Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Little pieces of a big picture

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  • Craig Young,

    Has anyone else noticed the mysterious absence of ACT and Rodney Hide from any media coverage related to the quake? One wonders why. Normally you can't shut the aforementioned pack of populist opportunists up.

    Craig Y

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 573 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    @Giovanni - Oh well, I've heard enough of your opinions on TVNZ before to assume the chance of you ever being pleased aren't great.

    Yes, it must be my personal vendetta with the broadcaster. What other explanation could there be?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Hell, I'm good at visualization and I have an excellent imagination, but

    "a US *NAVEL* ship??? Attached to a mother-line? Or lacking any cord and just a big skincoloured...thang?

    Sam F - thank you for posting these paranoid ravings!
    They are a little excursion into FantasyLand (a horrid fantasy, to be sure) and thus not part of the clammy (& wobbly elsewhere) reality-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Kind of begs the question why the coverage by Radio NZ murdered the coverage on TV One

    Don't know about anyone else, but on Saturday I generally don't turn on the television until the evening. The radio-alarm turns itself on at 6.30, and then the stereo goes on when I get up for breakfast.

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • andy scott,

    Hignurant I was to this new word: miturate.

    Alas I couldn't find it in te dictionary but I did find micturate.

    Ah yes of course - one c short of a pee. I blame the quake induced stress and sleep deprivation.

    Lyttletown • Since Sep 2010 • 2 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    But it's got super-shock-absorbers. So it will lie intact under the sand and the sea.)

    I heard it floats.

    Yeah that's the way I understood it was meant to work. Essentially the building is on a large slab that should float on the "liquified" subsoil. With the dampers the building shouldn't move too much and shouldn't settle much either.

    Same should work for homes built on soils with potential for liquifaction. Standard piles will just sink instantly but houses built on slabs should float.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Cool. Speaking of Te Papa if the big one comes during opening hours chances are somebody will be inside the earthquake simulator and won't they be just so impressed at how realistic it is?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    Standard piles will just sink instantly but houses built on slabs should float.

    There's been a lot of liquefaction around here, with the occasional pile sinking. The two structures built on modern high(ish)-tech slabs, though, while still afloat, are badly cracked and buckled

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    Has anyone else noticed the mysterious absence of ACT and Rodney Hide from any media coverage related to the quake?

    I suspect they don't know it has happened yet. They need to keep checking each others back. So they are in a neverending 5 person conga line.

    "I'm in the front!"
    "No, I'm in the front!!"
    "No, its ME ME ME!!"

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    RE: Radio NZ's coverage. I felt it was more, maybe immediate? TV gave the visual impact when it did get going but with RNZ you didn't need to wait for someone to get the pictures, or for someone/something to get on camera, or to get to a studio, RNZ could do it by phone from the Wellington studio. So they could get going with coverage a lot earlier than TV.

    That's exactly it. Radio NZ also happened to have several people down there on other jobs, which helped.

    Bitching about TVNZ coverage seems a bit rote to me, to be honest. Given that they had some hurdles -- I heard senior news editors couldn't get in to the Christchurch office for some time -- I thought they did very well. Their coverage has been used by broadcasters all over the world, who presumably found its production values acceptable.

    Indeed, with some obvious exceptions, the news media in general have done well with this major story.

    As others have said, Rawdon Christie pulled off an extraordinary shift with aplomb, and I think Hannah Ockelford did an amazing job for someone who was tipped out of her hotel bed by the quake and presumably had not slept since.

    I also thought TV3 could have made more of Sean Plunket, who was impressive, and that Mike McRoberts' calmer tone suited me better at 6pm than the more urgent One News presenters'.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Bitching about TVNZ coverage seems a bit rote to me, to be hones

    Maybe that's because they're so constantly underwhelming, but their function in the morning honestly just seemed to be distracting from the far more useful and insightful radio coverage. The extended six o'clock news at night had much more of a point to it, and was quite good I thought.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    Yes, it must be my personal vendetta with the broadcaster. What other explanation could there be?

    You want to join me with pitchforks? I'm back again for a bit this summer.

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    Speaking of Te Papa if the big one comes during opening hours chances are somebody will be inside the earthquake simulator and won't they be just so impressed at how realistic it is?

