WW3 and global recession might be upon us here were rolled back within a day. Also: Chat GPT’s been accused of lying, making stuff up and gaslighting a UK journalist and Google’s AI seems to be telling us what we want to hear. Is AI human after all?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Fog of war, dating start-up hiccups, Seymour vs media escalates

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 09:30:00 GMT

The media’s difficulties sorting out the truth in the Middle East escalation,entrepreneur cites negative coverage selling her dating business, David Seymour taking on the media - again - and fundraising.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Political skirmishes over sickness & health, media minister scritinised, property piffle

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Debate’s raging over private and public provision of surgery - and sick leave surged to the top of the agenda all of a sudden, sparked by an unlikely source. Also: media minister grilled in Parliament's Scrutiny Week - and property piffle on TV

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

Debate’s been raging over whether private or public providers should be the key to cutting waiting lists for surgery - or what kind of combo of both. And all of a sudden - our sick leave entitlement surged to the top of the news agenda - sparked by an unlikely source.

Also: The media minister got a blast of extra scrutiny in Parliament -- and a certain market-leading online marketplace got some soft-focus treatment in a news show made by a company it’s just invested in.

In this episode:

00:50 - Media in the middle of political battles over public and private health, claims doctors’ unions slow down surgery, signs sick leave could be cut.

20:25 – The media minister scrutinised in Scrutiny Week in Parliament. (note: an earlier version of this item referred to Labour MP Reuben Davidson as a ‘Green MP.’ we regret the error).

22:50 - Property piffle on TV

Learn more: URL for news story

Media in the middle of political skirmishes over sickness and health | RNZ News

Guests: Sarah Dalton - Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: A troubling story about a troubled trans teen's death, talk radio flip-flops

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 10:00:00 GMT

RNZ challenged over a troubling tale of a transgender teenager who died alone from anorexia, ZB's Ryan Bridge's performs a hot-take talk radio turnaround on the economy, Emile's voluntary redundancy hotline

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Local election promises, Greg Hywood, play about the past echoes the present

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Some local election hopefuls are already pitching policies publicly. Are media checking them out before putting them in the news? Also: an Aussie once in charge of our papers talks about where the media is heading - and a play about authoritarian over-reach in 1950s America echoes what’s happening now.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - LA aggro, advocacy ads, David v media, dangerous games

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Coverage of the aggro in LA; media feel the heat from advocacy ads, why David Seymour snubs Morning Report, the controversy created by dangerous combat-type cash prize contests

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Stuff twinned with Trade Me, NZME rings the changes at the top

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The same day Stuff twinned up with Trade Me, its big rival NZME overhauled its board and ushered in a self-described 'agitator' from overseas. But both are banking on profitable property platforms at the heart their business. Good thing for media that need money - or a plague on both their houses? Also - the backlash against the backlash against dangerous games.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Stuff/Trade Me & NZME, video pivot, power of the edit

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:40:27 GMT

Stuff/Trade me marriage, NZME settles board stoush. Also - teething troubles at the Herald’s new show, the pivot to video - and the power of the edit in politics.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Run It runs straight into trouble, changing climate for climate coverage

Sat, 31 May 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The state of climate change reporting in a changed political climate - and a time when the media have their own existential emergency. Also - how the Run It Straight went from social media phenomenon to national news media controversy.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Herald streaming, RNZ National falling, 'Deputy Dave' deep dives

Wed, 28 May 2025 10:40:30 GMT

The Herald's new streaming news show, RNZ National listeners tuning out, David Seymour's political past under the spotlight.

On Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Emile Donovan Nights this week on RNZ National - the Herald's new streaming news show, RNZ National listeners tuning out, and David Seymour's political past under the spotlight.

This Midweek Mediawatch also discusses developments in the bid to reshape the board of NZME, whose shareholders vote on that on June 3.

One of those nominated for a proposed editorial board at NZME, lawyer Philip Crump, sparked debate among journalists recently with 'Six Challenges Undermining Media Trust' on Substack.

That sparked a critical LinkedIn response from NBR journalist Tim Hunter, in which he highlighted Crump’s claim that descriptive words used by journalists can be “cheap shots.”

“Often these labels are abused and reveal the biases of the journalist deploying them rather than enlightening the reader. Over time, these cheap shots can erode the value of the masthead," Crump wrote on Substack.

He cited the example of “embattled” to describe a politician, but in this Midweek Mediawatch that was misinterpreted.

To correct the record, Philip Crump did not suggest that using the word "embattled" could erode trust or indicate bias on the part of a journalist. He said it could legitimately add colour and provide meaningful context.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Budget 2025, vanguard v rearguard on AI, social media legal pushback

Sat, 24 May 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The media make a big deal of the Budget every year, even though the big money’s already been announced. But what was in it for the media this year? Also: vanguard vs the rearguard on AI in the media; political push-back on social media and more bad language - and the perils of cold-calling folks live on air.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

The media make a drama out of Budget Day every year, even though the big plot twists have been revealed in advance and big bits of the backstory aren’t in the script. How did the critics rate this one? And what was in it for the media themselves?

There’s a vanguard in the media that wants to embrace the latest digital technology - and rearguard that resists it. Will the media ever see eye to eye on AI?

Also: political bids to push back social media, more bad behaviour in politics - and bad language in the wake of the ‘c-bomb’ affair.

In this episode:

Budget coverage

What was in the Budget for the media? And what got cut?

The BBC’s Laura Ellis on the media’s split over AI.

Learn more:

Mediawatch: How a Budget is covered | RNZ News

Guests:

Laura Ellis - BBC head of technology forecasting

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Vance wins, Winston heckled, Stuff vs Stuff

Wed, 21 May 2025 08:28:00 GMT

After days being berated for deploying the c-word, Andrea Vance was named political journalist of the year. Meanwhile Stuff took on Stuff, and Winston Peters' pre-Budget announcement went off the rails at a railway station

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Pay equity, dead c-word strategy & c-bomb fallout, AI in BBC news

Sat, 17 May 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Coverage of the outcry sparked by the sudden change to legislation for pay equity claims - and how one rude word in one newspaper column derailed the debate. Also - AI at the BBC: how the world’s biggest broadcaster is using AI in news and programmes.

Read more about this episode of Mediawatch on the RNZ website

The sudden change to legislation for pay equity claims sparked a huge political outcry pumped up when one columnist used one very rude word in one newspaper column. How did the media sift the facts from all the political friction?

Also: this week the BBC’s top boss said social media platforms and disinformation endanger democracy – but the world’s biggest broadcaster could help reverse this.

Cutting-edge AI technology will be blended with BBC journalism for “a healthy core of fact-based news” that could benefit the world.

The BBC boss tasked with looking into the future of technology tell us how the BBC already puts AI into news and documentaries in ways you might not expect.

In this episode:

01:10 – Hayden Donnell on coverage of pay equity legislation sidetracked by the party political spin.
12:17 – Colin Peacock on the so-called c-bomb in the Sunday Star Times also derailing the debate.

20:00 – Laura Ellis tells us how the BBC is deploying AI for news and programmes.

Learn more:

Guests:

Laura Ellis - BBC head of technology forecasting

If you have any thoughts for us - or ideas for us to follow up - get in touch. E-mail mediawatch@rnz.co.nz. You’ll also find us @MediawatchNZ on X.

Follow Mediawatch and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode.

Find more RNZ Podcasts at the new section of the RNZ website at rnz.co.nz/podcasts

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Stuff's C-bomb rocks the House, NZME truce, social media ban boosted

Wed, 14 May 2025 10:45:00 GMT

Midweek - Sunday Star Times C-bomb dropped on ministers rocks the House, and the issue that sparked it - gender pay equity. Also - the government's move to ban social media for under-16s got big backing this week - and the possible truce in the NZME boardroom battle.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Sudden surge of concern about social media, NZME compromise, sport on screen

Sat, 10 May 2025 21:00:00 GMT

An entire generation's grown up with little regulation of their digital world. But this week there was a sudden surge of political concern about social media for teens. Also: NZ Rugby’s in the red even though its income from TV's topped $100m. But netball’s got no broadcaster beyond this year for its top comp. Is it a warning for sports that need TV money to pay players?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek - Compromise at NZME, politics podcast self-destructs, email scoop angst

Wed, 07 May 2025 09:29:00 GMT

A new compromise candidate emerges to lead NZME - along with some undisclosed outsourcing. Also: 1News scoop about Erica Stanford's emails draws fire from talk radio, a politics podcast podcast's sudden self-destruction - and NZ climbs media freedom ladder by default.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Bootcamp calls based on bad stats, election assumptions, NZME boardroom battle update

Sat, 03 May 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Media assumptions about election outcomes were upended in Canberra and Canada this week - and guessing the result of upcoming ones in Wellington and the Vatican suddenly seem risky. Is picking political winners now a fool’s game? Also: cranky calls for military service based on bad stats - and the latest on that bitter boardroom battle at NZME.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Doco lifts the lid on Destiny, Pope farewelled, US media party falls flat

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:19:24 GMT

A controversial documentary series by TVNZ’s John Campbell - which didn’t quite kick off like it was meant to. Also: 'Peoples Pope' farewelled, US media's annual White House party fall flat.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The health of health reporting; Peters' RNZ 'threat,' media freedom’s dark day

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 21:00:00 GMT

The health sector throws up stories of serious crisis almost daily, but journalists find hard data hard to get. Also: media freedom worries increasing around the world - and Winston Peters' 'threat' to RNZ.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: surreal Pope coverage, spiky RNZ interview, identical eye-witnesses

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 09:06:00 GMT

Pope Francis's death prompts breaking news weirdness, Winston Peters butts heads with RNZ, identical Aussie twins go viral with synchronised eye-witness account, a Wellington councilor's on-the-record outburst - and a housing headline excluding renters

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Jailed journo’s life on screen, Christian broadcaster beats the slump

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Jailed journalist Peter Greste tells Mediawatch about the worst times in his life up on the big screen in 'The Correspondent.' Also - the country’s main Christian broadcaster Rhema is bucking the trend of media contraction - even though its target market's shrinking and appealing to a broad church is tough in these polarised times.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Polk folk, Facebook whistleblower faces US Senate, lobbying lid-lifting

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 10:00:13 GMT

Does TV doco Polk live up to the hype - or live down to the claims of tabloid clickbait? Also - further feedback on 'trust in news', new unofficial register lifts the lid on lobbying a little.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Trust in news slump stalls, Canada pushes back

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Another year - another drop in trust in the news here, according to the biggest annual survey of it. But the slump seems to have stalled and some outlets have even gained trust this time round - though we’re still world leaders in ‘news avoidance.’ Mediawatch looks at all this - and talks to a Canadian confronting the same trends there.

New Zealanders’ trust in the news has been falling for years - five years in a row according to the most comprehensive annual survey of it carried out that's carried out here.

And we’ve also been leading the world in the proportion of people who say they actively avoid the news.

So no wonder our news outlets fear the worst when the AUT's Trust in news in Aotearoa New Zealand report comes out.

But the latest survey shows the slump trust in our news media has stalled - and local outlets are actually more trusted this year. How come?

Also Mediawatch talks to a longtime journalist striving to restore trust in local media in Canada with the help of fellow 'Ink-Stained Wretches. And they’re also coming to terms with the turmoil of Trump turning on former friends north of the border in a big way.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: MediaWorks bought up, Herald goes positive, Green MP speaks out, fake wolf news

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 08:14:00 GMT

An outdoor ad company buys the country's largest radio network, NZME launches a positive news campaign - and Hayden launches an unauthorised theme tune. Also -Green MP Benjamin Doyle speaks out about a toxic online campaign against them that garnered widespread media coverage - and dire fake news about wolves.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Duopoly apathy, ad income slump, local paper paper row

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:00:00 GMT

Just two companies have carved up most of our grocery bills for years. The government says change is coming - but many in the media don't seem to believe it;s possible. Also - our media’s slumping share of ad income, and local papers' paper dispute.

Just two companies have carved up most of what we’ve spent on grocery shopping for years. Now the government says change is coming to the duopoly - but that was met with undue apathy by many in our media.
We look at the latest figures for advertising income, the lifeblood of the media industry. Overall revenue’s up by a almost a quarter of a billion dollars - good news in tight economic times.

But the bad news? The proportion going to our media is down while many more millions are going offshore to the tech titans that dominate the digital world. Where will this end up?

Also two local papers in a row over. . . paper.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Green in the gun, NZME update, Stuff falls foul of BSA

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 09:38:12 GMT

Green MP's social media spark controversy - and claims the media ran shy of the story. Also: NZME's bitter battle for control rumbles on, and the broadcasting watchdog sanctions Stuff for a ThreeNews scoop that fell short on fairness, balance and accuracy.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Green shoots and dire data, NZME angst, easiest scoop ever

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Are media confusing us with claims of green shoots in the economy at the same time as headlining more dire data? Also: the epic security fail at the top of the Trump regime that gave a journalist the easiest scoop he'll ever get - and the battle for control of NZME ramps up with a flurry of letters.

But first -- it’s not news that our economy;s been going backwards - and the numbers on that don’t lie.

But now some new numbers are on the way up - and that is news.

But other economic numbers in the news are still bad news.

We look at the the dire data and the claims of green shoots - and ask if the media might be mixing its messages - and confusing us all:

Mistakes happen. Everyone makes them. That’s why security protocols exist—
Security systems are only as effective as the people who use them.
But looping a senior journalist into top level chat about imminent military strikes?
easiest scoop ever

That didn't stop the MAGA-men playing a lame blame game with the media.
The bitter battle to control NZME - the company that publishes the Herald and owns NZTB - rolls on, mostly in exchanges of letters.

Also - how producers behind the scenes can keep their presenters on the mic on the straight and narrow.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: NZME board battle goes postal

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 08:32:00 GMT

Billionaire Jim Grenon's letter-writing spree as he tries to take control of NZME's board & a click-driven incentive scheme at the company. Also - more journalists are killed in Gaza & an Oscar-winning filmmaker assaulted; Stuff quietly drops a disclosure commitment from its AI policy.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Lid-lifting Kiwi gagged over Facebook, NZME/Stuff in play, The Listener & lifestyle journalism

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 20:00:00 GMT

A Kiwi lifting the lid on Facebook's been gagged before she could talk to RNZ. Why? And what did she say before Meta called its lawyers? Also: news publishers' ownership in play & lifestyle journalism's being squeezed by our cash-strapped media, but RNZ’s boosting it and the country’s oldest magazine is shifting its focus.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Ownership angst, lunch fatigue, Bongino bombast & Newsom niceness

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 09:20:51 GMT

Rivals appeal to NZME shareholders as Stuff carves its chief's one share into a million. Also: MAGA-powered podcasters control the zone - and have we lost the appetite for school lunch scrutiny?

Rivals appeal to NZME shareholders as Stuff's chief turns one share into a million. Also: MAGA-powered podcasters control the zone, have we lost the appetite for school lunch scrutiny?

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Media question PM’s position, integrity initiative dovetails with media

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 20:00:00 GMT

The PM’s got plenty on his plate right now - including media hinting his time is up in the top job. Is that true - or fair? Also: a new move to use the media to improve integrity in public life and push back at vested interests. Sounds good, but are things really that bad?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Poll angst, NZME upheaval

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 07:40:00 GMT

A new poll piles pressure on the PM and his party, the billionaire bidding to unseat NZME's board hits back at claims about his intentions, a Paddington clarification

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

NZME’s billionaire power play; a rash of resignations, Welly water woe

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Concern over a sudden change of editorial direction at NZME as a billionaire bids for control. Also: reporting Wellington’s water woes and a sudden rush of top-level resignations.

The publisher of the Herald and owner of Newstalk ZB has told its investors it’s going to set “a new tone” for New Zealand and “share stories of economic success and positive momentum.” NZME also plans to roll out AI to shape the Herald homepage.

All this will change what we see and read in the future. But NZME’s top brass now have another problem - a billionaire who’s backed alternative online outlets has bought a big chunk of the company and now James Grenon wants to control it.

Also this week: how the media handled a rash of resignations from top public jobs and Wellington’s water woes - no resignations yet but plenty of headlines.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Ever-present Pres, billionaire buy-ins, NZ life 50 years apart

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 09:30:00 GMT

Midweek: The ever-present US President makes the most of set-piece media events. Also -billionaires seeking stakes in our media & rights to air rugby - and TV shows about life in NZ fifty years apart.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

China crisis, defending against defunding, school food fight

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Chinese warships in the Tasman Sea promp big calls to bump up the budget for defence ASAP. Also - the super-heated headlines about factory-to-school lunches and we talk to the international outfit defending public broadcasters from de-funding.

Chinese warships appearing in what we like to think of as our ‘benign strategic environment’ sparked something of a media frenzy lately - culminating in commentators claiming our defence spending’s going to have to go up ASAP.

Right now the two main public media networks in the US face bids to de-fund them - even though their federal funding is tiny. They also face MAGA-driven inquiries into bias and how they stay in business.

Public broadcasters elsewhere in the world also face more political pressure on their funding and even their legitimacy these days. This week ask the boss of the outfit that represents them around the world: how do you defend against de-funding?

Also: school lunches have been in the headlines ever since the new cheaper factory-to-classroom ones appeared this year - or not, in some cases. And isolated cases of things going badly wrong have certainly been seized on by the media. Just teething troubles blown out of proportion because of politics? Or are our media rightly demanding more transparency? (more than on the cellophane lids of those boxes of burnt bolognese we’ve all seen in the news . . .)

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: A messy ministerial resignation

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 08:05:00 GMT

Media go forensic on Andrew Bayly's ministerial resignation, the PM's ZB stumble, NZME's revealing annual results - & the real story of Golriz at PaknSave

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Surviving 2025 & following Australia’s lead, decoding Destiny, luring tourists

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Surviving 2025 in the intertwined industries of media and advertising. Should our government follow Australia’s media policy - and beware of billionaires? Also: decoding Destiny and the tricky task of luring Aussie tourists.

Can the intertwined industries of media and advertising survive 2025 - and even thrive? That was the theme of a gathering in Auckland this week. One day later, the hosts of it confirmed 30 of its journalists jobs have gone.

Our government says - again - its waiting to see what Australia’s government does when it comes to media policy. Mediawatch asks an Australian media expert if that makes sense - and if should media in both places beware of the billionaires.

Also - this week our government unveiled a new slogan to tempt Aussie tourists across the Tasman. Everyone Must Go seems to have gone down well over there, if not here at a time when many Kiwis are going there for good. We look back at previous efforts to lure tourists across the Tasman.

But tricky timing here when record-number of Kiwis have decided they must go over there for good.

But some of the past efforts to attract Aussie visitors haven’t dated that well either:

AUDIO: 23 feb 2025 TRAIL 02 champagne

That;s later on in the programme

But first - what happened after Destiny Church supporters disrupted Pride events in Auckland last weekend:

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Midweek - Herald exodus & video plan, capital visions, attracting Aussies

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:15:00 GMT

Big names at the Herald lose their jobs in a major news rejig, a Wellington ginger group getting a helping hand - and attracting Aussies in 1962.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Golden visas, risky recommended content, deep pockets for deep journalism

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 20:00:00 GMT

How plans for wealthy foreign investors hit the headlines this week - and how did paid-for propaganda end up on a major news website? Also: two business journalists want to make the most out of much-needed money for important investigative journalism

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: D Seymour v Herald, Guy Williams & more

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:32:00 GMT

Comedian Guy Williams' Waitangi run-in with David Seymour - and the Act leader's pushback at the Herald; a new video channel proposal by NZME - and new government plans to help local media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Sudden surge of diplomatic drama & local news fightbacks

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Trump’s alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand’s had its own diplomatic dramas in the news - with the media in the middle of them. Also: new news outlets popping up to push back fear of 'news deserts.'

