Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM, and is that a good thing?
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More anti Chinese crap in the Herald...
Are Chinese cooling on NZ property?
Meanwhile, in a real newspaper...
Seven killed after bombings in Chinese city of Liuzhou
Its like they don't care. -
chris, in reply to
Its like they don’t care.
If they can't fit it snugly into our post 11/9 narrative it doesn't count:
The Ministry of Public Security said it was treating the case as a criminal act and not terrorism.
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Another prominent journalist departs. John Armstrong is stepping down from his Herald role because sadly, he has Parkinson's disease. His final column reflects on 30 years of political coverage.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
our post 11/9 narrative
aaaah the ‘Looking Glass World’
11/9 : 9\11
up
down
spinning around…
;- ) -
chris, in reply to
Yeah I think you’ll find that might also have been Labour’s fault. Meanwhile a compelling sequence of words:
John Key’s time on the international stage, meanwhile, has sucked the oxygen out of domestic politics, particularly his headline grabbing trip to Iraq
Compiled by the Political Editor and Parliamentary Bureau Chief of New Zealand’s most popular online news site – after accompanying said leader on excursion to grab headlines and suck the oxygen out of domestic politics.
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chris, in reply to
Oops, I forgot the link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/73087380/gossip-columns-masquerading-as-respectable-political-commentary
…Key and National reckon they have got Little pegged as “angry Andy” and Key is adept at deflecting Little’s punches […] Red Peak flag debacle […] Crying wolf over secret agendas just confuses voters […] Hands up who knows […] Annette King is doing a great job […] he needs to promote Ardern […] Tim Groser whose diplomatic skills are […] ? […] Judith “Crusher” Collins […] wilder rumours even has it that he and Key had a pact […]
TLDR?
The Government will be changed once media reporting of Government incompetency reaches critical mass, until then the media look content to go safari and give Rachel Glucina a serious run for her money.
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Here's a little snippet of interest to local media watchers which I missed at the time. On RNZ Gavin Ellis noticed that on 18th September the Herald horoscopes were particularly poignant with numerous references to October 9th... the day the NZME layoffs were due to be finalised. The Spinoff has compiled some examples.
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Alfie, in reply to
News broke yesterday afternoon that Australian media mogul and climate change denier Rupert Murdoch has purchased a majority stake in National Geographic, a magazine and scientific organization that has been staunchly non-profit since its first issue in 1888.
Just a month after buying the business, Murdoch has laid off around 10% of the NatGeo existing staff. Slash and burn... slash and burn.
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I almost posted this in the flag thread but it’s probably more appropriate here as it involves a major MSM player blurring the lines between factual news coverage and advertising.
Yesterday’s Mediawatch reported on something called the Flag Summit, hosted on Newstalk ZB (owned by NZME) and iHeart Radio (operated by NZME) last Monday. Just imagine… a whole 24 hours of flag debate… stimulating stuff to be sure.
The New Zealand Herald website, meanwhile, joined in from 8pm, unfurling article after article about the flag referendum.
Be still my beating heart. You might be forgiven for thinking that the flag debate had suddenly entered the public consciousness and made John Key’s day.
But this wasn’t our MSM reacting to public demand. The exercise was dreamed up by NZME then funded using taxpayer money, courtesy of the PM’s handpicked Flag Consideration Panel. Neither the panel nor NZME would reveal the cost of the exercise, but such blanket coverage across multiple media is unlikely to come cheap.
I didn’t hear or read any of the coverage so I don’t know if the listeners/readers were informed that they were paying for the advertorial. Or should that be sponsored content? Or maybe just plain media prostitution?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
False Flags...
so I don’t know if the listeners/readers were informed that they were paying for the advertorial. Or should that be sponsored content?
It's a nice little earner for someone - I have now had two full colour A5 16 page booklets delivered to me via Fairfax publications ( Press & SST ) and I assume they are available elsewhere too ...
The existing flag just makes a postage stamp appearance on the back of the booklet - a throwaway addition seemingly... -
In his John O’Shea Memorial Address to SPADA last week, media commentator and producer Phil Wallington considers the state of news and current affairs in New Zealand and the general decline of journalistic standards.
And he sums up TV3/Glucina's dying venture most succinctly.
Can anyone derive any useful information from the quick stock-show montage of cellulite and plastically-enhanced celebrity bodies. It is trashy and second-hand slander of people famous for being famous in concentric circles? TV3, which generally has a better sense of news and a better news bulletin, is suffering declining ratings.
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There is no possibility of an end to mainstream media, name any banana republic, dictatorship, corrupt or worn torn country of significant size that you can think of and one of the certainties is that there will be a mainstream media catering to its inhabitants, by definition and necessity. What we are seeing is a serious threat to the position independent media has occupied in the mainstream.
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The death of current affairs continues. Maori TV has announced that Native Affairs is being cut back from 60 to 30 minutes from next year.
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Sacha, in reply to
and will include overseas stories, further reducing the chance of any unfavourable coverage of the local establishment.
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The Herald has published a NZ is a great country piece today. Penned by Key's biographer John Roughan, this reads like a misguided ode to Rogernomics.
When I see the New Zealand my grandchildren will inherit today, I am eternally grateful to the government we elected in 1984. It was younger than any we had elected before, more rash. Looking back now it is easy to say, as John Key does, that the changes they made could have been done more slowly and gently. I doubt it. Gradualism would not have given us the economy we enjoy today. We would have lost our way.
No mention of massive wealth transfer, child poverty, TPP, the pollution of most of our rivers due to overfarming, or even the decimation of investigative journalism? One gets the impression that Roughan is actually writing about Planet Key.