    A woman on the radio yesterday opined that the Te Papa earthquake simulator was nothing like the real thing, which was much, much more violent.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Maybe that's because they're so constantly underwhelming, but their function in the morning honestly just seemed to be distracting from the far more useful and insightful radio coverage.

    Which went back to the scheduled Saturday Morning With Kim Hill at about 10.30, didn't it?

    I know Mark Cubey, Kim's producer, was making good use of the internet and Twitter in particular while they were doing their coverage, and they did brilliantly -- but they were also sitting in a studio next to a fully operational newsroom in Wellington taking reports over the phone. It's a different medium.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    TVNZ ['s Saturday] coverage

    I think they did pretty well under difficult circumstances (at least, better than I'd feared). Chch residents though, I imagine, would've prefered more Civil Defense information - perhaps on every hour and half-hour - and less V/T of smashed buildings.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Chch residents though, I imagine, would've prefered more Civil Defense information - perhaps on every hour and half-hour - and less V/T of smashed buildings.

    Given that those who needed it most didn't have electricity, I'm guessing they were glued to their battery radios anyway. There was a certain irony in the fact that we saw how messed up parts of Christchurch were well before many of its citizens did.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Sam F,

    You want to join me with pitchforks? I'm back again for a bit this summer.

    I'd thought a trident was the weapon of choice for resolving television news vendettas, but hey, whatever works.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    I think *Canterbury* residents would've appreciated just a wee bit more coverage of other areas -e.g beach areas, like Waikuku, Woodend, & Amberly* as well as - yes! definitely much more CD info...

    (*That's not only because one - and maybe 2 - of my family have had major damage to homes in one of those beach areas-)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Still, at least we can rely on Rachel Glucina's assessment of the TV coverage to make us all feel stupid and sad again.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I think *Canterbury* residents would've appreciated just a wee bit more coverage of other areas -e.g beach areas, like Waikuku, Woodend, & Amberly* as well as - yes! definitely much more CD info...

    It would be a hard call to send one of your handful of crews to all those places when there was so much cover in the bigger population centres. But TVNZ had a crew live in Kaiapoi, the worst affected area outside the city, at about 10am, which isn't bad.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • B Jones,

    > I heard it floats.

    Yeah that's the way I understood it was meant to work. Essentially the building is on a large slab that should float on the "liquified" subsoil. With the dampers the building shouldn't move too much and shouldn't settle much either.

    Friend of mine once convinced a country boy of our acquaintance that in an earthquake Te Papa would come free of its moorings and float safely across the harbour.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 976 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    Mike McRoberts' calmer tone suited me better at 6pm than the more urgent One News presenters'.

    Possibly because you had been listening/watching all day? I'd go as far to suggest that, amongst all the coverage over the first day, NZ pulled off a relatively balanced view with TVNZ been on all day and stressed and 3 taking the best they could with their studio being down. Generally it would seem that everyone who could, did tune in and receive information regards the area. Presenters caught off guard a bit, may well have been a bit shocked also, especially because of the aftershocks and them being expected to put themselves and others in harms way. So reports being uncertain could of well been because everything was uncertain. To be soo slick could have also backfired.I mean, who needs people all over you for an interview,to expose you and and your life strewn all over the box, when really a cup of tea may have been better whilst you take it all in.The radio though should have been all about survival to the residents.I didn't tune in so am not suggesting it didn't as many have said it was great and i'm glad for the residents about that. Jus' sayin' i'll go away now...:)

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I'd thought a trident was the weapon of choice for resolving television news vendettas, but hey, whatever works.

    A trident is just a pitchfork that has yet to see hay.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Given the situation, I think that TVNZ did pretty damn well. If their studios are still in Manchester Street, they would have been in the thick of things--with associated problems of access to equipment and power sources?

    Probably not a good time to indulge in such spats but acknowledge that the media are generally doing well--with the glaring exception of the Horrors on Sunday!

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Ross Mason,

    Heres a nice movie of the quakes from Sciblogs. Look for "Mapping Quakes in Canterbury".

    I dumped it in the other post as well.

    Upper Hutt • Since Jun 2007 • 1590 posts Report Reply

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