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Foreign 'fake news,' name suppression, entertainers (mis)remembered

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 09:15:00 GMT

The 'fake news' from Israel that strained our relationship with the US - and a long-suppressed offender’s name finally comes out. Also: Tributes to Jonah Lomu and Marianne Faithfull which missed the mark - and two reports on transport which didn’t.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Summertime - and the living’s uneasy for media

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Summertime - and the living is easy, the old Gerschwin song says. But he didn’t have to keep Kiwis tuned in during the summer news drought. Meanwhile the outside world has changed a lot since Christmas - and the media industry’s problems here haven’t taken a holiday either.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: New year, new layoffs

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 07:52:00 GMT

NZME's plan to cut nearly 40 staff including some big names, a s spiky editorial response to a reader questioning coverage - and a belated Mediawatch award for misinformation in 2024.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Facing the pressure & bucking the trend in 2024

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Mediawatch looks at how the media fared against the forces they faced in 2024 - and how one part of the media seems to be bucking the trend of decline. Also: Hayden Donnell's media Christmas wish.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: The Mediawatch Awards for 2024

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 09:00:27 GMT

Mediawatch’s not-very-prestigious and not-at-all coveted annual media awards - including biggest flip-flop; best and worst jingle and nickname; state-of-media analysis of the year, the awrd for pushing musical boundaries - and the Billy Connolly Trophy for a single animal making national news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Media under the sinking lid in 2024

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Mediawatch talks to two media bosses who’ve had the media’s economic headwinds blowing their hair back in 2024. What’s the state of the media now - and how might the state intervene in 2025? Also: how the government stepped in on two other businesses with big problems - racing and the ferries.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Kiwi Clasico; BoJo v KiHi; RIP Nicholas Boyack; Stuff split?

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 10:01:35 GMT

Media hype local football fever; Kim Hill vs BoJo; RIP Hutt Valley stalwart Nicholas Boyack; could Stuff split itself up?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

If you can’t beat social media, join it. Or ban it?

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Australia’s world-first social media ban for under-16s was cheered on by many media - including some of ours. But it's also highlighted their own dependency on big tech. Meanwhile one TV broadcaster that went all-in on TikTok has found a huge new audience. But what are the risks?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Luxon appears at last

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 21:32:00 GMT

PM's long-awaited appearance on Q+A, Atlas explored, Wellington ginger group's political contacts come to light, RNZ brought to book & Newshub's stuff survives on Stuff

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Two towns’ news under pressure, copyrights and wrongs

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 20:01:45 GMT

The tale of two towns which face losing their local news. Also: a bid to change the law so parody and satire doesn’t run the risk of breaking it - and clear up who owns digital media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Tiriti talk, TJ’s haka, funding for factual stuff in 2025

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 09:00:28 GMT

Treaty Principles Bill and TJ Perenara’s controversial haka stir debate; the latest public funding for current affairs and journalism and Three's local stuff for 2025.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Hīkoi hōhā, news deserts fears, deep-dive deep-pocket podcast

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 20:01:00 GMT

This week’s Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti harvested heaps of headlines, hours of airtime and piles of print and pixels - media copped plenty of criticism for the coverage. Also: a deep-dive podcast that needed deep pockets - and warnings of ‘news deserts’ here.

This week’s big Hīkoi harvested heaps of headlines, hours of airtime and piles of print and pixels - and media copped criticism for the coverage.

14 local papers in the north island are set to close by Christmas, prompting ex-editors and experts in media to warn that the ‘news deserts’ we’ve seen overseas could spring up here in the absence of local papers. And when local elections come round in a year some places may have nowhere to go for locals politicians to air local issues.

We ask a leading paper publisher about if local papers have a future - and what might help to sustain them.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/mediawatch/534657/plans-to-close-local-papers-spark-news-deserts-warning

We talk to Newsroom' Jonathan Milne, the brains behind deep-dive podcast Powderkeg which needed deep pockets to chase the story. How did they do it?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Hīkoi bias claims, Herald v Bain privacy, mag strife

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 09:00:00 GMT

Accusations of bias and a lack of impartiatality in coverage of Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti. Also the Herald v David Bain, Facebook scam surge and problems for local magazines.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Reporter's ban from Crown apology; local papers on the block

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Why was an award-winning journalist dedicated to reporting abuse in state care briefly banned from the official apology for that this week? Also - NZME plans to close 14 local North Island papers, possibly leaving some towns without coverage.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Hikoi hits the road, news cuts, foreign football flashpoint

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:00:07 GMT

Hikoi hits the road; Seymour vs TVNZ; TV news cuts latest and how sketchy reports of a foreign football flashpoint sparked a diplomatic incident.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Trump triumph and the media message, Australia & Malaysia rein in social media

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 20:00:00 GMT

“It’s their media world now. We just live in it” - what news media are taking away from the Trump triumph; Media message from Trump’s triumph, how Australia and Malaysia are making social media accountable for the content they carry

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: He's back

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 07:09:00 GMT

The epic media coverage of an epic US election that's put Trump back in charge. Also - more grim news from TVNZ; and warnings from Crux and NZ Geographic.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Stuff boss joins ginger group, NZ Geographic’s bold survival strategy

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Could the boss of the country’s biggest news publisher joining a local ginger group alongside political figures compromise her own company's coverage in the capital? Also: award-winning NZ Geographic adopts maximum transparency to secure its survival

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Hitting the ground reckoning in the US, a backtrack and some u-turns

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:50:55 GMT

Kiwi journalists in the US ramp up election reflections - and some politicians here too. US papers cop it for u-turns on backing Harris; TVNZ backtracks on its 1 News website - and Colin meets football elite (sort of . . . )

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A look ahead to the US election & a look back at ours

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 20:00:00 GMT

A look at how US media have coped with the controversial campaign for the upcoming election there - and we look back at how our media fared covering the election here one year ago.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Sweating the small stuff

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 21:58:00 GMT

Fallout from RNZ's scrapped Anika Moa podcast featuring former Labour MP Kiri Allan, intervention in the WCC, the lack of excitement about the America's Cup win, and Health NZ’s $9200 on canapés.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

WCC frenzy, dodging the news, scam ads scandal

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 20:00:00 GMT

Coverage of capital’s troubled city council - and claims the government could intervene. Also: news publishers respond to a survey showing more Kiwis dodging their news - and a surge in social media scam posts co-opting big names in news media.

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Midweek: The govt turns 1, RNZ's web surge, RIP BBC Hardtalk

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 08:55:52 GMT

The government turns 1 (or does it?), a 'Chris-tastrophic' political poll (or was it), TVNZ news not on TV, RIP BBC Hardtalk.

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Online NZ news on the outer at TVNZ and Google

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 20:00:00 GMT

TVNZ’s signaled more cost-saving cuts and started by scrapping its online news site next year. Meanwhile Google’s threatening to cut ties with local news altogther. What’s going on?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Cuts, checks & a rude front page

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 07:36:00 GMT

TVNZ's plans to axe its news website, ministerial fact-checking from Q+A - and a rude front page from The Press.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Hospital ‘blowout’ sparks big backlash; feel-good news for bad times

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 20:00:00 GMT

The controversial call to cut back the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital - and how local media helped drive a big backlash. Also: Patrick Gower’s got a new ‘feel-good’ weekly show. But do we really want feelgood news in not-so-good-times?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: More TV cuts & a crime against broadcasting

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 08:58:07 GMT

What Colin learned watching TV the old-fashioned way, and news of more cuts to come at two TV broadcasters. Also: online changes at Stuff - and a ‘crime against broadcasting’ on RNZ National.

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Trial trauma & mental health on-air, ABC boss on public media pressures

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 20:06:00 GMT

Mediawatch talks to the boss of Australia’s public broadcaster the ABC - and the producer of a show putting mental health in the frame for the past 15 years. Also: fallout from the murder trial that preoccupied the media for the past two months. * this programme discusses the issue of suicide and how it is covered by the media *

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Bonus: Turning point for Australia’s ABC

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 19:59:00 GMT

A year ago our former government torched its plan for a joined-up public broadcaster more like Australia’s one. But the ABC is a billion-dollar beast that’s also been a political football. Mediawatch asks its outgoing boss where it - and David Anderson himself - is heading.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Polkinghorne preoccupation & problem podcasts

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 08:03:00 GMT

The media’s Polkinghorne trial preoccupation - and the audience’s appetite; two problematic podcasts go offline - but for very different reasons

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Politicians dodge interviews, local iwi revives local paper

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 21:06:00 GMT

Our media put politicians’ feet to the fire in the name of accountability - but some won't front up in the first place. Is the way they’re doing it part of the problem? Also: the local iwi steps in to save the local paper in Wairoa.

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Midweek: Trump targeted as Springfield suffers, pushbike pushback, sculpture snafu

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:12:52 GMT

Another threat to Trump's life as sad Springfield squirms under unwanted media spotlight. Also: pushbike pushback; big-money mistake on a new artwork; a fond farewell for pioneer of political broadcasting - and an MMA quiz fail.

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Big city bad vibes & are media harming minorities?

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 21:06:00 GMT

Bad news about bad vibes in our big cities right now - and Wellington's woes in particular. Also: new research for the broadcasting watchdog says some minorities say discriminatory stuff is turning them off our media. But where is it coming from? And - fact checking claims about the legality of peeing in public.

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Epic show for new epoch in te ao Māori, road rage, toast-gate

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 21:06:00 GMT

How the epic broadcast to mark a new epoch in te ao Māori was made at Tūrangawaewae Marae, media focus on small stuff in big bucks plan for roads; 'Toast-gate' prompts a backlash and a u-turn on maternity ward snacks.

As one Māori monarch was farewelled and a new one appointed this week, it was all aired in the longest multimedia coverage of any event in this country’s history. Mediawatch looks at how this was done - and asks if the Kiingitanga’s relationship with digital-age media might change under new management.

Read all about it on rnz.co.nz here

As billions were rolled out for roads in a new national transport plan - which also rolls back the sums spent on other transport - some journalists questioned how this will work and who will bear the high costs, But other coverage followed the lead of the minister, highlighting stuff that hardly makes a dent in the billion dollar budget.

Read all about it on rnz.co.nz here

Also this week: how reported penny-pinchning cuts to post-birth snacks in maternity wards forced a backlash - and two minsters declared the move toast within hours.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Holding to account, holding the line on media freedom

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 21:08:00 GMT

Holding ministers to account - but also amplifying their spending statements without scrutiny; two editors in Asia holding the line on media freedom; update on advocacy ad angst.

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Midweek: Guns in the gun, Raygun & TV guys' new jobs

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 10:18:00 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about a lid-lifting Sunday paper scoop about gun crime - and a minister in the spotlight over gun law reform. Also - Australian media go rogue on Raygun, and more Newshub TV talent scooped up by Stuff.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The good & bad of AI in news, advert aggravation

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 21:00:00 GMT

Mediawatch looks at how the news media are using artificial intelligence these days. What is AI technology good for? What is it bad at? And do media need to be ready for the fake AI content that's undermining news? Also: further fallout from a controversial advert run by The New Zealand Herald.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Herald denies Hobson's Pledge

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:15:00 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the Herald backing away from running another ad from Hobson's Pledge, a question going begging in the coverage of the government's benefit sanctions announcement - and a cynical PR move by the All Blacks.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 11 August 2024

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 21:08:08 GMT

Mediawatch looks back at the media in the middle of political rows about race relations - and why Maori journalists want an apology over a controversial advocacy ad in the Herald. Also: how social media amplified anger over the riots in the UK - and boxing at the Olympics.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: AI, the IOC & an AGM

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 10:24:08 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Todd Zaner about reactions to the revelation the Herald used AI to write editorials - and what was revealed by coverage of the National Party's AGM last weekend. Also: some standout Olympic media moments and unexpected acapella jingles.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 4 August 2024

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 21:08:08 GMT

Mediawatch looks at a controversy over the use of AI artificial intellgince the New Zealand Herald - and asks if readers should be told when AI technology creates news content. Also: how the media jumped the gun over our lack of medals at the Olympics - and an unconvincing complaint about the All Blacks spurning our media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Punching below our weight

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 10:39:26 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the Herald using AI for an editorial - and he delves into the disappointment over our lacklustre Olympic medal count so far. Also - peeling back layers of health bureaucracy and a very personal challenge to a reality TV show.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 28 July 2024

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 21:08:09 GMT

Mediawatch looks at how the media reacted to the Abuse in State Care report - and the role the media played in bringing the issue to light.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Biden's bolt blindsides media

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:01:17 GMT

Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about how the media handled the news that Joe Biden had thrown in the towel - and the final report from the Inquiry into Abuse in State Care. Also Colin also looked at a revealing local report about a local high school - and something he got wrong about his own primary school days.

(Sorry Mr Patchett . . . )

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 21 July 2024

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 21:08:10 GMT

Mediawatch looks at what our media made of the government's new emissions plan - and how best to cover global climate change without pumping up people's despair. Mediawatch also talks to an RNZ reporter who got a rare opportunity to find out what's going on Nauru, where journalists have been kept at arm's length for years.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Breakfast gets cooked

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:28:06 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about TVNZ Breakfast getting dragged into the Trump shooting debate, some NZME criticism from NZME, TVNZ's exclusive interview with isolated Green MP Darleen Tana - and Hayden apologises for mixing up his memes.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 14 July 2024

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 08:13:14 GMT

Mediawatch looks at how our media reacted to the shocking news of the attempt on Donald Trump's life in Pennsylvania. And shortly before that news broke, Colin Peacock a look at the week's news and media live on Sunday Morning with Hayden Donnell - including how it panned out in the first week of Stuff's ThreeNews, a change for TVNZ's Re:News, a significant change in the government's stance on affordable housing - and horoscopes in the news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: False gods of sport

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 10:34:25 GMT

Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan Stuff making a solid start with ThreeNews on TV; the British media making a meal of their landslide election and local democracy reporting's financial reprieve. Also: the unhealthy obsession with the world's most famous footballer - and Emile gives Mediawatch the (remixed) gift of music.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 7 July 2024

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 21:08:07 GMT

Last Friday the curtain came down on Newshub at 6 - and more than 30 years of nightly news made at the TV channel Three. But the next day the new 6pm bulletin by Stuff launched in its place. Mediawatch takes a look at its debut - and asks the question: what do people want from the 6pm TV news these days anyway?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Suprise bill backing & more concerning closures

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 10:37:48 GMT

Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about the government backing a law change - which they once slated in opposition - to help the media get more money from Big Tech. Also - the end of Newshub coming closer - and another round of concerning closures in the media in local newspapers, the once-mighty Sunday News and at Newstalk ZB.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 30 June 2024

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 21:10:07 GMT

While our government ponders policy to help news media companies cope with their crumbling business models, millions of us get our news first from Facebook, Google and even TikTok. It's the same in Australia - and this week our friends at the ABC ask if public interest journalism can survive on these online networks - or without them. And if serious news outlets slip into obscurity, what would that mean for our public life?

This is an edition of Future Tense, a weekly show from the ABC's Radio National network. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: A PM forced to dish his own plaudits

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 10:38:15 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the prime minister becoming his own hype man, a strange malfunction in RNZ's push notifications, and a grab bag of media business news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 23 June 2024

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 21:08:08 GMT

Pundits have predicted the death of old-fashioned newspapers for years - but they're still here. This week Mediawatch looks at a new history of New Zealand newspapers' golden years, from one hundred years ago until the new millennium when digital technology and devices turned the news business upside down.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Plaintive plane complaints

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:29:48 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about an emerging media consensus over our malfunctioning Defence Force aircraft, how rude words slipped though in music on RNZ - and a huge few months at Stuff.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 16 June 2024

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 21:08:07 GMT

How the media copped criticism for reporting allegations of personal data misused for political purposes - and the struggle to get meaningful responses from official sources. Also: the popularity of an ultra-long local podcast contradicts assumptions about short attention spans - and how one journalist's trip to his local cafe ended up as national news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: New jobs, more podcasts, fewer post-cabs

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 10:54:14 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about more moves between broadcasters, more new podcasts - but fewer Prime Ministerial press conferences. Also: TVNZ makes football fans happy.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 9 June 2024

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 21:08:07 GMT

Regional reporting cut back for NZME's new national focus; sports news that was too late - and too early; the controversy over cancer treatment funding missing from the Budget,can we trust surveys of our media which say we don't trust them?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Changing stories on cancer drugs

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:13:23 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the government's latest reason for not funding 13 cancer drugs, a mammoth loss expected at TVNZ, AI faking the news and even our contemporary history -and a slight directed at the Ōtaki Today.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 2 June 2024

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 21:08:08 GMT

Long-running bid to make big tech pay for news hits a snag - so what happens next?; stories based on stats sliced from surveys; shock horror over incomplete houses.

Mediawatch looks at how an effort to help the media make much-needed money hit a snag this week.

Also - stories based on surveys which didn't tell the full story.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: New live news & music of the dead

Wed, 29 May 2024 10:38:04 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about Duncan Garner's new live morning show - and an old name for a new 6pm TV news show. Also - a couple of awkward moments at this year's national journalism awards and an awkward confrontation between a rugby coach and a reporter; an outlet devoted to the music of the dead - and who gets struck by lightning?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 26 May 2024

Sat, 25 May 2024 21:08:07 GMT

New Zealand's big awards for journalists were given out this week at a time when many are losing their jobs. Also - Mediawatch talks to an editor who has secured the future of two important medical magazines in tight times - and looks at coverage of the A-League scandal that's posed some awkward questions with reputations at stake.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Justice for Herbertville

Wed, 22 May 2024 10:31:59 GMT

Hayden Donnell and Emile Donovan apologise poetically to a small Tararua seaside settlement inadvertently insulted by RNZ online. Also: Stuff launches crime podcasts you pay for - while another new podcast hit a hitch this week; ScarJo's lawyers 1, Chat GPT nil.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 19 May 2024

Sat, 18 May 2024 21:08:07 GMT

A long-running plan to reform the oversight of our media has come to a sudden halt; how public toilets suddenly became political this week.

Mediawatch this week looks at how a long-running plan to reform the oversight of our media has come to a sudden stop - and what the consequences might be.

Also: why public toilets suddenly became political this week.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: TVNZ's cuts hit the screen

Wed, 15 May 2024 10:32:28 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about Fair Go and Sunday coming to a sad but dignified end this week at TVNZ, as the broadcaster itself copped criticism for its handling of the redundancies and closures. Also: a complaint against a newspaper's controversial coverage of roading and new offerings from RNZ.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 12 May 2024

Sat, 11 May 2024 21:08:07 GMT

Pre-budget teasers increase exposure - and scrutiny; Green MP under pressure over conduct; bid to backstop local news; Gaza coverage attract complaints - and prizes.

Mediawatch this week looks at how pre-Budget announcements from the government are coming thick and fast - and making plenty of headlines.

Also: a plan to save a local newspaper which might just help others stay alive - and an under-fire MP was pursued all the way to the Chatham Islands.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: StuffHub takes shape

Wed, 08 May 2024 11:20:33 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about new hires for the upcoming Stuff-Newshub 6pm bulletin. Also - TVNZ and the journalists' union face off over job cuts while the outgoing boss of TV channel Three took a swipe at its state-owned rival; and a fringe online radio station's set to return after raising money from its listeners.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 5 May 2024

Sat, 04 May 2024 21:08:08 GMT

One opinion poll prompts intense political pushback; new report urges sweeping changes to media, law and funding - and fast; Wairoa Star closes after more than a century in print.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Polls, papers and a post-match snafu

Wed, 01 May 2024 10:44:12 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about an MP taken to task about his knowledge of the arts - and a TV producer taking on a funding agency in court. Also: a new political poll causes ructions; a century-old newspaper folds - and a spurned sportsman's great save on camera.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 28 April 2024

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 21:08:07 GMT

New media minister rolls in after PM's surprise reshuffle; TV news and current affairs on the way down here, but highly competitive across the Tasman.

Mediawatch this week looks at the sudden appointment of a new Minister of Media and Communications - and what went wrong for the outgoing one.