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" given us the economy we enjoy today" Translation - he bought his house 20 years ago.
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Herald Bingo
Katie Ruscoe via The Standard -
As our local media lay off experienced staff and seek to monetarise assets in some sort of crazed, clickbait-inspired death spiral, it's reassuring to know that real journalism still exists elsewhere in the world. Take Der Spiegel -- they consistently produce quality investigative stories and a recent article -- Good Journalism Is Crucial Amid All the Lies and Hysteria -- explains their attitude towards their craft.
In times like these, especially, the quality media cannot allow cost-saving measures to kill the very thing that sets them apart from the loudmouths -- namely their capacity for research and reporting, i.e., local reporters, foreign correspondents and investigative teams. We need to take the time necessary to have a true understanding of contexts and be able to explain them properly, and we must maintain a moderate tone and not allow ourselves to descend into the ruckus. Modern life demands immediate gratification, but journalism requires clear thinking and calm.
Bravo! It's worth pointing out that Spiegel is owned by the journalists who work there.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
As our local media lay off experienced staff and seek to monetarise assets in some sort of crazed, clickbait-inspired death spiral
It's almost freudian the need to monetise stories - take this one on Lydia Ko in Stuff yesterday
There was none of the urban slang which is common among many other teenagers around the world. A monetary lapse in concentration, where she might accidentally swear, seemed inconceivable.
They just can't stop thinking about money - they've fixed it to read 'momentary' now - but had to be told.
a recent letter to the editor raved on about 'statuary holidays' - Queen Victoria is not amused having had to wait on her plinth, day in and day out in Chchch... -
every day it feels like the race to the bottom of content worth reading via our two leading news sites finds ever lower tiers of nothingness some metrics suggests we'll read
on the plus side I now know how to eat chocolate correctly and possibly utilise chop sticks in the internet approved manner
personally I miss the days of seemingly endless hate stories directed at social media by the now (or soon to be) retired senior staffers
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Alfie, in reply to
... monetary lapse... statuary holidays...
Not a day goes by without several typos on our major news sites, mainly on Stuff. Mispellings, apostrophe S in plurals (I hate that), basic stuff which anyone aspiring to be a journalist should have learned by the 5th form.
In the past such obvious errors would have been picked up by sub-editors before publication, but they don't seem to be a thing any longer. Any news site loses credibility when it's littered with typos and bad grammar.
I primarily visit Stuff for local stories and see they've buggered around with their layout again. Until last week you clicked on 'National' news which produced a page with a few thumbnail stories at the top and another link to 'More National News', which produced another page of maybe 30-40 local headlines. Too many clicks, but it was usable.
Starting this week most of that local news has simply disappeared. The 'National' link goes to "More top stories" with only 10 local links. Where did the rest of the news go? And why are they forcing me to choose from such a reduced number of headlines? Have they decided to target only readers with short attention spans?
As a news junkie I'm definitely spending less time on Stuff nowadays, and more time on international news sites. That must surely contradict Fairfax's goal of attracting eyeballs.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
In the past such obvious errors would have been picked up by sub-editors before publication, but they don’t seem to be a thing any longer.
Yes, they are a thing and that thing is called outsourcing. I believe NZME uses Australians for this. You have to ask why they didn’t just use computers for the task, at least with computers you only have to punch the info. in once.
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bob daktari, in reply to
As a news junkie I’m definitely spending less time on Stuff nowadays, and more time on international news sites.
I'm the same but the single thing I want most from local news sites is local news so have to grin and deal with it all, as depressing as that is
Today on/in the herald: "Man stumbles across shark in surf". I dare not click on it for fear I shall learn that water is where sharks live or something equally profound
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At least, for all its faults, the ODT is still a newspaper (and website) which covers a significant amount of local and regional news.
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Let them eat (insert sponsor's product)...
The pennies are slowly dropping;..
I'd been wondering what Fairfax were up to - they seem to be transitioning the physical newspaper environment - I can now pick up any fresh paper and I will have already read almost 50% of it on line prior to receiving it.
Some of it time crucial, but much of it of low grade 'newsworthiness' or paid for columnists (I am not attempting to conflate those two concepts, but the difference is becoming marginal)
The paper is being killed off before they have figured out how to monetise the web, which is getting less dynamic and less appealing at the same time.
BUT I see this release from a year or so ago (july 2014):
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1407/S00907/fairfax-media-nz-launches-national-events-division.htmFairfax Media New Zealand today launched a national events division, demonstrating the organisation’s continued diversification beyond its heritage as a traditional print media organisation. Fairfax currently has a number of successful events within its portfolio including Round the Bays, Central District Field Days, NZ CEO and CFO Summits, Sustainable 60 Awards and Women of Influence Awards, events which were previously run by various Fairfax divisions.
and I also see the Night Noodle Markets The Press has been pushing so heavily recently - too much it may seem in Chchch - is a Fairfax Events Division property - they started it 20 years ago in Melbourne and are now bringing it here - so all those years of being a paper and an information source have been reduced to a vehicle for in-house promotions and not very well organised ones by the sound of it...
Their event organisation is as 'once-over-lightly' as their subbing is now.“We see events as an exceptional way to integrate and leverage our customers’ brands further to relevant audiences. Backed up with the power of our content channels across digital and print, it is a powerful combination.”
This is taking 'the newspaper' as a metaphor for disposability and foodwrapping too far!
I think it sounds like they have lost their way, too...<edit> and haven't TV3 been making the same squeaky noises about promotion and being the news rather than reporting it?
That doesn't seem to be going well either....
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