Also - while our TV broadcasters are cutting back their news to the bare minimum, news is still lucrative for Australian TV networks - and it's so competitive they often end up in court.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Another broadcasting minister down

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:46:17 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the departure of broadcasting minister Melissa Lee - and the arrival of the next one Paul Goldsmith. Also: a controversial TV interview with the Israeli ambassador - and some truly startling stuff in a Stuff illustration.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the departure of broadcasting minister Melissa Lee - and the arrival of the next one Paul Goldsmith. Also: a controversial TV interview with the Israeli ambassador - and some truly startling stuff in a Stuff illustration.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 21 April 2024

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 21:08:07 GMT

Stuff is taking over Newshub's 6pm TV news. A bold move for an outfit that's never been a broadcaster before. Will it work? Also: Mediawatch talks to two editors about the latest survey showing another alarming slump in New Zealanders' trust in the news.

On Mediawatch this week: Stuff is taking over Newshub's 6pm TV news. It's a bold move for an outfit that's never been a broadcaster before. How will it work?

Also: Mediawatch talks to two editors about the latest evidence of another alarming slump in New Zealanders' trust in the news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Stuff's bold TV play

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:47:48 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about Stuff leaping into uncharted waters by taking on Newshub at 6. Also: TVNZ going 'beyond broadcasting,' NZ Post and NZME add to predictions of print's demise; recognition for a one-man band in Southland - and Colin's mistaken identity mix-up... again.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about Stuff leaping into uncharted waters by taking on Newshub at 6. Also: TVNZ going 'beyond broadcasting,' NZ Post and NZME add to predictions of print's demise; recognition for a one-man band in Southland - and Colin's mistaken identity mix-up . . .again.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 14 April 2024

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 21:08:07 GMT

End of TV news as we know it? TVNZ cuts back and Newshub closes down. Newshub's news boss responds; the minister plays for time; a former minister fights back

This week Mediawatch rounds up a week of unprecedented cuts to TV news - and the likely loss of hundreds of journalists' jobs as TVNZ cuts back and Newshub closes down. Newshub's news boss responds; the minister plays for time; a former minister fights back

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Little light at the end of the TV news tunnel

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:16:29 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about an historic day - not in a good way. The confirmation of the closure of Newshub and more cuts confirmed at TVNZ means more than 300 journalists' jobs will go by midyear - and TV news and current affairs will shrivel. Also: the latest report on trust in the news media reveals a further decline - and listeners' questions about what it all means.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about the confirmation of the closure of Newshub and more cuts confirmed at TVNZ. More than 300 journalists' jobs will go by midyear and TV news and current affairs will shrivel. Will another media company fill the Newshub void?

Also: the latest report on trust in the news media reveals a further decline - and listeners' questions about what it all means.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Fair Go and daily news bulletins to close at TVNZ

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 21:26:33 GMT

TVNZ has confirmed Fair Go - on air for 47 years - and news shows Midday and Tonight will cease next month. The future of Sunday will be confirmed tomorrow. Meanwhile a decision on alternatives to a proposal to close Newshub in June is expected tomorrow from its owner Warner Brothers Discovery.

After meeting with staff today, TVNZ also said in a statement it is proposing "a new team to be established as part of its News and Current Affairs function, with a specific focus on long-form consumer and current affairs for TVNZ's digital platforms."

If confirmed, TVNZ said this would be "an opportunity to continue reporting under the Fair Go brand and viewers would still be able to share their consumer concerns by writing to the Fair Go inbox.

On Facebook, Fair Go staff told followers: "We've looked at a problem - and with TVNZ - we think we've found a solution."

"While how you see our stories could change, it's important Fair Go still be there to fight for New Zealanders, so keep writing in and we'll update you when we can," the Facebook post said.

After TVNZ announced in March 68 jobs and several programmes could be axed, O'Donnell said there were "no sacred cows."

"The restructure is expected to be complete by early next month," the statement said, leaving the door open to further cuts in other areas of TVNZ production.

TVNZ's online youth-focused arm Re:News was also told its staffing was likely to be cut in half. Its staff meets with TVNZ staff this afternoon.

Sunday's staff meet management tomorrow and a final meeting to brief all TVNZ staff is expected mid-afternoon tomorrow.

Last month TVNZ news reported the Fair Go team was bidding to keep the 47-year-old show on the screen.

Staff at Newshub are expecting an to be told at 11am tomorrow if the service will close in June with the possible loss of up to 300 jobs.

It has been reported that other media companies are interested in acquiring Newshub and continuing a scaled-down news service but no details of any negotitaions have been confirmed.

Michael Wood, who has led negotiations for the journalists' union E tū, told RNZ today it would be " a challenging day at TVNZ."

TVNZ told Mediawatch last Friday TVNZ's news teams have all provided feedback on the proposals relating to their area. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 7 April 2024

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 21:08:07 GMT

We talk to an editor keeping an eye on where public money for public services ends up and the government's new political action plan gets the media's attention.

This week Mediawatch talks to an editor keeping an eye on where public money for public services ends up. Also: how the Government's new political action plan got the media's attention this week - and how the long-standing problem of rebuilding schools suddenly hit the headlines.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Chunking out some decision gates

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 09:06:44 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the government's new chunked-out action plan, a new channel coming to the ThreeNow app - and why media companies chasing online engagement risk alienating their users.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the government's new chunked-out action plan, a new channel coming to the ThreeNow app - and why media companies chasing online engagement risk alienating their users.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 31 March 2024

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 20:08:07 GMT

Gabrielle review lessons for media; Dolphin drama fires up media.

Mediawatch looks at how dolphins stalled the Sail GP regatta last Sunday and fired up Sir Russell Coutts in the process. Also, politicians and the media... but were important facts drowned out by all the noise?

And a big review of the Cyclone Gabrielle response says the emergency management was not fit for purpose.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Kate, Coutts, murder in Moscow

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:15:26 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about the dolphin drama that divided the nation (and the media) last weekend - and royal revelations that overshadowed a terrorist atrocity in Moscow. Also: the PM and party leaders drop hints about upcoming policy to help cash-strapped news media.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 24 March 2024

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 20:08:07 GMT

Mediawatch looks at the fallout from Winston Peters' criticism of the media in his State of The Nation speech.

Mediawatch looks at the fallout from Winston Peters' criticism of the media in his State of The Nation speech - and an unlikely stand-off with an English punk band.

Also, the death of Rod Oram. The team looks at a broadcaster falling foul of discrimination and denigration rules - and when politicians say the news media must innovate to survive, what does that really mean?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Rod Oram; state of the Winston

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 09:52:00 GMT

Hayden Donnell talked to Emile Donovan about Winston Peters attacking the news media in his State of the Nation speech - and the death of Rod Oram, a much-admired journalist dedicated to coverage of business and climate change. Also: how many journalists are left in New Zealand - and the rights and wrongs of airing 'hot mic' comments.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Hayden Donnell talked to Emile Donovan about the fallout from Winston Peters attacking the news media in his State of the Nation speech - and the death of Rod Oram, a much-admired journalist dedicated to coverage of business and climate change. Also: how many journalists are left in New Zealand; the rights and wrongs of airing 'hot mic' comments.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Stuff deploys AI for DIY news

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 20:08:07 GMT

Artificial intelligence tech threatens to take our eyeballs even further away from the outlets which produce news - but it's also a tool they can use to make more of it. This week Stuff - which has warned AI could wreck the business of journalism - used Chat GPT to write a stories about readers' opinions. Mediawatch asks an unimpressed editor if we all just have to get used to this now.

Artificial intelligence technology threatens to take our eyeballs even further away from the outlets which produce news - but it's also a tool they can use to make more of it. This week Stuff - which has warned AI could wreck the business of journalism - used Chat GPT to write stories about readers' opinions. Mediawatch asks an unimpressed editor if we all just have to get used to this now.

Readers browsing the country's most popular news site were beckoned by an enticing headline last week.

"Stuff poll says Christchurch NZ's best place," it began, before adding, "New Plymouth not happy about it".

The headline contained two crucial selling points for news: controversy and a metaphysical conundrum. First of all, is Christchurch truly New Zealand's best place? Could it be that Stuff reader polls are somehow wrong?

But more importantly, how is New Plymouth - a metropolitan centre not blessed with the gift of consciousness - able to express unhappiness? Does a cloud roll off Mt Taranaki and hang over the city to signal its displeasure? Do the waves crash more angrily on Fitzroy Beach?

The story didn't answer those questions, perhaps because it was written by another entity which has not been awakened to the joy, confusion, and dread of mortal existence.

A standfirst at the top of the story explains that it was assembled by a robot.

"This story was summarised from original Stuff reporting and published member comments using generative AI tool Chat GPT with oversight and editing from Stuff journalists," it said.

This may have struck some as a slightly strange thing for Stuff to publish, given its leaders have been outspoken about the threat AI poses to journalism.

Its chief executive Sinead Boucher warned about a AI-driven potential media-pocaplyse at a recent select committee hearing on the proposed Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.

"In this last year we have seen the rise of AI technology that has been hailed as a gamechanger for humanity by the tech companies that own it but which at its core has an egregious wholesale theft of our content and our intellectual property," she said. "For the news media globally this development is looking increasingly like an extinction-level event."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 17 March 2024

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 20:08:07 GMT

What will government do about the great TV news meltdown?; Stuff deploys AI for DIY news.

TV news and current affairs are still in the balance at two big broadcasters. Mediawatch looks at how the government has responded - and what it might be planning.

Also: how artificial intelligence is creating news at a media company which has warned the technology could ruin the business of journalism.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Manic Monday for news & fake photo frenzy

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 09:35:04 GMT

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about a manic Monday afternoon of news - cricket, Oscars, terror in the skies... and the post-Cabinet media conference. Also: the royal photo fakery frenzy; political responses to the TV newspocalypse; US politics satirised and fact-checked by TikTok; the leap-year community's struggles.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about a manic Monday afternoon of news - cricket, Oscars, terror in the skies . . . and the post-Cabinet media conference. Also: the royal photo fakery frenzy; political responses to the TV newspocalypse; US politics satirised and fact-checked by TikTok; the leap-year community's struggles.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 10 March 2024

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 20:08:07 GMT

TVNZ has proposed big cuts to news that could leave the country with only one daily TV news bulletin and almost no current affairs on TV within weeks.

Mediawatch looks back at another worrying week for NZ journalism with yet more cutbacks to TV news - this time at TVNZ.

TVNZ has proposed big cuts to news that could leave the country with only one daily TV news bulletin and almost no current affairs on TV within weeks. But could they have been avoided? Also: has David Seymour crossed a line with criticism of TVNZ?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: It's the end of the news as we know it?

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 09:06:37 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about job cuts looming at TVNZ as its crosstown rival Newshub faces a shut-down. Also: coverage of Chris Luxon's terrible, no-good week - and Heavy Metal Morning Report.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about job cuts looming at TVNZ as its crosstown rival Newshub faces a shut-down. Also: coverage of Chris Luxon's terrible, no-good week - and Morning Report goes heavy metal (but Mediawatch got there first . . .)

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Apocalypse now?

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 20:08:07 GMT

For years news media bosses warned the creaking business model backing journalism would fail at a major local outlet. It finally happened this week when Newshub's owners proposed scrapping it. Then TVNZ posted losses prompting warnings of more cuts to come there. Can TV broadcasters pull a crowd without news? And what might the so-far ambivalent government do?

Newshub staff leaving a meeting on Wednesday after the announcement was made.

After Warner Bros Discovery top brass broke the bad news to staff on Wednesday, Newshub at 6 that night became a news event in itself.

In her report political reporter Amelia Wade reminded viewers more than 30 years of TV news and current affairs - spanning the entire period of commercial TV here - could come to an end in June.

Before TV3 launched in 1989, state-owned TVNZ had been the only game in town.

But for most of its recent history, TV3's parent company MediaWorks was owned by private equity funds and it was hamstrung with debts.

There were periodic financial emergencies too which seemed to signal the end.

In 2015 the boss Mark Weldon axed the current affairs shows Campbell Live and 3D and replaced them with ones that didn't pull in more viewers or pull up many trees with their reporting.

"Reports of our death at 6pm have been greatly exaggerated", host Hilary Barry responded to reports 3 News might be for the chop the following year.

But Weldon persuaded the owners to stump up a significant sum to launch Newshub instead.

When the huge global company Discovery bought MediaWorks loss-making TV channels in December 2020, many in the media were pleased a major media outfit was now in charge.

Using the Official Information Act, Newsroom later reported the Overseas Investment Office fast tracked Discovery's application and sought no guarantees of a commitment to local news.

The 2021 mega-merger in the US that turned it into 'Warner Bros Discovery' excited The Spinoff founder Duncan Grieve.

"Tova O'Brien breaking stories on CNN NZ at 6pm, before an evening of local reality TV souped up by global budgets and distribution - with major sports and drama rights for good measure," was one scenario.

"It could also swing the other way, with the New Zealand linear asset seen as too small and obscure," he warned…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Three no longer a hub for news

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 20:07:07 GMT

Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to shut down Newshub was met with mourning within the media - and also concern about what could replace it in the media ecosystem

Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to shut down Newshub was met with mourning within the media - and also concern about what could replace it in the media ecosystem.

Melissa Chan-Green opened the AM Show on Thursday by extinguishing the hopes of her viewers.

"You've likely seen the news by now that our company is proposing to shut down Newshub from June. Some people have been asking 'does that affect AM too? We're all part of the same family," she said. "So yes that does affect AM too."

Her co-host Lloyd Burr added his own eulogy, though he spiced it up with a small, and quite visceral note of hope.

"When the chips are down we get through it," he said. "John Campbell once said we're tighter than a fish's bum."

It later emerged that senior Newshub staff would be trying to save the service, presumably on a fish-bum budget.

The revelation that AM would be part of the Newshub shutdown wouldn't have been news to anyone who had been listening to Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB the previous day.

She got that fact confirmed from the horse's mouth, by Warner Bros. Discovery's Asia-Pacific president James Gibbons, and his revelation left her with one burning question on her mind.

"What are you going to do with all the equipment?" she asked.

Other potential lines of inquiry include what are you going to do about all these people who are about to lose their jobs?

And what are we all going to do about the loss of media diversity and competition?

Journalists, including Newshub's Amelia Wade, did put those sorts of questions to the broadcasting minister, Melissa Lee, who said don't worry about it, audiences have still got Sky.

"There's Sky as well. There's a whole lot of other medias about," she said.

Just one problem with all this though: Sky's news broadcast is supplied by Newshub, which doesn't make it a great alternative to content produced by Newshub.

ACT's David Seymour, a shareholding minister in TVNZ in this coalition, posited one idea for fixing the paucity of competition in broadcast news - weakening TVNZ's market position by demanding it return a larger dividend to the government.

"It may well mean they have to make a return on equity just like every other business in New Zealand is required to do," he said.

Sadly, TVNZ's dominance in free-to-air TV is far from Newshub's only problem…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

TVNZ's losses point to media-wide strife

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:04:50 GMT

Mediawatch: TVNZ's latest losses signal likely cuts to come. But it's the slump in income for the broadcaster that dominates free-to-air TV which will worry the entire media industry.

Jo Moore - a spin doctor for Tony Blair's UK government - earned lasting notoriety in 2001 when she emailed colleagues soon after the 9/11 attacks telling them it would be "a good day to bury bad news".

But sometimes bad news following other bad news actually amplifies it.

TVNZ's annual results revealing its latest losses are not as drastic as the ones that prompted global media giant Warner Bros. Discovery this week to propose the complete closure of Newshub to cut their losses.

But they point to the same crisis affecting all commercial media - declines in advertising revenue across the board - and TVNZ cannot absorb losses like this without cutting the services its viewers and online audiences expect.

The state-owned broadcaster had previously forecast a $15.6 million loss for this financial year, citing commercial clients' reduced spending on advertising.

In September last year TVNZ responded with planned cuts to content production, programmes and operational spending.

"There have been some really tough calls to make here, but we need to live within our means," acting chief executive Brent McAnulty told staff at the time.

Future high-cost projects were all "under review" and pay rises for executives and top-earning staff were scrapped.

Those cuts will not be reflected in results until the following financial year, but today TVNZ reported a net loss of $16.8 million for just the last six months of 2023.

Twelve months earlier, TVNZ made a profit of $4.8m and revenue of $180.3 million in the same period.

But the stand-out stat in TVNZ's interim financial results is total revenue falling 13.5 percent.

That is the sort of year-on-year decline that newspaper publishers have endured in the internet era and which have undercut their business models and prompted compounding rounds of cutbacks and job losses.

Given the fact TVNZ continued to dominate the free-to-air TV market in 2023 - and it attracted a much larger audience than its stricken main TV rival Warner Bros Discovery - that is a worry for the entire media industry.

TVNZ chief executive Jodi O'Donnell said today that TVNZ will have to cut costs further "to navigate through this uncertainty"…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Newshub's brutal 'proposal'

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 09:06:49 GMT

Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about the sudden and startling news of Newshub's impending demise in a 'proposal' from the global owner. Also: is it wrong for journalists to use 'big tech' tools to scrub the sound of real people from reports - or bum notes at the Superbowl?

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about the sudden and startling news of Newshub's impending demise in a 'proposal' from the global owner. Also: is it wrong for journalists to use 'big tech' tools to scrub the sound of real people from reports - or bum notes at the Superbowl?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Welfare and immigration set for a 'reset'

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 20:12:07 GMT

The PM's State of the Nation speech got the media's attention when he said welfare needs reform. He didn't mention record-level immigration but that's also been deemed unsustainable and set for a reset too. What did the media tell about these problems - and what's at stake?

The prime minister's State of the Nation speech got the media's attention when he said welfare needs reform. He didn't mention record-level immigration but that's also been deemed unsustainable and set for a reset too. What did the media tell about these problems - and what's at stake?

In his State of the Nation speech last Sunday the prime minister described Kiwis today as resourceful, reasonable and resilient - but the country as fractured, fragile and lacking lost mojo.

But the pundits mostly agreed the new prime minister found his mojo.

"Yesterday's speech was good. Better still was the presentation: Luxon sounded like a normal person," Stuff's Andrea Vance said in The Post on Monday.

That made the paper's front page under the headline 'Who de-programmed Luxon?'

The same day, BusinessDesk's Pattrick Smellie was also wondering.

"Christopher Luxon has looked for a while like a man in need of a decent speechwriter. His State of the Nation speech suggests either that one has been found - or Luxon is starting to find his voice as prime minister. Or possibly both"

Smellie also reckoned Luxon came across as a "bit of a scold" when repeatedly highlighting our "fragility" and the need for "tough love".

" was him giving the country a bit of a boot up the backside. And let's be honest, we all need that from time to time," TVNZ's Maiki Sherman told 1 News viewers last Monday.

But not everyone was feeling Luxon's boot.

Zeroing in on welfare 'blowout'

"We got a lot of talk about beneficiaries. And they were told that the free ride was over. And then in the end, there was an admission to reporters that the government has yet to explain how it would address and finance the solution to our woes," Newstalk ZB Afternoon host Andrew Dickens told listeners.

"Choosing to make it the centrepiece of the post-Cabinet press conference was more about pure political theatre. But the fact it was largely theatre does not mean it is not good politics," said New Zealand Herald political editor Claire Trevett the same day. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A lifeboat to keep news afloat?

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 20:10:07 GMT

Last week the great and good of New Zealand's news media urged MPs to back a law change to make Google and Facebook pay them for their news. They say the income could be critical to the survival of journalism here. But the lobby group campaigning for better public media says there's a better way to 'send a lifeboat'.

Last week, the great and good of New Zealand's news media urged MPs to back a law change to make Google and Facebook pay them for their news. They say the income could be critical to the survival of journalism here. But the lobby group campaigning for better public media says there's a better way to 'send a lifeboat'.

Last week, the nation's news media publishers pitched up in Parliament to make a pitch to MPs to pass the legislation left behind by the Labour government that would effectively compel big tech companies who carry their news online to pay them for it.

After the Economic Development, Science and Innovation select committee heard them out, Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee told reporters she doesn't support the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill "in its current form" but would wait to see what the Committee recommends.

So did the prime minister on Newstalk ZB last Monday.

"I just think media companies can do their own individual deals with those tech platforms - as your umbrella organisation NZME and others have as well," he told Mike Hosking.

Google has done several individual deals since 2021 to carry local publishers' news in its own service Google News Showcase.

But the Ashburton Guardian's Daryl Holden told the committee it was "a pittance".

"We accepted the deal from a position of no strength. I'm almost embarrassed to say how much we get because it would not be enough to hire one graduate journalist," he told the Economic Development, Science and Innovation committee.

He was far from the only one to tell the Committee last week the imbalance of power in the market is such that they can't get the tech titans to negotiate a genuine value for their news.

That's the reason that the News Publishers Association went to the Commerce Commission for permission to negotiate collectively - and the former government put the Bill forward in the first place.

The prime minister was also right about the Herald's owner NZME doing a deal with Facebook owner Meta, which has been much more reluctant to negotiate with local media.

But NZME chief executive Michael Boggs told MPs last week it won't last long.

"Meta has not renewed after a year because I think they think this (Bill) isn't going to happen," he said. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Milking Kiwi Swifties' FOMO

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 20:08:07 GMT

As the biggest pop star on the planet packed out huge Australian arenas this week, the media here milked Kiwi Swifties' anger over missing out. It also aired confusing blame-game claims about why Swift gave New Zealand a swerve in the first place - and where the big gigs might be held in future.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 25 February 2024

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 20:08:07 GMT

Government 'resets' immigration and welfare; another way to make Google and Facebook to pay for journalism; media milk Kiwi Swifties' stadium FOMO.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: A clash of polls

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 09:41:39 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the death of Efeso Collins, big conclusions drawn from conflicting polls - and the problems with an old media adage.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about the death of Efeso Collins, big conclusions drawn from conflicting polls, and the problems with an old media adage.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

MPs urged to take sides in media vs big tech tussle

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:10:08 GMT

Media bosses warned MPs this week journalism is in jeopardy here if they don't back a Bill making offshore tech giants pay for news carried on Facebook and Google. It's based on laws already in place in Australia and Canada. Mediawatch asks the ex-editor leading the publishers' pitch how it might work.

It's not uncommon to find anguished articles in the media about the perilous state of the news media business these days - both here and overseas.

The New Yorker published a grim essay last weekend under the headline Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event?

Author Claire Malone said the expert predicting 'extinction' had cited the prospect of Google rolling out A.I.-integrated search tools.

If Google's A.I. interface answers routine search queries itself rather than referring users to the online sources of news and information it could be devastating for media websites, he said.

"We are witnessing nothing less than the end of the mass-media era," media analyst Brian Morrissey said.

"Clinging to scraps of hope" was how New Yorker writer Claire Moloney summed up the prospects for news media companies.

The owner of the biggest publisher of news in New Zealand echoed that in Parliament on Thursday before a committee considering the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill.

Stuff owner Sinead Boucher said the advent of generative AI looked "increasingly like an extinction-level event" for news publications. Journalism here "is in a fight for its life" and "clinging on by its fingertips . . . against some of history's biggest companies," she said.

The FNDB Bill is a tool to pressure Google and Facebook owner Meta to pay NZ news media companies for the local news and content they carry on their lucrative online platforms.

Their success in the past twenty years has come at the cost of local media. They have lost the lion's share of their ad revenue to Google and Facebook while at the same time becoming more dependent on them to reach an audience online.

Australia's government reacted with legislation to force the tech titans to do deals with news publishers if they didn't hammer out their own deals by themselves.

The process was fraught, but a bargaining code is now putting millions of dollars back into Australian news publishers. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

$500k Auckland pedestrian crossing costs quietly corrected

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:10:07 GMT

A Herald headline this week said Auckland Transport was 'pushing on with $500,000 crossings'. The apparently outrageous expense was also aired on radio and in Parliament as evidence of the urgent need to reprioritise. But AT said the true cost was a fraction of what was reported.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown had an attack line pre-loaded when he stood to defend his government's decision to drop the Auckland regional fuel tax in Parliament on Tuesday.

"This is all about the cost of living for Aucklanders," he said. "If someone's driving a Hilux they'll save around $9 every time they fill up their car. Someone who's driving a Corolla - around $5. And that's money that won't be funding $500,000 speed bumps in Auckland."

$500k "speed bumps" - or, as some call them, raised pedestrian crossings - may have been on his mind after that morning's New Zealand Herald.

Its page three lead by Super City reporter Bernard Orsman ran under the headline 'AT pushes on with project building $500,000 crossings'.

The story focused on Auckland Transport's plan to build 29 new pedestrian crossings as part of some street upgrades in the suburbs of Point Chevalier and Westmere.

It was the latest in a series of reports from Orsman raising hackles about costly crossings, including one in Three Kings that had to be built, ripped up, and rebuilt at a cost of $600k and another on Williamson Ave in Ponsonby where unexpected stormwater issues pushed the price tag rise to $490k.

Another report noted that AT is installing 27 signalised crossings over two years at a cost of $12.7 million, or about 0.6% of its annual capital budget of $1.1 billion.

But none of the 28 pedestrian crossings in question cost anything like $500k. The estimated cost of the crossings was between $19,000 and $31,000 each.

AT confirmed to Mediawatch - and others - that the real cost of the crossings in question had been provided to the Herald before its publication date.

But the story repeatedly referenced the high cost of some past crossings without quoting the comparatively piddly price of the 29 planned for Westmere and Point Chevalier.

The story was republished by RNZ and on Facebook, where the high cost of crossings generated a flood of mostly angry comments…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 18 February 2024

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:08:07 GMT

Auckland's transport turmoil reports lack full facts; publishers pitch to Parliament to make Google and Facebook pay for their news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Retail rat-astrophe & awkward interviews

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 09:18:15 GMT

Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about the Port Hills fire prompting another state of emergency; questions posed by two awkward interviews with political leaders - and the retail rat-astrophe in our supermarkets that suddenly surged to the top of the news agenda.

Midweek Mediawatch: Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about the Port Hills fire prompting another state of emergency; questions posed by two awkward interviews with political leaders - and the retail rat-astrophe in supermarkets that suddenly surged to the top of the news agenda.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Waitangi tensions test politicians - and the media

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 20:10:07 GMT

In past years some media outlets were ambivalent about Waitangi Day - some even hostile at times. But new moves by the new government and a strong pushback from Māori gave it an extra edge this year. Some even called it historic and a possible turning point. How did the media depict all that?

Ten years ago the New Zealand Herald printed a raised white fist on its masthead along with the promise its Waitangi Day edition would be "protest-free".

The Herald said that was the paper's own protest at other media focusing on protest.

One year earlier, the Herald published a column by Paul Holmes calling it "our repugnant national holiday" in which he also branded protesters delusional "hateful, hate-fuelled weirdos".

In 2016, Herald columnist and ZB radio host Mike Hosking declared there was "no point in celebrating . . . an annual ritual of abuse, anger and ignorance".

Three years later in the Herald, Hosking deemed it "a highly niche outing" amounting to a "day of grievance".

But this year, even after predictions of tension and protest, the Herald was more rosy on 5 February.

"There are challenges ahead but there is also room for optimism, hope . . . and humour," its front page said.

That was the day political leaders made their speeches. And the next day - Waitangi Day - the Herald editorial declared: 'The theatre of Waitangi was wonderful'.

It credited the PM for attending Rātana and also meeting iwi leaders before Waitangi "even though some might not like what he has to say"."

"But the thousands at Waitangi - including those marching in the hīkoi - show the level of opposition Luxon will face. This is where his hard work begins," the Herald added.

The paper's front page headline featured the government's three leaders - and the headline: 'Up for the challenge?'

The media had a challenge too: explaining and understanding the united front that formed among Māori in advance of commemorations - as well as what the politicians had to say.

Winston Peters rose to the challenge on the paepae with what Stuff's Adam Dudding described as "a brief, angry spray", telling his critics to "stop the crap ... stop the hysteria"…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 11 February 2024

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 20:08:08 GMT

Waitangi tensions test politicians - and the media; Why is Sky screening more top-dollar sport for free?

Mediawatch looks at how the media covered this year's Waitangi commemorations and the political tensions over the Treaty in the background. Mediawatch also looks at Sky TV suddenly putting rugby, netball and league on TV for free this season.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Why Sky is screening some of its top-dollar sport for free

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 20:07:07 GMT

Sky TV became the big beast of pay TV by keeping a stranglehold on exclusive live rights to the country's most popular sports for paying subscribers. This week it suddenly announced top rugby, netball and league will soon screen in weekends free-to-air. Why?

Sky TV became the big beast of pay TV by exclusively screening the country's most popular sports live for paying subscribers. This week it suddenly announced top rugby, netball and league will soon screen in the weekends free-to-air as well on one of its own channels. Why?

Former New Zealand wicketkeeper-turned-commentator Ian Smith made the news briefly last month for an offhand comment on Australian TV.

Asked to comment on TVNZ footage of a stunning catch in a Super Smash T20 game in Wellington, Smith said the catch was great but the commentary was "shithouse."

Few cricket fans here would have seen that coverage of the lunch break in the first test between West Indies and Australia - and they would have had to have been listening closely to have caught Smith's insult.

But TVNZ - which acquired broadcasting rights to domestic and international cricket last year following the closure of Spark Sport - did not let it go.

"New Zealanders have strong opinions about the commentary and there is no team that will please every viewer - particularly when that viewing audience is over a million," a spokesperson said.

A million for a Firebirds 20/20 game at the Basin Reserve live on TVNZ Duke? It turned out the figure is a cumulative one for Black Caps' games since TVNZ acquired the broadcast rights.

But NZ Cricket boss Scott Weenik recently said it was very happy with the views the game was getting on free-to-air TV these days.

Before Spark Sport, Sky TV was the only game in town for domestic sports bodies because the revenue the pay-TV titan was able to pay them was critical.

After Sky bought free-to-air channel Prime (now called Sky Open) in 2006 it put a sprinkling of live games from top tournaments and leagues on that to tease viewers with a taste of the sports smorgasbord Sky had for its subscribers.

Last December Sky pumped up the price of Sky Sports by 11 percent just after TVNZ launched an online hub for all its on-demand and live sport available for free.

On Thursday, Sky suddenly announced live league, rugby and netball matches will also screen for free Sky Open this coming season.

So, 25 NRL matches will screen live on Friday Night Footy, including seven of the Warriors' fixtures. And 19 Super Rugby Pacific matches will air in Super Saturday Rugby kicking off with the Highlanders v Moana Pasifika on 24 February. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Copy-and-paste Chris

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:40:49 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about Chris Luxon being harangued by the media for copy-and-pasting his Waitangi Day speech, an eye-opening column on police recruitment numbers - and a sensational-sounding political scoop that has yet to see the light of day.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about Chris Luxon being harangued by the media for copy-and-pasting his Waitangi Day speech, an eye-opening column on police recruitment - a sensational-sounding political scoop that has yet to see the light of day.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Does bad economic news trump good news?

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 20:12:07 GMT

Stories about surging inflation, successive food price rises and more Kiwis in arrears topped bulletins and filled front pages last year. But recent news about slowing inflation, cheaper food and rising business confidence hasn't had the same impact. How come?

"All eyes and ears - of analysts and economists anyway - are on the speech to be given by the chief economist of the Reserve Bank Paul Conway," RNZ's business editor Gyles Beckford said last Tuesday, wrapping up his early business update on Morning Report.

It was more than just analysts and economists eagerly awaiting Conway's address that morning. Some media outlets livestreamed it online too, issuing news alerts beforehand.

The media don't usually pump up an economist on a webinar. Why now?

"People are waiting to hear if there's any signal of a change of mood from the unexpectedly hawkish tone of the RBNZ in November. That might point to an earlier-than-expected start for cutting (interest) rates," Beckford explained.

But when he returned for the later update after 8.30, Morning Report co-host Corin Dann pointed out there are months between decisions on the official cash rate - and nothing would happen in a hurry.

"There are three months between meetings of the Reserve Bank. That is really quite impractical to say the least. In fact, it's downright stupid," Beckford replied.

However, even the hint of a non-imminent change clearly excited news editors.

Last year, data revealing stubbornly high inflation and rising food prices seemed to be topping the bulletins whenever it came out - often with bleak headlines about the "cost of living crisis".

Every month, reports from New Zealand's largest credit database Centrix tallying debts and mortgages in arrears prompted alarming stories about a possible surge in mortgagee sales.

The National Party - then in opposition - even warned "a mortgage bomb" could blow up the economy if interest rates remained high.

Supermarkets kicked off a blame-game with stats showing their suppliers were fuelling rising prices - rather than their own profits. That bitter row was widely reported.

It was worrying stuff. But what happens when the data is better?

Similar stories when supermarkets' supplier cost growth hit the lowest point for 18 months in December were harder to find. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Todd Scott - taking a punt at NBR

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 20:11:07 GMT

It's more than a decade since Todd Scott staked everything to buy the business news weekly where he worked, the National Business Review. Since then NBR's gone online-only, axed ads entirely and the owner moved to Fiji. During a flying visit back to HQ, Mediawatch asks Scott if he's still in it for the long haul.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

With one last hurrah, goneburger is goneburger

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 20:10:08 GMT

When James Shaw tweeted "James Shaw goneburger" it was the zenith of one political reporter's eight-year effort to goneburger every departing politician in New Zealand. But Jo Moir is now leaving Twitter (X) - and goneburgering - behind.

When James Shaw tweeted the phrase "James Shaw goneburger", it was the zenith of one political reporter's eight-year effort to goneburger every departing politician in New Zealand. But Jo Moir is now leaving Twitter (X) - and goneburgering - behind.

Stuff's piece explaining the lay of the political land ahead of Parliament's first sitting day on Tuesday was mostly run-of-the-mill.

There were tidbits about National and Labour's priorities and some remarks about Chris Bishop's distinctive grin. So far, so banal.

But 14 paragraphs in was an apparent bombshell about the Greens. Almost off-hand, it added: "Co-leader James Shaw's departure is also hanging over the party. It will lead to a months-long leadership selection process."

Readers who made it to that point in the article might have been forgiven for saying 'huh', 'what now? or 'James Shaw is resigning!?'

Though it was stated like common knowledge, those of us who hadn't spent the summer relentlessly boning up on New Zealand politics might have been taken aback to learn the co-leader of Parliament's third-biggest party was on the way out in the final spluttering paragraphs of a story about something else.

At least Stuff's scoop aged well. Shaw's resignation was announced at 11am and led TVNZ's Midday News.

Perhaps Stuff's journalists have sources inside the Green Party. Perhaps they picked up an early copy of the embargoed press statement. Perhaps they're just adept at summoning messages from the political spirit realm.

Whatever method they used, it wasn't revolutionary. Few journalists seemed to be shaken or even slightly stirred by Shaw's resignation.

TVNZ political reporter Lilian Hanley told Midday News it wasn't a surprise.

Over at NewstalkZB, political editor Jason Walls was similarly nonplussed: "Let's be honest - we knew this was coming."

Some pundits had been predicting Shaw's departure.

"Is it time for Shaw to bail out?" The New Zealand Herald's Fran O'Sullivan asked in a 20 January column. She argued he was lost in "a sea of activists fast running the Greens' brand into the ground", while deftly eliding the fact that the party recorded its best-ever result in October's general election…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 4 February 2024

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 20:08:08 GMT

This week on Mediawatch, does bad news about the economy trump good news? The end of the line for goneburger?

Mediawatch looks at whether bad economic news makes more headlines that good news - and asks the owner of the NBR if being a local media baron is all it's cracked up to be.

Also: Green co-leader James Shaw announced his departure this week - but the press pack wasn't surprised.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: RNZ shuffles its pack

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 09:46:02 GMT

Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about just-announced changes to RNZ National's schedule and an RNZ news story last weekend which prompted complaints. Also: an ex-MP's emotional interviews; defining sport once and for all - and what do Jacinda Ardern and Liverpool FC have in common?

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talked to Emile Donovan about just-announced changes to RNZ National's schedule and an RNZ news story last weekend which prompted complaints. Also: an ex-MP's emotional interviews; defining sport once and for all - and what do Jacinda Ardern and Liverpool FC have in common?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Media cop flak over MP’s startling downfall

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 20:12:07 GMT

The summer holidays are usually a dead zone for domestic political news - but the unseasonal and unexpected downfall of Golriz Ghahraman bucked the trend this month. Media copped criticism from some for reporting the allegations that led to her resignation - while others railed at media for failing to condemn her alleged crimes and playing the 'mental health card'.

The summer holidays are usually a dead zone for domestic political news - but the unseasonal and unexpected downfall of Golriz Ghahraman bucked the trend this month.

Media copped criticism from some for reporting the allegations that led to her resignation - while others railed at media for failing to condemn her alleged crimes and playing the 'mental health card'.

When Golriz Ghahraman resigned from Parliament on 16 January, her statement said work-related stress has damaged her mental health and led her to act in "out-of-character" ways.

It was six days since the allegations of theft had first hit the headlines, followed by reports of a second and later a third instance for which the ex-MP was charged this week. That latest charge related to an incident back in October.

What was clearly a closely kept secret broke on NZME's subscriber-only online service ZB Plus, which also reported the Greens had for some time had CCTV recording of alleged shoplifting.

The allegations also appeared on the blog and social media accounts of Marc Spring, a blogger clearly hostile to the former government and the Green Party judging by the topics and tone of his posts.

But there were no charges at that time and no on the record statement from police or any of the shops from which she'd been accused of stealing.

Some questioned whether allegations that were initially unconfirmed - and unacknowledged by the MP - should have been reported in the news at all while police investigations were ongoing.

But no news editor could easily ignore a lawmaker accused of breaking the law - and who also happened to be a party spokesperson on justice.

The fact that the Greens stood her down from those roles even before making a proper statement about the allegations was taken as a sign by the media that there was at least some fire to go with all the smoke.

The vacuum created by the lack of comment was filled by political commentators the media have on speed-dial, speculating on what might happen next and how the public felt about it all. The vacuum was further filled by political pundits criticising the Greens for failing to fill the vacuum themselves.

"The longer her silence is, the worse it's going to get for her. That is an absolute reality," TV executive turned spin doctor Janet Wilson told RNZ. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Water woes flood silly season as news runs dry

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 20:10:08 GMT

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, predictable reports of shark sightings signalled the start of the summer silly season. And with water running out in the capital, and a controversial campaign from Auckland's Watercare, even the culture wars didn't run out of steam over the holidays.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, reports of shark sightings signalled the start of the summer silly season for news. Meanwhile water running out in the capital, unswimmable beaches, sewage smells and a controversial conservation campaign in Auckland all watered down the holiday news drought too.

The year 2024 was less than two days old when Newstalk ZB's Tim Roxborogh asked his listeners about shark sightings at the beach - a staple of the annual Kiwi summer news drought.

He was prompted by former broadcaster Brodie Kane posting on Instagram a mock TV news-style live cross from Mount Maunganui beach, claiming "some people ran for their lives" including a child yelling that the shark was "so big".

This was reported by papers from coast-to-coast. Even the far-off Otago Daily Times published a picture from the fuzzy footage of a fin in the water.

But when The New Zealand Herald sought a second opinion, the eastern region manager of Surf Life Saving poured cold water on it.

"We see them all the time ... it's pretty standard," he said.

Shortly after, Tim Roxborogh moved on to another surefire silly season talkback topic.

"What are the most dangerous roads?" he asked ZB listeners and calls about highways riddled with puncture-producing potholes poured in.

For two days running in the new year, RNZ's Summer Report led with local mayors' gripes about the state of State Highway 1.

But when a story headlined 'Laughing stock' appeared on the RNZ news site, one Mediawatch listener reckoned RNZ was having a laugh with a photo in it sourced from the Northland Potholes Facebook page.

"This is not State Highway 1. It's Te One Street, Ruakaka," he said. (SH1 does skirt the Northland town but Te One street's patchy potholes are not part of our number one road.)

However, not every mayor was griping at Waka Kotahi - aka the NZ Transport Agency - about potholes this summer.

After State Highway 25a was sliced in two by Cyclone Gabrielle last year, it became a good news story just before Christmas when it reopened ahead of schedule and under budget.

NZTA made the most of that in social media videos. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 28 January 2024

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 20:08:07 GMT

What you missed over summer: harmless sharks, woke worries, sewage smells and water woes flood the holiday news drought; media cop flak for coverage of Golriz Ghahraman's downfall.

This week Mediawatch looks back at what hit the headlines during the usual summer silly season - including the sudden downfall of MP Golriz Gharahaman, the state of the state highways and worries about water running out.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek: Hōhā over hui coverage

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 09:39:34 GMT

Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about accusations of bias over media commentary on the national hui at Tūrangawaewae marae and the media response to the downfall of Green MP Golriz Gharahman.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Emile Donovan about accusations of bias over media commentary on the national hui at Tūrangawaewae marae - and media response to the downfall of Green MP Golriz Gharahman.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Mediawatch Christmas bonus

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 21:00:07 GMT

A special edition of Mediawatch looking back on the year in the media - ending with the Mediawatch five-minute mashup of 2023's news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - 2023 Awards

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 09:00:09 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Hayden Donnell and Colin Peacock joined Mark Leishman to hand out Mediawatch's not very prestigious and not at all coveted annual awards - including worst media cliche, most shameless ripoff, best media drama, and media over-reaction of the year.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Hayden Donnell and Colin Peacock joined Mark Leishman to hand out Mediawatch's not very prestigious and not at all coveted annual awards - including worst media cliche, most shameless ripoff, best media drama, and media over-reaction of the year.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 17 December 2020 - Horowhenua special

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 20:08:08 GMT

Covering news all over the country is a struggle for media companies dealing with rising costs and falling income. But some local outlets are surviving - and even thriving. Mediawatch's Hayden Donnel finds out who's doing the business in Horowhenua - and how they're doing it.

Major media organisations have been cutting back in the regions for years leaving reporters thin on the ground - and local people short of local news. This week Mediawatch visits Horowhenua to find out who's filling the gaps and how they're doing it.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - The case of the missing mayoral footage

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 10:58:28 GMT

In this week's Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a much-reported recording of Wellington's mayor which made many headlines recently - but has not yet appeared in the real world. Also: a report into New Zealand's media landscape - and what will replace The Project in the 7pm current affairs slot on Three - and Dunedin set to lose its local TV news.

Also: a report into New Zealand's media landscape - and what will replace The Project in the 7pm current affairs slot on Three - and and Dunedin set to lose its local TV news.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

From paper to platform - media's online dependence

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 20:10:07 GMT

Five years ago Dr Merja Myllylahti warned our news media were becoming dangerously dependent on global digital platforms which gave them online audiences but undercut their income and didn't seem to care much about news. What's the story five years on?

Five years ago Dr Merja Myllylahti warned our news media were becoming dangerously dependent on global digital platforms which gave them online audiences, but undercut their income and didn't seem to care much about news. What's the story five years on?

Winston Peters made plenty of headlines with his claim the former government bribed the media with the $55m Public Interest Journalism Fund.

The outgoing government had already backed away from the Fund before the election. Labour confirmed it wouldn't repeat or renew it if the party won.

The long, loud backlash from those who reckoned that the fund did skew news coverage - even though it didn't - was one reason.

But Labour's media spokesperson Willie Jackson also told a pre-election meeting the media wouldn't need that kind of a cash injection if another of his government's interventions worked out.

The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill prods online operators like Google and Facebook to cut financial deals with local media for the news that they've distributed for years for no cost.

"A huge amount of good journalists have all gone out the door... because these big companies come in, take everything and don't give anything back. If we get this bill through, we'll get a couple of hundred million bucks coming back into the market," Jackson told the Better Public Media pre-election debate.

Two hundred million dollars a year is a very optimistic - even heroic - estimate of the revenue such bargaining might achieve. It's roughly the sum the deals struck with Google and Meta (owner of Facebook) in Australia are estimated to have netted in the first year after Australia's government forced the issue.

But while it did bring big money into the media there, it's been a different story so far in Canada.

Canada's Online News Act, also called Bill C-18, prompted Google to threaten to remove Canadian news from their search services last year and Meta briefly did so for Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Last week Google agreed to pay a single Canadian collective which would then distribute the funds to the eligible news media agencies. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 10 December 2023

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Parliamentary pomp and ceremony - but no honeymoon; 'From Paper to Platform'- media's online dependence; Todd Niall - local matters really matter

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Todd Niall - local matters really matter

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 20:07:07 GMT

'Look ahead, not back' - the last words of Todd Niall after 46 years in daily journalism. The last of these were spent reporting the complicated and highly-contested issues afflicting Auckland and its supercity council. Unlike his other passion - yacht racing - that's not glamorous, but Todd tells Mediawatch local matters really do matter for every citizen.

'Look ahead, not back' - the final words of Todd Niall after 46 years in daily journalism, the last of which were spent reporting the complicated and highly-contested issues afflicting Auckland and its supercity council. Unlike his other passion - yacht racing - that's not glamorous, but Todd tells Mediawatch local matters really do matter for every citizen.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch ‘Kin oath’ - new Parliament sworn in

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 10:30:50 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman about the new government getting underway with plenty of ceremony, lots of protest - but no honeymoon. Also: Sky puts prices up; The Project comes to an end - and are letters to the editor on the way out?

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman about the new government getting underway with plenty of ceremony, lots of protest - but no honeymoon. Also: Sky puts prices up, The Project comes to an end - and are letters to the editor on the way out?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mayor under pressure after rumour-based reports

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 20:12:26 GMT

Wellington's mayor is under pressure after acknowledging an alcohol problem. Her admission was prompted by media questions about drunken 'antics' based in part on a reported recording which no media outlet has yet confirmed - and which was contradicted by the only eye-witness on the record.

'Who wields the power?' asks the front page of this weekend's edition of the Wellington paper The Post above its ranking of the 50 most powerful people in and around the capital.

Coming in at number seven was the city's mayor Tory Whanau - though The Post said that her status was "in jeopardy" because she admitted to a drinking problem this week following what The Post described as "weeks of torrid rumours" about her behavior.

Just two days earlier, her behaviour one recent night out led the paper's front page.

That story said Whanau was "again forced to defend allegations of drunken behavior in public" after what The Post understood was an incident that took place at a central Wellington bar two weekends ago - and was "rumored to have been recorded by a third party."

And rumour was a key part of the story.

Those who read to the end of it were left wondering what had happened that day at the bar - and who knew about it and who might have recorded or even seen the evidence of it.

In her statement, Whanau said it was to "her great embarrassment and shame" that an "incident ... seemed to have been recorded."

But The Post said that the co-owner of Havana bar was "perplexed" because he was there, and the mayor and her friends "weren't intoxicated."

The Post's story may not have been a surprise to those who heard RNZ National's Checkpoint the day before.

"Whanau has admitted to more drunken antics in a central city Bar. She has confirmed to RNZ she has a drinking problem after multiple council sources, including supporters of the mayor, told RNZ about footage showing her in an intoxicated state," host Lisa Owen told listeners.

Whanau's full statement doesn't acknowledge any drunken 'antics.'

Checkpoint said several sources confirmed the mayor was at the Havana bar on that day with friends "having a rowdy time ... and this has apparently been captured on video." …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Claims of media 'bribery' derail new government on day one

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 20:12:07 GMT

It didn't take long for Winston Peters' news media grievances to make headlines - and headaches - for the new government. Mediawatch looks at how the media reacted to his claims of media 'bribery' - and what he was hinting at.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 3 December 2023

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Claims of media 'bribery' derail new government on day one; politics shows off air just as politics hots up; mayor under pressure after rumour-based reports.

Mediawatch looks at how Winston Peters' grievances against the media made headlines this week - as soon as the new government took power.

Also: reports that have put Wellington's mayor under pressure - and why are all the weekly TV politics shows going off the air now, just as the new government gets going.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch: Winston's war

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:21:12 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about Winston Peters' war with the media, a new streaming app for Three, and Kim Hill's farewell to RNZ.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Not the greatest story ever told

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 20:12:07 GMT

The three political coalition partners finally sealed the deal on Friday, bringing to an end more than 40 days of limbo - and Shane Jones' biblical quotes. Never has so much been said by so many political reporters with so little information for so long. It wasn't exactly season 4 of Borgen.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Watchdog warns media laws need urgent upgrade

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 20:10:07 GMT

The chief of the country's most powerful media watchdog says we need new laws now to hold media to account in future. The outgoing government had a plan for one single body to oversee rules for all media, including the internet, but that slow-moving overhaul looks stalled. What does the Broadcasting Standards Authority want from our new rulers?

What does the Broadcasting Standards Authority want from our new rulers?

This week the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) issued its latest batch of rulings for this year on formal complaints it received earlier in 2023.

It's an interesting bunch.

The Authority declined to determine one about Country Calendar depicting deer being hunted and shot and processed at an abattoir - just the reality of life in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Authority decided.

It also declined to determine a complaint about undecided people being excluded from TVNZ's pre- election opinion polls - and one alleging a character described as "effing annoying" in a book review on RNZ's Nine to Noon breached standards for offensive and disturbing content.

(To be clear, "effing annoying" is exactly what was said on air - not the f-word variant itself)

But the Authority did uphold a complaint against Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking, who told listeners during a teachers strike "people who go on strike have always been on full pay. They're supported by the unions'".

Mike Hosking

That was "materially inaccurate" and misleading the Authority said - even though some listeners did get in touch afterwards who knew that wasn't right.

A majority of the Authority also upheld, though only in part, a complaint about a discussion on TVNZ's Marae show about freedom of expression in the wake of provocateur Posie Parker's visit to New Zealand.

Rainbow community activist Shaneel Lal had "strayed into the realm of personal attack," the BSA said - though not all its members considered it a breach of standards.

The BSA also considered a complaint about Mediawatch which was a response to our analysis of another decision made by another media complaints body.

The Media Council had found a Stuff news report about the safety of puberty blockers lacked balance. The BSA found the live Midweek Mediawatch discussion about that was sufficiently balanced and focused on the implications of the decision for journalists and it did not result in unfairness…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Music journalism all but vanishes from our media

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 20:08:08 GMT

This week the country's biggest arts funding agency published a plan to boost coverage of culture which has been dwindling in our media. Music reviews and writing used to be eagerly-read and hotly-contested in our papers and magazines. We ask a former entertainment editor where that went and what could bring it back.

This week the country's biggest arts funding agency published a plan to boost coverage of culture which has been dwindling in our media.

Music reviews and writing used to be eagerly read and hotly contested in our papers and magazines. We ask a former entertainment editor where that went and what could bring it back.

Back in July, arts funding outfit Creative New Zealand inadvertently picked a pretty intense week to release a new survey called Visibility Matters - which showed media coverage of culture was dwindling.

One day earlier the media published a flood of stories about the crimes of multi-millionaire arts patron Sir James Wallace - described by many in the media as a "worst kept secret" while his name was suppressed.

But the Visibility Matters survey's finding that arts and culture got just half of the space in our media that is devoted to sport these days - that was not news to people in the arts.

That report was prompted in part by longtime arts writer Mark Amery, now the co-host of RNZ's Culture 101, every Sunday at 1pm here on RNZ National.

At the time he told Mediawatch one of the problems was that arts events with a PR push behind them did get coverage in advance - but critical analysis of them was harder to find.

"Too much preview, not enough review" in other words.

Creative New Zealand followed up Visibility Matters with another report this week - New Mirrors - all about ways to strengthen arts and culture media in Aotearoa New Zealand.

It suggests setting up a new funding pool devoted specifically to culture reporting and establishing an agency modelled on the Science Media Centre, aimed at helping news outlets facilitate and organise their arts coverage.

Chris Schulz, a former entertainment editor for The New Zealand Herald and Stuff, is relieved that others are jumping on the bandwagon he boarded some months ago.

He's written several times about the dearth of music journalism in New Zealand on his Substack blog Boiler Room, noting that several major music festivals received no mainstream media coverage, and musicians are struggling to get more than a single interview after releasing albums.

That marks a stark change from when he started in journalism…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 26 November 2023

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Parties seal the coalition deal to end long limbo for media; watchdog warns media laws need urgent upgrade; media tuning out of music journalism; Covid response reckons ramp up in inquiry season.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - Are we there yet? No . . .

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:20:16 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the ongoing process of forming a new government testing the patience of political reporters - and the audience. Also: more financial woe for media companies, 123 years of history ends in Invercargill - and Australia's rugby boss meets a sticky end.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the ongoing process of forming a new government testing the patience of political reporters - and the audience. Also: more financial woe for media companies, 123 years of history ends in Invercargill - and Australia's rugby boss meets a sticky end.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Producers pressure government to tax Netflix and co

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 20:14:07 GMT

This week the people who make the local stuff for our screens big and small urged the powers-that-be to tax the likes of Netflix and Disney Plus to fund it. But producers here can already get tax breaks and public funding, so can they really persuade the incoming government to make the streaming services another source of funds?

The annual conference of Screen Producers NZ - still known by historic acronym SPADA - kicks off with a lecture which honours pioneering local moviemaker John O'Shea - a champion of the local industry since the days when film was the entire screen industry.

This year TVNZ's John Campbell conducted a sitdown chat with James Cameron, the Hollywood titan who made Titanic, Terminator and Avatar and who now lives and works mostly in New Zealand.

John Campbell put what he called the standard "Kiwi cultural cringe" question for famous foreigners to James Cameron: What do you make of the place?

Cameron said he loves it and planned to become a New Zealand citizen next year.

The news made TVNZ's 6pm bulletin that night and New Zealand Herald website rushed it out as urgent news - though the 'I love being a Wellingtonian' headline might have miffed people across in Wairarapa where Cameron has owned land and homes for some time.

James Cameron only had good things to say about filmmaking facilities and talent here - but he also warned it's not cheap to film here and that New Zealand competes with the likes of Australia (which this year increased its rebate) and even faraway Croatia.

That pointed to the key issue for the local screen producers after the disruption of Covid: how to finance productions?

Cameron - whose first film was 15 minutes long and funded by a dentist - said the Screen Production Rebate incentives productions can claim here were critical.

International productions can get up to a quarter of their spending back - and New Zealand-made films can get two-fifths.

Tax breaks for hugely profitable offshore movie studios have been controversial in the past. Amazon Prime got a $100 million boost to film The Lord of the Rings television series here - and even that wasn't enough to stop it going offshore after one series.

But James Cameron was prepared for John Campbell raising that last Thursday. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Media campaign of the century?

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 20:10:07 GMT

As we wait for a new government, one election did deliver a clear-cut result this week - Forest and Bird's Bird of the Century poll. The winner had considerable offshore input thanks to a celebrity comedian's campaign which generated heaps of media exposure - but also some claims of media manipulation.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 19 November 2023

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Media campaign of the century; producers push for tax on streamers; the legacy of a 'true newspaperman'.

This week, Mediawatch looks at producers putting pressure on the incoming government to tax the likes of Netflix and Amazon - and the legacy left by old-school newspaper editors.

Also: as we wait for a new government, one election did deliver a clear-cut result this week

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

'True newspaperman' Fred Tulett leaves a legacy

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 20:07:07 GMT

Long-serving Southland Times editor Fred Tulett has died - leaving a legacy of more than 50 years in journalism in which he mentored many top journalists who followed in his footsteps.

On Wednesday last week the Southland Times filled its front page with news former editor Fred Tulett had died, aged 77.

News of Fred's death also spilled over onto page two of Southland Times paper last week.

"News of Fred Tulett's death relegated a strong story about the financial struggles of medical trainee interns to page 3. He would have gone crook about that," his Times colleague Michael Fallow noted in a separate obituary - A titan of old-school journalism - published in Stuff's papers last weekend.

Fred had edited the paper for 15 years following stints at Wellington's Dominion, the notorious tabloid Truth and several papers in the UK.

At his funeral in Alexandra, Stuff's chief publishing officer Jo Norris recalled Fred's remarkable scoop about suspected Israeli agents being spirited out of the country after the Christchurch quake in 2011.

Soon after, Fred made headlines himself by personally sampling the synthetic cannabis product Kronic and then calling for it to be banned immediately in his paper's editorial the next day.

But Fred's best-remembered scoop was one that came out of the blue in 1984 when he picked up a ringing phone at the Dominion Sunday Times.

It was Naomi Lange - wife of then PM David Lange - on the line.

This was at a time when their marriage was on the rocks. She spilled the beans to him about David's adultery and Fred put it in the paper - but not before pondering the public interest in the exposure of this.

Almost 20 years later, when Fred was at the Southland Times, the story of an affair involving Auckland mayor Len Brown made nationwide headlines.

But this time the story was being peddled by political opponents of Len Brown who was facing re-election.

At that time Fred Tulett spoke to Mediawatch about whether the public interest would be served by this private situation being revealed in these circumstances.

"Of course, it's our business. We're talking about a high profile politician that people have had to make judgments on in deciding whether or not to vote for him. And this is all about people being able to make informed decisions about what's going on. Let's be realistic about this," Fred told Mediawatch at the time. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - feathers fly over election outcomes

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 06:42:16 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about allegations of foreign interference in the Bird of the Century vote - and dubious concerns about the general election result.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Three bananas and a coalition cauliflower

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:12:07 GMT

The news media see themselves as the eyes and ears of the public - but so far political leaders have mostly turned a deaf ear to their questions about forming the new government. How are they handling the silent treatment?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Burying the Bird - is trashed Twitter facing extinction?

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:10:07 GMT

Twitter emerged as an important source of live updates, news and images during the Arab Spring more than a decade ago. Many in the media also joined the platform to share news and commentary with users worldwide. But a year after Elon Musk took it over, 'X' is a mess - and a group of local users recently gathered to 'Bury the Bird' for good.

Twitter emerged as an important source of live updates, news and images during the Arab Spring more than a decade ago. Many in the media also joined the platform to share news and commentary with users worldwide. But a year after Elon Musk took it over, X is a mess - and a group of local users recently gathered to 'Bury the Bird' for good.

Last week the UK hosted a summit on the dangers of AI at Bletchley Park, the site of the celebrated Enigma code-breaking effort in World War II.

The British government said that they hoped the presence of the world's richest ever entrepreneur, Elon Musk, would "attract international attention".

It did. Musk's interview with the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also made headlines when it was livestreamed on the social media platform that Musk owns - X, formerly Twitter.

"Having a referee is a good thing. And if you look at any sports game, there's always a referee. And nobody's suggesting to have a sports game without one," Musk told Sunak when asked how AI advances should be regulated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjdVlmBjRCA

"I think the right way to think about this is for governments to be a referee to make sure there's sportsmanlike conduct and public safety is addressed. We care about public safety," Musk told Sunak.

That would ring hollow for users of X who blame Musk for systematically dismantling 15 years' worth of moderation at Twitter in the past year since he bought it.

Two days later, Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan he bought Twitter to save it from an "extinctionist mind virus" - but it's Musk himself who seems to be speeding up Twitter's decline - and possible extinction.

Twitter was heavily used by the media because it became a powerful way of spreading and sharing news as well as commenting on it.

Its other unique selling point was 'micro-blogging' - making it possible to post short, sharp messages for followers of individual accounts and directly to some of the best-known and most powerful people and institutions in the world.

But Musk has driven a series of changes over the past year which slashed the platform's value by more than half while also destroying most of its value to its users, including the media and journalists. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Are the Irish twice as rich as us?

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Mediawatch - A business lobby group is urging New Zealand to emulate Ireland, which has a GDP twice as big as ours - but is the GDP picture warped?

The incoming government wants to grow the economy and attract more foreign investment.

A leading business lobby group is urging us to emulate Ireland, which had a GDP the same size as ours 30 years ago, but now has a GDP twice as big. The statistics are sobering, but is that the full picture?

One of the areas where there may have to be compromises between the parties forming a new government is economic policy.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters' views on the economy, international trade and foreign investment "pre-date Rogernomics, in that he has staunchly opposed the neo-liberal views held sacred by the Thatcherite ideologues within the business community, the Luxon-led National Party and the Act Party", columnist Gordon Campbell wrote at Scoop.co.nz.

On his site Politik, veteran political journalist Richard Harman said National would "have to tread between two very different views of how to grow New Zealand's economy".

He pointed to a freshly-published report from The NZ Initiative (NZI) think-tank called Irish Secrets - An Irish lesson in prosperity.

Harman said one set of figures stood out in the report: In 1990, New Zealand GDP per head was just under $US15,000 - slightly ahead of Ireland's. By last year, Ireland's had jumped to $US127,000, but ours was only $US52,000.

The Irish Secrets report followed a week-long tour of Ireland by three dozen businesspeople in June.

"The Emerald Isle leapt forward, leaving the Land of the Long White Cloud in its wake. Ireland now sits just below the US at sixth while New Zealand languishes at 20th," NZ Initiative chair Roger Partridge wrote in the New Zealand Herald on their return, about what he called "prosperity's most meaningful measure" - GDP per capita.

After the Ireland visit in July, NZI executive director Oliver Hartwich made the post-1990 GDP comparison in an interview with Reality Check Radio.

"Ireland has commonsense and we have ideology," he said.

NZI published a more detailed report - Benchmarking New Zealand's Economic Performance Against Ireland's - in August.

This report said Ireland's GDP per capita in 2020 was far higher than any other OECD member country, except Luxembourg, because "Ireland has attracted so much overseas investment that a significant proportion of what it produces at home belongs to overseas investors." …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 12 November 2023

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:08:07 GMT

This week Mediawatch looks at how the media have followed the formation of the next government going on behind closed doors. Also: a push to persuade policymakers to emulate Ireland's economy - and local media people lamenting the decline of what was the media's favourite social media platform, Twitter.

This week Mediawatch looks at how the media have followed the formation of the next government going on behind closed doors.

Also: a push to persuade policymakers to emulate Ireland's economy - and local media people lamenting the decline of what was the media's favourite social media platform, Twitter.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch 8 November 2023

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 10:32:20 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about political reporters' ongoing efforts to get party leaders to talk about forming a new government and media companies' growing financial problems. Also - an opportunity for journalists honouring Brian Gaynor - and the UK press picks up on the controversial British TV star accused of 'colonising' a Tasman town.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about political reporters' ongoing efforts to get party leaders to talk about forming a new government and media companies' growing financial problems. Also - an opportunity for journalists honouring Brian Gaynor - and the UK press picks up on the controversial British TV star accused of 'colonising' a Tasman town.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Keeping it confidential to properly protect sources

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 23:16:17 GMT

Protecting people who offer the media important information is a fundamental obligation for journalists. Chris Cooke quit TVNZ after it didn't keep a promise to Erin Leighton, whose off-the-record disclosures ended up being aired in court in the defence of her abusers. They're now pushing for a 'shield law' to ensure our media can guarantee confidentiality.

Mediawatch - Protecting people who offer the media important information is a fundamental obligation.

Producer Chris Cooke quit TVNZ after it failed to keep a promise to a sexual assault victim, whose off the record disclosures ended up being aired in court in defence of her abusers. Cooke and the victim, Erin Leighton, are now pushing for a 'shield law' to ensure our media can guarantee confidentiality.

Last month, convicted fraudster Paul Bennett and a woman, whose name is suppressed, were sentenced to a term of imprisonment for offending against Erin Leighton in 2008, a crime the judge described as "completely premeditated."

Suppression orders prevented the media from reporting details of that case until the pair's recent conviction and sentencing. But Leighton, a teenager at the time she was abused by the pair, waived her own right to name suppression to pursue justice.

Bennett was previously the subject of plenty of news stories, when he was tried for fraud after skipping to Australia in a stolen yacht.

Leighton spoke to TVNZ's Sunday about her frustration that the couple were known to be in Australia, but had not faced justice here for the offences against her.

She gave TVNZ an interview on the understanding her account of the offending would remain confidential - but footage ended up being played in the Auckland District Court as part of Bennett's defence.

Lawyers for both defendants highlighted differences between Leighton's accounts in a 2008 police interview video and the TVNZ footage from 2015.

Last week the New Zealand Herald said TVNZ had gone to court to oppose the release but eventually complied with a court order under the Criminal Disclosure Act.

"TVNZ (was) compelled by the courts to provide specific material for the purposes of a fair trial. There were no further realistic legal avenues left for us to pursue, regardless of how individuals felt at the time," TVNZ told the Herald.But former TVNZ producer Chris Cooke told the Herald that TVNZ breached a promise to Leighton to keep the interview confidential.

Cooke said he had urged TVNZ to challenge the decision and honour a commitment it had made to Erin Leighton that it would appeal to a higher court to prevent the release of the interview footage. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 5 November 2023

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 23:15:22 GMT

Rugby in recovery as a media spectacle; keeping it confidential to protect sources; Musk trashing Twitter.

Mediawatch talks to a journalist calling for changes to ensure our media can properly protect their sources' confidentiality - and an expert in the US where the media enjoy stronger protection.

Also - how anger over rugby's rules and referees ruining matches has created a headache for the media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Rugby in recovery as a media spectacle

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 20:12:07 GMT

Anger about rules and referees ruining rugby matches ran for days in the media after last weekend's Rugby World Cup final. Players, pundits and even current national coaches have said the game is 'broken' and bad to watch. But billions ofdollars of media companies' money keep rugby going - so will the media fix it for fans?

Anger about rules and referees ruining rugby matches ran for days in the media after last weekend's Rugby World Cup final. Players, pundits and even current national coaches have said the game is 'broken' and bad to watch. But billions of dollars of media companies' money keep rugby going - so will the media fix it for fans?

Most fans hoping international rugby's biggest showpiece would be a spectacle didn't get what they hoped for from last weekend's Rugby World Cup final.

But some could see that coming.

Two days before the final, on the academic website The Conversation, University of Cape Town academic Clive Thompson crunched the numbers and concluded an early red card could ruin the final.

"The spectacle is lost whenever there is a mismatch in numbers," he wrote presciently.

TVNZ's rugby presenter Scotty Stevenson told Seven Sharp the day after the All Blacks lost by one point that World Rugby's rules had turned top rugby games into "a crime scene".

Plenty of others thought so too -- though few fans here were saying that when New Zealand ended up one point ahead after an even lower scoring one-try slugfest final in Auckland back in 2011.

Israel Dagg was one of the winners that day, but on Sky Sports' live coverage last Sunday he condemned the game as a "snore fest" not good enough for a final and he reckoned the refereeing had ruined it.

"This is our showpiece event being overshadowed by a couple of people . . . taking the glory and gloss away from the players that have worked their absolute butts off. There's people out there absolutely spitting tacks, he said.

And was at half-time with the result still in doubt.

Having paid millions for exclusive live rights to rugby, it was hardly what Sky TV bosses wanted subscribers to hear.

Later on his own radio station SENZ Dagg said: "You can see why people switch the game. It's boring as hell."

TVNZ's Andrew Savile told Newstalk ZB, "it wasn't a great advertisement for rugby."

ZB's own Mike Hosking was even more scathing.

"Rugby isn't cool. It can still be played well, but too often it isn't. Yes, the All Blacks lost - but not as badly as rugby did," he told ZB listeners last Monday. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - Gaps in Gaza coverage

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 10:25:21 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a comparative lack of coverage on Gaza, sympathy for Supie's leaders even as their employees miss out, and a wake for the Twitter-that-was.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

This week Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about media coming under fire reporting the war in Gaza - and the low profile of it in the news here. Also sympathy for founders of Supie after its surprisingly sudden collapse (but not so much for its workers); a 'wake' for Twitter; scepticism of alarming claims about Otago University initiations - and an embarrassing double-up by a major paper.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Whanganui - What we miss when we miss out on local news

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 20:10:07 GMT

Major news media outfits have cut back in the regions in recent years. That doesn't just leave locals worse off - it also means all New Zealanders miss out on important ideas, events and perspectives. But even though the media's margins are tight, intrepid publishers and people are still doing the business there. Mediawatch checks in on Whanganui to find out how their media are doing - and how they're doing it.

At the front desk of the River City Press in Whanganui, John and Sandra Singleton are lining up to buy ads.

She's a psychic numerologist. He's there to drum up interest in his local jazz orchestra.

"With us, you can either come listen to music or have your bumps read, so it's either/or," says John.

"I don't do bumps!" retorts Sandra. "Be careful what you say, my boy."

The Singletons have their quirks. For one thing, Singleton may not be their real name.

They tell Mediawatch they chose it, perhaps to save people the hassle of memorising a double-barrelled surname. Despite having the same last name, the couple are only just about to get married after 59 years together.

"We've just been trying one another," says John.

If they've taken their time committing to their relationship, they've had no trouble making a financial commitment to the Press.

They're both regular advertisers in the free weekly paper - and far from the only ones.

When Mediawatch comes to visit, the paper's only front page story is wedged between ads for electricians, plumbers, mechanics, vocational training and half-price mattresses.

In an office next to a rusting old bicycle, its sole reporter, the 71-year-old former teacher Doug Davidson, is working on a story about a pair of local musicians.

Debbie Jarrett.

His job is the result of a late career change. He'd been teaching for about 20 years when he saw a reporter role at the Press advertised and applied on a whim.

"They considered that an older person might be a better fit for a community newspaper," he says.

"I think it suits the older clientele, but also after 20 or 30 years in a town you make a lot of contacts, and they can be very important."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 29 October 2023

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Covering news from all over the country is a struggle for media companies dealing with rising costs and falling revenues. But some local outlets are surviving - and even thriving. Mediawatch's Hayden Donnel finds out who's doing the business in Whanganui - and how they're doing it.

In a time when major media organisations are cutting back in the regions, reporters are thin on the ground and there's not so much money to be made in local media.

Mediawatch's Hayden Donnell visits Whanganui to find local media there surviving - and some even thriving.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - screwing the scrum

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:30:39 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the media's mounting problems covering the crisis in Gaza and Israel; TVNZ under pressure over compromised confidentiality; the PM talking policy on The Rock - and rugby pundits reacting badly to the way the World Cup's panned out.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the media's mounting problems covering the crisis in Gaza and Israel; TVNZ under pressure over compromised confidentiality; the PM-elect talking policy on The Rock - and rugby pundits reacting badly to the way the World Cup's panned out.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Take me to your leader

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 20:08:48 GMT

Our new political leaders got off on the wrong foot this week with the political press pack by keeping them at arm's length over their negotiations to from the new government. Was this a genuine media freedom issue with the interests of the public at stake? Or just a bit of collective posturing to pressure the politicians?

Our new political leaders got off on the wrong foot this week, with the political press pack by keeping them at arm's length over their negotiations to from the new government. Was this a genuine media freedom issue with the interests of the public at stake? Or just a bit of collective posturing to pressure the politicians?

"This is what we've been reduced to," said RNZ's deputy political editor Chris Bramwell in 2017, alongside a photo of Press Gallery colleagues pressed up against a Beehive garage door trying to get a peek at who was coming or going.

Back then, political reporters doorstepped politicians to ask who would be dealing with whom to form a government after the election - and tracked their movements for hints about what might be going on behind closed doors.

"Soon the monarch butterfly will emerge," New Zealand First MP Shane Jones told a media scrum that formed around him on one of those days. RNZ's political reporter (now deputy editor) Craig McCulloch turned the saga into a children's story.

At the time, former political editor turned lawyer Linda Clark said the press pack's pursuit of the politicians was driven by FOMO - fear of missing out - rather than the need to know. Others said it felt like 1996 all over again - and the 43 days spent 'waiting for Winston' after the first MMP election.

"If there was radio silence, people would be asking what was going on. This is actually MMP and how it works in action," Bramwell told Mediawatch in 2017, defending the media's stakeout tactics.

"In 1996, they probably had one deadline a day. This time there was more information and more transparency about when things were going to happen," she said.

Now in 2023 - history is repeating.

Last Thursday, the political press pack was again badgering the New Zealand First leader at Wellington's airport with questions that he didn't even acknowledge, let alone answer. TVNZ put a video of it up on YouTube marking each of the 27 futile requests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS1svPVRUa8

New Zealand First went into a select committee room at Parliament but more media questions were shut down by the party's president and TV cameras were banned from an area where they're usually allowed. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 22 October 2023

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 20:08:12 GMT

Take me to your leader - political press pack gets off on wrong foot with our new political leaders; media in the middle of Gaza claims and counterclaims; World Cup fever - and Irish anguish.

Mediawatch looks at how media organisations are copping criticism for the way they are reporting the Gaza-Israel conflict - and asks a BBC news boss how he's handling it.

Also: our political reporters got off to a bad start with our new political leaders this week - and how a Rugby World Cup final on the horizon fired up our sports reporters.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Media in the middle of Gaza claims and counterclaims

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 20:08:10 GMT

Major media organisations all over the world are copping criticism for the way they're reporting what's happening in Gaza and Israel. Mediawatch asks BBC news boss Jonathan Munro how they're handling it - even when it's coming from the UK's own government.

"Palestinian health officials in Gaza say hundreds of people have been killed in an explosion at a hospital in Gaza. They're blaming an Israeli strike on the hospital. But the Israel Defense Forces said an initial investigation shows the explosion was caused by a failed Hamas rocket launch."

That was how RNZ's news at 8am last Tuesday reported the single deadliest incident of this conflict so far - and likely to be the deadliest one in all of the five times Israel and Hamas have fought over Gaza so far.

The Israeli Defense Force also singled out Islamic Jihad for the atrocity - but the absence of hard evidence put the media reporting it in a difficult position.

Reporting those claims and counterclaims creates confusion among the audience. It's also stoked the anger of those objecting to reporters' choice of words.

CNN's Clarissa Ward, for example, was criticised heavily on social media for mentioning the Israeli Defense Force claims - and then expressing doubt about them at the same time.

A video showing a pro-Palestinian protester calling Clarissa Ward "a puppet" has gone viral on social media. So did another falsely accusing her of faking a rocket strike.

Her CNN colleague Anderson Cooper was also criticised online for referring to a huge civilian loss of life during the live report from Tel Aviv in Israel and repeating himself, but then without the word "civilian."

Among those who, alongside expert investigators, tried to sift the available evidence and cut through the information war was Alex Thompson, correspondent for UK broadcaster Channel Four.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyppmRvcwzY

"Israel and Hamas can tweet what they like. The truth of what happened here requires independent expert investigation -- not happening," was Alex Thompson's bleak conclusion.

"Any doubt is due to a fierce information war that in truth matters little to the victims of the Gaza hospital tragedy," another British correspondent - ITV Jonathan Irvine - said on Newshub at 6 last Tuesday.

At times, broadcasters have used the wrong words and given audiences the wrong idea. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - PM's parlour game claim peeves press pack

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 10:15:29 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about how media handled the claims and counter-claims that followed the deadliest incident yet in the Gaza conflict. Also - friction between the press pack and PM preparing to form the next government - and rugby pundits ripping their Irish peers after last weekend's World Cup quarter final . . . with the benefit of hindsight.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about how media handled the claims and counter-claims that followed the deadliest incident yet in the Gaza conflict. Also - friction between the press pack and PM preparing to form the next government - and rugby pundits ripping their Irish peers after last weekend's World Cup quarter final . . . with the benefit of hindsight.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch special - campaign culminates in a 'bluenami'

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 19:14:51 GMT

Mediawatch looks back on how the media covered a long, long campaign - and how election night played out across the media after the polls finally closed on Saturday. Hayden Donnell in Auckland - and special guest Robbie Nicol (host of RNZ's politics series The Citizens Handbook) joined Colin Peacock for live RNZ National election coverage special on Sunday morning.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - major scrutiny for minor parties

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:39:04 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about minor parties under the microscope and more heated head-to-head election debates. Also: and the horror in Israel/Gaza gives media a dilemma - and Rachel Smalley vs Pharmac.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about minor parties under the microscope and more heated head-to-head election debates. Also: the horror in Israel/Gaza gives media a dilemma - and Rachel Smalley vs Pharmac.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Media shift blame for misleading tax policy headlines

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 20:11:07 GMT

This week political reporters seized on fresh figures showing the National Party overstated the benefits of its tax cut policy - and accused its leaders of misleading the public. Yet some of them had repeated the party's spin in their own reports when it was unveiled a month ago - and even praised the 'political marketing.

"The National Party has admitted that its much-feted tax cut of $250 a fortnight will only go to 3000 families. Despite knowing that number all along the party is denying it's mislead the public," Newshub at 6 told viewers on Thursday.

The revelation followed research from the Labour Party-aligned Council of Trade Unions, and Newshub political reporters spent a full frustrating day trying to pin down National for a response.

But when National's policy was first announced back in early September to ease what the party dubbed "the squeezed middle" it included claims an "average income family" with children would benefit.

But Newshub didn't mention its own reporters were among those who feted the policy in the first place.

And they weren't the only ones to give National's maximum fortnightly benefit headline billing when the policy was unveiled.

Families in line for $250 a fortnight under National tax cut, said The Press.

National promises $250 more a fortnight for average households, said Interest.co.nz.

Election 2023: National's tax plan offers average household with kids $250 and Kiwi worker $50 a fortnight, said The New Zealand Herald.

Under that Herald headline the paper's deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan pointed out "all the savings are expressed as fortnightly figures rather than weekly figures, making them look larger."

On Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell pointed out many reports also adopted the National Party's preferred unit of measurement for people as well - 'households' rather than individuals.

Also, most reports neglected to mention the $250-a-fortnight saving for a qualifying family also included $150 from the already announced Family Boost tax credit scheme. That could also replace the 20 hours of free childcare for two year-olds announced in the Budget this year. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Murdoch's real life succession becomes reality

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 20:10:07 GMT

After seven decades up to his neck in media - and having a profound and world wide influence on them - now nonagenarian mega mogul Rupert Murdoch's starting up the succession plan for his empire. Or is he? We ask an Australian expert who wrote all about this ten years ago when one of Murdoch's biggest companies was mired in an epic scandal, he'd just been divorced and it looked like the succession was on. So is it now?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

What are the political parties' plans for media?

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 20:10:06 GMT

The media have been a political football this year - and now some politicians are complaining the media are against them in this election. But hundreds of millions of dollars of public money is spent on media each year - so what do the political parties plan for the media if they're in power?

The media have been a political football this year - and now some politicians are complaining the media are against them in this election.

But hundreds of millions of dollars of public money is spent on media each year - so what do the political parties plan for the media if they are in power?

In a combative and cranky interview last weekend on the TVNZ Q+A show, NZ First leader Winston Peters claimed presenter Jack Tame was biased - and he said the bosses at the state-owned broadcaster wanted it that way.

He also claimed this was part of a campaign to keep NZ First out of government and that Tame "and his masters" had made a good case for NZ First having the broadcasting portfolio after the election.

"Just an idea," he said teasingly when asked if it was a kind of threat.

Earlier in the election campaign Peters had singled out Newshub and Stuff and said that the absence of an honest fourth estate - coupled with co-governance - had left "our democracy hanging by a thread".

The NZ First website carries a strident call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into media bias and manipulation in New Zealand - and a petition with about 5000 signatures.

The pattern in past election campaigns is broadcasting and media plans are often left to the last minute - or overlooked entirely as our political parties push policies on big-ticket issues like tax, health and education.

But while media policy is not seen as a real vote-winner grabber by most parties, our media are important and influential - and also partly state-owned. Over the past decade, spending on media by successive governments has increased to more than a quarter of a billion dollars a year - and rising.

What do the parties have planned this time around?

Labour's plan for the future was built on the merger of TVNZ and RNZ in a new public media entity funded with an extra $107 million a year until 2026. But just weeks before the new entity was supposed to come into being the government scrapped that plan.

There is nothing specific in the party's policy for this election, but Labour's post-merger Plan B is a $25m a year boost to RNZ, $10m for the government broadcasting funding agency NZ on Air and substantial funding increases announced in Budget 2022 and 2023 for Māori broadcasting. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 8 October 2023

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 20:08:07 GMT

Media shift blame for misleading tax policy headlines; political parties' policies for the media; Rupert Murdoch steps down and starts up the succession - or does he?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - a sacred shield soiled

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:25:42 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about an outcry over the soiling of the sacred Ranfurly Shield, a rancorous interview with Winston Peters, and media complaining about Christopher Luxon not turning up.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Giving young people an election voice

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 20:17:46 GMT

The TVNZ Young Voters' debate run by Re:News was a rowdy interjection into what had been a relatively subdued election campaign. Its moderator has some ideas on how media organisations can better cater to young people.

Undecided voters might decide the outcome of the election and the media and political strategists are now zeroing in on them. There's also support among under-enrolled young people up for grabs, but who's trying to engage them at election time?

The TVNZ Young Voters' debate was a rowdy interjection into what had been a relatively subdued election campaign.

It was punctuated by fiery exchanges, including one in which Green MP Chloe Swarbrick took NZ First's Lee Donoghue to task over his party's proposed ban on students using the bathroom associated with their preferred gender.

"The rhetoric and the fear-mongering behind the likes of what you and your party are putting forward are harming people in our communities because it is not evidence-based and ultimately I think there is a responsibility for political leaders to turn down the temperature on this," she said.

"We need to be able to agree to disagree," interjected Act's Brooke van Velden.

"I'm not going to deny people's existence," retorted Swarbrick.

These confrontations were also interspersed with illuminating policy debates on issues from the cost of living crisis to rainbow rights.

In one section about climate change, Donoghue confessed to having been struck by lightning at an Iron Maiden concert. He has that experience in common with National MP Maureen Pugh and Labour health minister Ayesha Verrall, both of whom say they've been struck by lightning.

The eye-opening discussions and sharply opposing points of view stood in stark contrast to the first TVNZ leaders debate between Chris Hipkins and Chris Luxon last week, where the two leaders delivered notably similar answers to quickfire questions on issues including a wealth tax (they don't want one), drug decriminalisation (they don't want it), and how old they were when they bought their first home (both were 24).

That debate ran in primetime on TVNZ 1 and was chaired by the channel's political editor Jessica Mutch-McKay. The Young Voters' Debate was run by TVNZ's youth-targeted offshoot Re:News. It ran on TVNZ's streaming service TVNZ+ and was livestreamed on social media including TikTok and You Tube.

Re:'s content editor Anna Harcourt was the moderator, armed with a ruby-red buzzer which she used bring the politicians into line when they talked too long…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 1 October 2023

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 20:08:07 GMT

The undecided could decide the election; giving youth a voice in the election; ZB's 'straight talking' subscribers' service.

Mediawatch looks at how the media are zeroing in on the undecided who could decide the election outcome - and what the media are doing to engage younger people during the campaign.

Also - a surprising new service from talk radio offering news and opinion for paying customers.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A new paid-platform for news and opinion

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 20:07:07 GMT

A new subscriber service offering "straight talking" reporting and opinion was launched this week by talk radio network Newstalk ZB. Owner NZME has several other services putting content behind a paywall, but this one has a provocative blogger in charge of a line-up of pro-business and right-leaning commentators - some of whom are harsh critics of the news media.

Talk radio network Newstalk ZB has launched a new service offering subscribers "straight talking" reporting and opinion was launched. Owner NZME has several other services putting content behind a paywall, but this one has a provocative blogger in charge of a line-up of commentators - some of whom have been harsh critics of the news media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - The state of debates

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 08:20:57 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman about the ever-growing volume of election campaign coverage - and the latest TV (and off-TV) debates putting party leaders under the spotlight.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman about the ever-growing volume of election campaign coverage - and the latest TV (and off-TV) debates putting party leaders under the spotlight.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Debate stalemates fuel election fatigue

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 20:12:06 GMT

The election campaign went up a gear in the media this week as party leaders lined up on live TV for the first time. But while the public tuned in in numbers, the pundits reckoned the debates failed to fire up the campaign. The same could be said of the other exposure opportunities the media made for the leaders.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Current and future state of Stuff

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 20:12:01 GMT

Three years ago Sinead Boucher took over the country's biggest publisher of news from Aussie owners who gave it away "like a set of steak knives." In the absence of big backers and the government backing away from funding journalism, does its future now depend on getting money from Google and Facebook? And does she still have the Stuff staff on board for the future?

Three years ago Sinead Boucher took over the country's biggest publisher of news from Aussie owners who gave it away "like a set of steak knives".

In the absence of big backers and the government backing away from funding journalism, does its future now depend on getting money from Google and Facebook? And does she still have the Stuff staff on board for the future?

"We have to make sure that (AI) generates value for journalism. Because if we don't get it right, in this current wave of disruption, I think that wave is going to wash right over us," Stuff owner Sinead Boucher told an Asia Pacific summit of the International News Media Association (INMA) in July.

AI services like Google's Bard and Microsoft Bing Chat and Open AI's ChatGPT respond to simple prompts from users and then summarise information scraped from the internet - including news produced at great cost by publishers.

Boucher warned other media executives present not to repeat the "mistakes of the past" by allowing offshore tech companies free access to their content again.

The likes of Google and Facebook made much more money out of their content online in the past 20 years than the news media outfits which produced in the first place.

But generative AI is also a tool news media are using for journalism. Some are even calling it "an editorial co-pilot".

When Sky TV appointed a new CFO this week, subscriber service BusinessDesk reported Ciara McGuigan had previous experience in media, telecoms and retail. Sky's CEO Sophie Moloney said she was excited about McGuigan joining the team.

The author of that story was ChatGPT. BusinessDesk uses it to turn simple statements from the stock exchange into online stories.

"They can assist in research or in the creation graphics. They can also allow us to replace a lot of repeatable internal processes," Boucher told Mediawatch.

"We've instituted a really clear set of guidelines for it to be used. We're very much at the experimentation stage . . . but there always has to be human in the loop," she said.

Stuff recently cut the numbers of staff producing and printing its newspapers. Could AI be deployed for those tasks? …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 24 September 2023

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 20:08:06 GMT

Debate statemates add to election frustration; the current and future state of Stuff; some good - but overdue - news for Dunedin.

Mediawatch looks at the latest from the election campaign in the media - as party leaders lined up on live TV for the first time.

Also: what the future holds for New Zealand's biggest news publisher - and some overdue good news for Dunedin.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch: A game of two Chrises

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 11:21:19 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about the first live TV leaders' debate of the election campaign and the sports analogy-filled post-match analysis.

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about the first live TV leaders' debate of the election campaign and the sports analogy-filled post-match analysis. Also - party leaders picking and choosing interview opportunities - and reporters doggedly pursuing the National Party's data-deficient tax plans.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Un-spun numbers don't derail duelling versions of the economy

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 21:12:06 GMT

The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update lifted the lid on the nation's finances this week - and Treasury's projections for the foreseeable future. This dropped some 'un-spun' numbers into the election debate - but our media still seized on support-seeking politicians airing irreconcilable opinions about the state of our economy.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Stuff keeps Open AI at arm's length

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 21:10:06 GMT

New Zealand's biggest publisher of news this week joined big global names in blocking Open AI from using its content to power generative artificial intelligence tool Chat GPT. Stuff says it is being harvested without permission for AI products already turning out low-quality results. Mediawatch asks Stuff's if keeping Ai at arm's length is a good move.

"It's not that we're stealing your content. We want to just be a neutral librarian helping you find the right book - but not not having written in the book," Google's chief technology advocate Michael Jones told Mediawatch in 2012.

Back then, Google itself was only eight years old, but already news publishers were worried about how many people were finding their news through it.

Critics complained its online search had created a 'walled garden' around the online content it had indexed so well.

"I cannot imagine us saying; 'Get the news from Google - and we'll tell you what the news was'. It feels very awkward," said Jones at Project evolution, a conference at AUT all about the growing impact of online digital technology and social media.

Jones died two years ago, shortly before the launch of the first generative AI applications. And among those which are creating a version of the news for users is Google's own AI service Bard.

Last month, the New York Times reported Google was testing an AI tool called Genesis, which uses AI technology to write news articles. Google reportedly pitched this to US news outlets as an aid for journalists, rather than a replacement for them.

Earlier this month at another Auckland University of Technology event - the AI + Communications Symposium - former journalist and PR strategist Catherine Arrow warned Google's walled garden could become something much more restricted.

"Search engines created a walled garden where we can pick and choose what they've decided are the best blooms. As we get into search generative experience (SGE), we find ourselves only shown the flowers that they decide that we can look at. There's a real danger there," she said.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 17 September 2023

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Un-spun numbers don't derail duelling versions of the economy; Stuff keeps AI at arm's length; medical school row - and a made-up university.

Mediawatch this week talks to the boss of our biggest publisher of news - Stuff - confronting the disruption of artificial intelligence technology.

Also: election campaign arguments about the state of our finances - and education.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - dogs on a plane & sporting flops

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 11:36:33 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the coverage of two huge disasters in North Africa; a little local political difficulty in Dunedin - and political party leaders under heavy scrutiny on TV. Also: a much-hyped weekend of sport which didn't go well for our national teams - and whether pets on planes, trains and buses is really a good idea.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the coverage of two huge disasters in North Africa; a little local political difficulty in Dunedin - and political party leaders under heavy scrutiny on TV. Also: a much-hyped weekend of sport which didn't go well for our national teams - and whether pets on planes, trains and buses is really a good idea.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

AI coming ready or not for our news and music

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 21:55:53 GMT

Business is booming in artificial intelligence technology and new applications appear in the news almost daily. At an AUT symposium this week, experts said it's already being deployed in creative industries to create instant ad campaigns, virtual influencers, robo-journalism and machine-made music. But is AI a creative collaborator - or just a 'handy butler'?

"Artificial intelligence has moved forward at such dizzying speed over the last year it's rarely out of the news. And it's mostly bad news," says Nikki Mandow in a new Newsroom podcast series (with the help of a commercial sponsor): AI - Harnessing The Speed Of Change

One industry working out how to harness AI is the media - and the news media is wrestling with how it is already being harnessed by AI.

Generative AI products - such as Chat GPT, Google Bard and Microsoft's BingChat can generate text, images and audio automatically in response to simple requests - and the most powerful of the applications are already crawling all over the news media for its input.

Google has done this for years to inform its online searches. But while Google's algorithm gives searchers dozens of choices from the online information it has indexed, AI-powered search generative experience (SGE) responds to requests with a single summary that's meant to be reliable and factual.

Earlier this year Gordon Crovitz, the founder of the US-based fake-news detection service Newsguard, told Mediawatch the chatbots are not that good at it yet.

"AI models will create highly persuasive well written radio scripts or newspaper articles that are written beautifully with perfect grammar - and completely false. And the machines don't know the difference unless they've been trained. They end up repeating misinformation, The AI can get even worse as the developers think they're making it better," he warned.

Last week The UK-based Guardian confirmed that it has prevented the Chat GPT-maker OpenAI from harvesting its content.

CNN, Reuters, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, the New York Times are also reportedly blocking AI aps online

But the same AI tools extracting useful stuff from news media can also be handy for them in gathering and publishing the news and producing it digitally. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Advocacy angst as campaign begins - officially

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 21:12:30 GMT

The Herald copped criticism for publishing a front-page attack ad targeting the National Party leader this week - but it was far from the first time ads like it have appeared in print. Meanwhile questions were asked about other coverage that looked like it might be taking sides as the official campaign period begins.

"You've got to survive in the media. You got to take the ads," Newstalk ZB morning host Kerre Woodham told listeners last Monday, explaining the the controversial Council of Trade Union ad labelling the National Party leader "out of touch and too risky".

It was clearly an election advocacy ad - and it was identified as such in the Herald. But as soon as the ad came through the NZME ad department, the senior editors there must have known devoting the front page to it would become a news story.

The afternoon host at the Herald's NZME stablemate NewstalkZB, Andrew Dickens, certainly thought so.

"I think this is news. This is why I'm talking about it on the radio. I'm not involved with this decision. . . but I think they need to write about it and say how they actually determine who gets the 'wraparound'," he told his listeners.

The Herald top brass wasn't keen on that, but election ads on the front page aren't entirely unprecedented.

A former Herald editor, Tim Murphy, pointed out the Weekend Herald has allowed the National Party to add detachable blue stickers late in previous campaigns.

And once papers opened the door to wraparound front-and-back page ads for retailers (who paid a pretty penny for them during the Covid-19 crisis), it was only a matter of time before someone selling political messages rather than fridges took up the space as well.

The CTU ad was within the rules for political promotion by third parties. As long as they registered, they can spend the thick end of $400,000 on ads doing down political opponents if they want to.

Gordon Campbell on scoop.co.nz said that apart from the front-page spot, there was nothing really novel about an ad criticising a party leader who was actively campaigning as the embodiment of his party's policies.

And while the CTU's campaign also appeared on billboards and social media platforms the same day, it was its appearance on the front page of a paper obliged to cover the campaign fairly which raised eyebrows…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 10 September 2023

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Angst over advocacy adverts and content as official election period begins; AI - coming ready or not for news and music.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch: The return of the octopus

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 11:28:45 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about National's attempt to weather a storm of journalistic scrutiny of its tax plan, Patrick Gower's unusual aquatic analogy for Winston Peters, and a controversial front page ad in the New Zealand Herald.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Horse race journalism as National takes aim at squeezed middle

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:13:31 GMT

As National announced its long-awaited tax plan, some journalists took a hard look at its numbers, while others focused more on political strategy and impact.

As National announced its long-awaited tax plan, some journalists took a hard look at its numbers, while others focused more on political strategy and perception.

National leader Christopher Luxon started the day of his party's long-awaited tax policy announcement assuring Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking his numbers were "rock solid".

After several elections batting off accusations of fiscal holes and other budgetary misadventures, National had commissioned the consultancy Castalia Advisors to check its plan and it found them to be, in the words of the party's deputy leader Nicola Willis, "possible and plausible".

Luxon wasn't giving Hosking all the details of his possible and plausible schemes, but he was saying who they would benefit, setting a record for use of the phrase "squeezed middle" in a five-minute timeframe.

The party's effort to relieve the squeeze was unveiled a few hours later and that prompted a tide of headlines trumpeting the tax plan offering the average household $250 a fortnight.

That was something of a coup for National's PR team.

Not only did they get news organisations to highlight the biggest figure from their press release; they got them to use their preferred unit of measurement for people (households rather than individuals) and time (fortnightly rather than weekly).

As Thomas Coughlan noted in the New Zealand Herald, that made the figures look larger - and presumably made the party's political sales job a little easier.

$250 a fortnight - or $125 a week as it's sometimes known - would still be a pretty good tension remover for the tightly compressed middle.

But as it turns out, National may be unclenching with one hand and squeezing with the other.

Its $250-a-fortnight saving for an average family with kids includes $150 from its Family Boost tax credit.

But that credit would also replace the 20 hours of free childcare for two-year-olds that Labour offered in this year's Budget. That could be worth around $133 a week for families - or $266 a fortnight.

That - according to a robust, consultant cross-checked Mediawatch statistical analysis - is more than $150. Or even $250 (though it is obviously more targeted and comes with less flexibility than a cash handout).

Other fishhooks were highlighted in the media as the day wore on.

TVNZ Breakfast producer Tom Day flicked through National's tax plan to find a single line noting it would scrap Labour's Community Connect scheme.

https://twitter.com/tomdaynz/status/1696687537929281716…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 3 September 2023

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Mongrel and maths collide as campaigns launch - and media ponder National's tax plan; scrutiny of candidates' online footprints prompts pushback and claims of 'agendas'.

Mediawatch looks at how the media handled the biggest opposition policy announcement so far in the election campaign - the National Party's proposals on tax.

Also: increased scrutiny of some of the candidates for a seat in Parliament - which also sparked a backlash against the media.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Scrutiny of candidates prompts pushback and claims of 'agendas'

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:07:07 GMT

Scrutiny of political parties' policies intensified this week - and so did the scrutiny of some candidates for seats in Parliament. When TVNZ reported some election candidates' controversial past statements this week, critics hit back with claims its own news was compromised.

TVNZ recently revealed one ACT candidate had resigned after social media posts comparing Covid restrictions to Nazi concentration camps came to light.

Another another ACT candidate apologised for comments made during the occupation of Parliament calling the former prime minister 'Jabcinda' and suggesting drowning victims had died from the Covid vaccine.

"I was just asking questions. It wasn't actually my genuine belief," he told 1News.

Last Tuesday 1 News reported a senior ACT MP already in Parliament also had some 'out there' views that were out there on social media before he entered Parliament

MP Mark Cameron had said "climate change is a hoax or that people who think the planet is warming are nut jobs".

The Spinoff's Toby Manhire found plenty more where that came from in MP Mark Cameron's Twitter account.

But when Benedict Collins pressed David Seymour about that last Monday, the ACT leader accused him of "B-grade journalism".

In reply, Collins pointed out Cameron could be a Cabinet minister after the upcoming election.

But Seymour did have one media voice in his corner for his criticism of TVNZ's news judgment.

"Trying to drag that up... is really just B-grade journalism," Mike Hosking told his Newstalk ZB listeners last Tuesday morning.

But it wasn't TVNZ's inquiries into the ACT MP which wound him up as much as a story in the media last week - the publicly funded Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority buying airtime on TVNZ news shows last year.

"Their defence was that in the corner of the screen allegedly was some sort of recognition that the EECA was involved. Now that - in my 42 years in this industry - does not even come close to covering your badly exposed arse," he said.

Hosking reckoned TVNZ's news story about Act MP Cameron was connected. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - Spain's football boss (& mum) v the world

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 11:24:04 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the strange saga sparked by the sexist behaviour of Spain's football chief at the Women's World Cup final. Also - broadcasters' election plans; the political heckler problem - and alarm over the All Blacks record-breaking beating and claims Wellington's golden mile is on the slide.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Brought to you by . . . 'partners'

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 21:14:37 GMT

It's meant to be clear what's advertising and what isn't, but 'sponsored content' and 'native advertising' blurred that line a long time ago. Now some outlets form 'partnerships' with clients to get messages across in exchange for big bucks - and even get their own journalists to help out.

"What's New Zealand's favorite dinner routine? We've got our go-to food guru Nadia Lim to shed some light on it," Jeremy Wells told viewers in TVNZ's Seven Sharp earlier this month.

A round up of dinner-time favourites with a media-friendly food guru was fairly standard lifestyle-type fare for this show. Nadia Lim has been on it plenty of times over the years and the meal kit company she co-founded usually gets a mention.

But this time Hilary Barry told viewers: "We've partnered with My Food Bag to reveal some of their insights" and sharp-eyed Seven Sharp viewers would have seen a 'brought to you by My Food Bag' message on the screen.

After Lim cooked some chicken, rice and salad on Seven Sharp, she drove home the commercial message in a chit-chat with the co-hosts.

"Lovely to see you. What is it about these meals that makes them so popular?" Jeremy Wells asked Lim.

"I think it's the fact that now we've literally got something to suit everyone," she added, describing the expanded now range now available.

Sponsored content, advertorials, paid promotions and partnerships

There's nothing new about TV shows brought to you by sponsors.

Five years ago, TVNZ ran an entire series called Mind Over Money commissioned by Kiwibank.

Shortly after, TVNZ aired an entire prime time series about Qantas which was billed as fly-on-the-wall documentary but was actually made for and paid for by Qantas in Australia.

There's also nothing new about news and current affairs shows being a vehicle for commercial sponsors.

For years Seven Sharp's forerunner Close Up was 'Brought to you by Toyota' while the rival show on TV3, Campbell Live, was 'Driven by Mazda'.

Ten years ago, the Herald on Sunday's editor Bryce Johns was made the Herald's 'head of content partnerships' and a former Sunday Star Times editor Lauren Quaintance founded an agency in Australia creating native advertising. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 27 August 2023

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Brought to you by 'partners' - critics question sponsorship deals pushing clients' content into news media; IMANZ - a new umbrella body for independent local media marketing agencies; low key reveal of legislation to push big tech platforms to pay for local news.

Mediawatch looks at consternation caused by content that blurs the lines between ads and news.

Also - the prospects for legislation to force big tech companies to pay for local news - and can a new body representing local ad agencies really help boost local media companies?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Low-key reveal of law to make big tech pay for news

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 21:07:07 GMT

Long-awaited legislation to force big tech platforms to pay New Zealand media for the news they disseminate online is now before Parliament. It could give our media with much-needed money in years to come if it becomes law and also fill a funding gap for the government at the same time. But neither the media or the government have made much of it.

Long-awaited legislation to force big tech platforms to pay New Zealand media for the news they disseminate online is now before Parliament.

It could give our media much-needed money in years to come if it becomes law and also fill a funding gap for the government at the same time. But neither the media or the government have made much of it.

"Google and Meta. Are you putting the hard word on them to secure deals to pay for content? Are you going to legislate?" Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd asked the broadcasting and media Minister Willie Jackson when he appeared on the show a year ago.

He said if the big tech platforms did not do deals with New Zealand's news media companies to pay them for the news that they carry on their search services and social platforms online he was prepared to draft a law to make it happen by arbitration

"They've legislated over in Australia and Canada . . . and I want to see some fairness. I want to see all these Kiwi news organisations looked after. These big players have the funding and the resourcing to be able to do that," he said.

There was some movement after that from Google, which has now done deals with almost 50 local large and small news media outlets, though the sums involved are confidential commercial secrets.

One year later, Jackson was back on Newshub Nation earlier this month and that legislation to force the issue was still not out.

But he said it was imminent.

"It has taken too long, but the main point is it's in now. Any right thinking person or right thinking party would support this," Jackson said.

Income from these deals could be a significant source of revenue for cash-strapped media. But the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill wasn't launched with a ministerial media conference or even a media news release.

And there wasn't an awful lot of interest in it either from the media.

Reflecting on that and his weekly column Knightly News, former New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis said that might be because the bill will just die if the current government's not re-elected in two months' time.

National Party broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee told Stuff this week governments should not be involved in the business of the Fourth Estate. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - polling death spiral & sandwich slump

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 11:16:29 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a dire poll for Labour raising the spectre of a media-driven death spiral; a reorganisation at NZME; a plea for help from Discovery; a political apology from TVNZ - and does the demise of one cafe chain signal doom for the capital's CBD?

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Our World Cup runneth over - and out. What next?

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 21:10:07 GMT

The Women's World Cup 2023 attracted record crowds in the stands and on TV - both here and in Australia. It also delivered drama and off-pitch stories that livened up standard sports coverage. But will all that change the way the media cover sport? Mediawatch asks two journalists with an eye on the media on both sides of the Tasman.

The Football Ferns peaked in the World Cup in game one on day one - scoring their one and only goal of the tournament to defeat Norway.

Even though it was all downhill after that - and then out - after just three group games, Kiwis bought into the Cup in a big way.

Parts of the media not normally moved to mention women's football much suddenly couldn't stop - and it wasn't all about the winners.

"All respect to the losers. Without you the tournament is nothing," said longtime Newstalk ZB sportscaster D'Arcy Waldegrave on his All Sport Breakfast show.

"As of midnight on Sunday, only one team will experience the unadulterated joy of ascending their sporting Sagamartha - or Everest as the colonising empire called her," he said, unleashing some Kipling-esque emotions.

But the losers were literally a big part of the World Cup story. All former winners were out by the quarter-final stage, including the incumbent champs from the United States whose official advert didn't date well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfTKdHXWdho

While the biggest teams getting knocked out early was a novelty, the World Cup also delivered unique off-pitch stories for the media.

Morocco featured the first ever hijab-clad player in a World Cup. The so-called Reggae Girls from Jamaica, who knocked out Brazil, also had the most mothers in the squad. Unlike some other teams, they had to leave families and children behind because of the expense.

What went right - and wrong?

No major event goes off without a hitch. The deadly Queen Street shootings on the morning of opening day shut down the fanzone in Auckland.

Less seriously, the Dutch weren't happy with a rock-hard cricket wicket in their Tauranga training pitch - and at least some of the Spanish squad found Palmerston North a bit too dull. And this week, Football Ferns captain Ali Riley revealed they were nearly late for that opener against Norway because their bus was stuck in Auckland traffic. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Migrant exploitation finally in the media spotlight

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 21:08:07 GMT

A spike in shocking cases of exploitation has put the plight of migrant workers in the media spotlight. But these latest stories are part of a longstanding issue that's sometimes flown under the radar.

On Monday, Nick Truebridge sat in the Newshub at 6 studio after it aired his story about 40 migrant workers holed up in a Papakura house without food.

"I've got to say as a Kiwi it was pretty embarrassing standing there last night," he told presenters Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts. "I don't think any of us should accept this as normal."

Truebridge followed that with another story the following night about four more substandard properties crowded with migrant workers.

He took the Newshub camera on a tour of one of the houses, revealing crammed bedrooms and broken pipes leaking sewage under the house.

That seemed less than ideal, and Truebridge explained the migrants had been subjected to these conditions after trying to find a better life under the Accredited Employer Work Visa Scheme.

He's not the only one who's been covering the plight of workers suckered in by offshore immigration agents illegally selling non-existent jobs under that scheme, which Immigration NZ acknowledges is a "higher trust model" than the six visa options it replaced a year ago.

At RNZ, Lucy Xia has been telling the stories of migrants allegedly exploited and left all-but destitute after being told they're heading into decent jobs.

One of those victims, Keisha Kung, told Xia she survived on instant noodles and foraged food after travelling to Dunedin for work that never materialised.

On Wednesday the New Zealand Herald's Lincoln Tan reported that 164 accredited employers are under investigation for migrant exploitation.

At his newsletter The Kaka, Bernard Hickey has called the proliferation of immigration scams a symptom of our "churn and burn" economy.

"There was a time New Zealand, or at least its former PM John Key, aspired to become the 'Switzerland of the South Pacific' - providing high-value financial services to the world's richest families.

"Instead, we've become a version of the Dubai of the South Pacific - allowing fraudulent agents and fly-by-night firms to bring in desperate and poor workers with suggestions of high-paid jobs and residency, only to pull the rug out from under their feet and leaving them indebted and even more desperate," he wrote…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 20 August 2023

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Our World Cup runneth over - what legacy will it leave? Lifting the lid on exploitation of migrant workers and human trafficking.

Mediawatch looks at media coverage of the FIFA Women's World Cup - and the legacy it might leave for our media. Also - persistent reporting that has lifted the lid on abuse of migrant workers and human trafficking in New Zealand.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - football and fruit & veg frenzies

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 11:15:34 GMT

Midweek Mediawatch: Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman while Australia's Matildas were playing England's Lionesses in Sydney and breaking TV viewing records. Also: election fever building in the media here; a frenzy over fruit and vegetables - and overwrought claims of collusion.

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights.

This week Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman while Australia's Matildas were playing England's Lionesses in Sydney and breaking TV viewing records. Also: election fever building in the media here; a frenzy over fruit and vegetables- and overwrought claims of collusion.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Report finds history repeating in coverage of calls for crime crackdown

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 21:10:07 GMT

Political calls to crack down on crime are echoing in our media ahead of the upcoming election - not for the first time. Two seasoned journalists showed this was part of a pattern in a report on crime coverage which recommended new approaches. It was commissioned five years ago - but never saw the light of day.

Picture this: an election is looming and one of the electorate's top concerns is seemingly out-of-control crime.

Pressure groups are hammering the message that offenders are getting off lightly.

They've got support from National, repeatedly accusing the incumbent Labour government of being soft on crime.

Expert, evidence-based analysis of criminal justice is increasingly drowned out in the media by a clamour for more punitive measures.

On the back foot and losing the public debate, Labour starts talking up legislative changes to lengthen sentences and increase penalties for crimes that hit the headlines most often.

That, of course, is a description of the 2002 general election, where the Sensible Sentencing Trust and National Party leader Bill English spearheaded a tough on crime narrative following a number of high-profile murders.

If it sounds familiar, it's because history repeats and everything old becomes new again in the justice debate from the 1990 election, where the National Party campaigned on a 'return to a decent society' to the upcoming one in October.

All that is spelled out in a 227-page report titled 'Developing good practice in criminal justice and journalism'.

It was commissioned in 2018 by the Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group (Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora), and written by the current editor of Newsroom Pro and former editor of the Sunday Star-Times, Jonathan Milne - and by David Fisher, a senior journalist at the New Zealand Herald and former chief reporter at the Herald on Sunday.

"It is important our audiences are able to form an accurate picture of the communities in which they live through the media they consume. Surveys on public perception of crime show this is not the case. The surveys also show our communities develop these inaccurate perceptions through the media they consume," the report concluded.

The report calls for reporters to include context and facts about crime - to explain the 'why', rather than just the 'what' and the 'how'…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 13 August 2023

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Reporters' report on crime coverage urges new thinking - and highlights electoral 'crime crackdown' pattern; RNZ's Richard Sutherland calling it quits after 30 years; free sports streaming options on the up.

Mediawatch looks at a report by two senior journalists on how to report on crime and punishment without amplifying the public fear of it and we hear from RNZ's outgoing head of news about his 30 years in the business- and why he's not the only senior news leader leaving the media lately.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Calling it quits after 30 years

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 21:07:06 GMT

RNZ's head of news Richard Sutherland's called it a day after more than 30 years in the news. He's worked at almost every major news broadcaster in the country and led the outfit representing their mutual interests, the Media Freedom Committee. But he's not the only news leader to leave the business lately amid warnings about the increasing intensity of it.

"Have years of low pay, low esteem, and lay-offs taken such a toll on journalists that they have become incapable of viewing the world as anything but a grim, dark place?" former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis asked recently

"Our news outlets are pervaded by negativity," he wrote, citing the cost-of-living crisis, crime, inequality and a pandemic that has "left a residue of anxiety."

The following week - under the headline 'There must be more to life than this' - he hinted at the toll on senior news leaders, some of whom had decided to quit lately.

At the Herald, long-serving chief editor Shayne Currie stepped aside to write about the media instead as an editor-at-large. Miriyana Alexander, head of premium content at Herald publisher NZME resigned last month to take a break.

TVNZ producer Sam Robertson, in charge of Breakfast for years, resigned recently - and the CEO Simon Power also resigned at the end of June.

Also in June, the former head of news at MediaWorks Dallas Gurney left the business entirely. Along with his partner, he bought the shop in the Northland beach town of Whananāki for a complete change of scene.

MediaWorks and TVNZ are also looking for new chief executives.

Why is this happening now?

While senior execs are much better paid than those who work hard for a lot less in their newsrooms, commercial media have endured static or falling revenue for more than a decade, Ellis wrote.

"Newsrooms have been depleted by recurring rounds of cost cuts to sustain the journalism that was the reason they got into it in the first place," he added.

Today's digital platforms are always pushing for ever bigger audiences, and news deadlines have effectively collapsed.

"Emails mount up during the so-called working day," said Gavin Ellis, which means working into the night. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - climate, cellphones and how not to spell cat

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 11:46:43 GMT

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about one news broadcast foregrounding climate while another hones in on cellphones and Chris Luxon misspelling 'cat', before delving into a leaked letter hinting at unrest at Stuff - and how the media hounded a mayor's dog out of her office.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Political road rage - budget holes and emissions omissions

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 21:12:07 GMT

The UN says we've reached "the era of global boiling". Given that, you'd think climate might have got more of a mention from the media as the National Party released its road-heavy $24 billion transport package.

Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a grave warning.

"The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has begun."

That sounds like a relatively serious issue.

So it was slightly surprising that the subject didn't seem to be on our reporters' minds as the National Party announced its policy on one of the country's biggest and fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions: transport.

There were no questions on climate put to the party's top brass as they unveiled their $24 billion transport package in Hamilton on Monday.

Only one question on the topic was put to prime minister Chris Hipkins in his weekly media standup later that afternoon.

That's particularly perplexing given National's policy is heavy on roads, lighter on public transport, and virtually weightless on walking and cycling.

Thankfully news organisations did start to address that potential drawback as the week wore on.

On RNZ's Morning Report, Guyon Espiner asked National's transport spokesperson Simeon Brown how the party's plan addresses the "elephant in the room" - climate change.

"What we're doing here is we're saying we've got to focus on making sure we have high-quality safe modern roading connections around our country.

"What ultimately drives on those roads is going to change dramatically over the coming decades. We're going to have hydrogen trucks. We're going to have electric trucks in much greater numbers."

Brown later got some backup from Dom Kalasih of Transport New Zealand, which lobbies on behalf of road haulage companies.

"Better movement of freight - which is what these better roads will do - is good for climate," he said.

Question asked and answered, or so it seemed.

Other reporters cast a more sceptical eye on those claims.

Over at Newsroom, senior political reporter Marc Daalder projected that the highway-heavy transport package would generate an additional 327,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

That figure was based on projections outlining the induced demand from the new roads…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Putting right what went wrong with RNZ's online news

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 21:10:07 GMT

A review of RNZ's online news has called for greater oversight and enforcement of standards after a crisis sparked by a single staffer making 'inappropriate' edits to international news online. Mediawatch asks RNZ's chief executive if this was the result of a digital shift done on the cheap - and how he'll put right what he himself called 'pro-Kremlin garbage.

A review of RNZ's online news has called for greater oversight and enforcement of standards after a crisis sparked by a single staffer making 'inappropriate' edits to international news online.

Mediawatch asks RNZ's chief executive if this was the result of a digital shift done on the cheap - and how he'll put right what he himself called 'pro-Kremlin garbage.'

"An RNZ digital journalist has been stood down after it emerged they'd been editing news stories on the broadcaster's website to give them a pro-Russian slant," host Jeremy Corbett told 7 Days viewers back in June when the story first hit the headlines.

"You'd never get infiltration like that on 7 Days. Our security is too strong. Strong like a bear. Strong like the glorious Russian state and its leader Putin," he said.

It's never good for a serious news outlet when comedians are taking aim.

It was just a joke of course, but at the time some wondered whether Kremlin campaigns could have been behind the unapproved editing of RNZ's online world news.

Pro-Russian perspectives and some loaded language inserted into news agency stories relating to the war in Ukraine were first spotted overseas.

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson called it 'pro-Kremlin garbage' and some politicians asked if RNZ might be carrying foreign propaganda.

RNZ tightened editorial checks and stood down one online journalist, who later resigned. He told Checkpoint that he had edited news reports "in that way for years" and no one had ever queried it or told him to stop.

An RNZ audit of stories he edited eventually discovered 49 - mostly supplied by Reuters - which RNZ deemed to be inappropriately edited.

External experts were then appointed to look at the problem and how RNZ should respond.

Former RNZ political editor Brent Edwards, currently political editor at NBR, drew on his experience as RNZ's newsgathering chief to pinpoint a key problem.

"I technically had no responsibility whatsoever for what went on the web. I always thought that that news should have run 'Digital,'" Edwards said. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 6 August 2023

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Political road rage - budget holes & emissions omissions; what went wrong with RNZ's online news - and putting it right,

Mediawatch looks at how the media reacted to political parties promising new roads - and talks to RNZ's chief executive about what went wrong with its international news online, according to the independent inquiry into what he called 'pro-Kremlin garbage.'

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - RNZ review, Cup crackers, Palmy peeved

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:48:50 GMT

In this week's Midweek Mediawatch, Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about what a review of the 'inappropriate editing' of online news at RNZ has revealed. Also - the FIFA Women's World Cup captivating the media - even though the Football Ferns got knocked out and Palmerston North was dissed by Spain.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Minister’s downfall triggers premature election speculation

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 21:10:07 GMT

The media could scarcely ignore the startling story of a minister of justice under arrest, but the circumstances of that and her sudden resignation raised many other issues. Many in the media seized on one - the possible impact it could have on an election still almost three months away.

The media could scarcely ignore the startling story of a Minister of Justice under arrest, but the circumstances of that and her sudden resignation raised many other issues. The media seized on one in particular - the possible impact on an election that's still almost three months away.

"It's all quiet on this front at the moment, but this is going to be a crazy week in politics. It's an extraordinary development," RNZ's political reporter Anneke Smith outside Parliament told Morning Report last Monday.

She wasn't wrong - and the frenzy was already under way in the media.

In a breakdown of how things unfolded that night, the capital's daily The Post said that word of Kiri Allan's crash and arrest spread after it happened at 9pm on Sunday.

The Post said reporters "flocked to an otherwise quiet Wellington central police station" and saw someone who looked like Allan arrive about 10.45pm.

"It was difficult, however, to 100 percent confirm that was the minister in the back of the police car," said The Post (leaving open the possibility that confirmation might not require certainty).

Probably that was just the result of reporting in haste - and the lack of response from the prime minister's office would have been frustrating.

The Post said it contacted the PM's office soon after the reports of the crash and asked for comment about 11pm. But it was not until shortly before 7am on Monday that RNZ's Morning Report told listeners the justice minister was taken into police custody.

After 7am, a statement from the PM's office was rushed to air on TVNZ's Breakfast by a reporter reading it directly from her phone - and on Newstalk ZB, Mike Hosking broke the news to his listeners as "news from our 'who would want to be Chris Hipkins' file".

He said the prime minister's office repeatedly refused to answer questions "and this does raise the question as to whether Allan should ever have been back at the office last week".

That was a question raised by many in the media later on - though not in the same breath as actually breaking the news, as Mike Hosking did.

Confirmation of her resignation as a minister in statements from the PM and Allan herself followed soon after - as well as some condemnation. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Allan’s resignation sparks another at RNZ

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 21:09:07 GMT

A board member at RNZ appointed less than a month ago quit this week after making public comments on Kiri Allan's downfall and criticising media coverage of it. RNZ had asked Jason Ake to stop and the government said he breached official obligations of neutrality, but he was unrepentant.

Jason Ake (Ngāti Ranginui) was one of the appointments last month to the boards of RNZ and TVNZ that represented "an exciting new era for our public broadcasters as they continue to tackle the challenges of ... serving all people of Aotearoa now and into the future," according to Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson.

"Looking forward to the mahi ahead," Ake told his LinkedIn followers at the time.

"Hoping to bring an indigenous perspective to the strategic direction at the public broadcasting institution," he added, honouring the advocacy of pioneers Whai Ngata, Derek Fox and Henare Te Ua "for a much more visible Māori perspective in RNZ's strategic direction".

But even before he could be inducted into RNZ or attend a single board meeting, Ake resigned this week in the wake of controversy over social media comments he made about the downfall of Cabinet minister Kiri Allan.

"When there's blood in the water the sharks circle, and they're more than happy to digest every last morsel and watch the bones sink to the depth. It's a bloodsport," he said in a Facebook post.

He also referenced former National Party leader Todd Muller, who recovered from a mental breakdown to resume his work as an MP.

Jackson told reporters in Parliament on Tuesday Ake has "often been quite vocal about issues and he's gonna have to stop".

RNZ chair Dr Jim Mather had already been in touch to remind Jason Ake of his responsibilities under the Public Service Commission's code of conduct for Crown entity board members.

"When acting in our private capacity, we avoid any political activity that could jeopardise our ability to perform our role, or which could erode the public's trust in the entity," the Code says.

Ake's initial Facebook comment was not explicitly or aggressively politically partisan. Most of the comments could be construed as a reflection on the media as much as on politics or politicians. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch for 30 July 2023

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 21:08:07 GMT

Minister's downfall triggers election speculation - and another resignation at RNZ.

Mediawatch looks at how the media reacted to the downfall of cabinet minister Kiri Allan in starting circumstances last weekend and how the media zeroed in on the impact on the upcoming election.

Also - how Kiri Allan's resignation sparked another one at RNZ.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details