O, is Poneke's site now permanantly behind a Wordpress log-in? Pity.

It is not that it is hidden – it is more that it is gone. This is the third time it's happened. But hopefully it'll be back soon.

So don't bother getting a login, to try and find it,…

Alarmed, I then searched for corset training feature and received 99,000 pages.

Pff, and you're going to want one of those the next time you're attacked by an untrained corset.

I hope that Media 7 is not being eyed up, in the latest round of TVNZ cuts. For all the talk about the TVNZ dividend to the Govt, Labour really…

Tremendous.

I agree. In the pursuit of enlightenment, I put in Paul Henry is a twit, which produced 14,600 pages (but, with quotes, only one). Not sure what is proves but, to use the city analogy above, we all need good street guides--which ought to be one of the primary…

Of course, there is more to Mr Leyland's argument than a reckless notion of "risk." Yes, indeed. He also has that first refuge of a scoundrel,…

O, is Poneke's site now permanantly behind a Wordpress log-in? Pity.

It happened a month or two back as well... usually gets fixed in a day or 3.... no idea if it's a wordpress issue of if Poneke is in-expert at twiddling the options? There was no mention of it…

Still I'm tired of how"" sex is going to destroy us" stories. Can't we all just have another film night.

Anyone hazard a guess to the next societal scapegoat? I'm picking either abortion politics or video game politics.

Still, what does that matter? Let's all come join the fun.

Still I'm tired of how"" sex is going to destroy us"…

You know regardless of the made up stat this is a sex education story not an evil online story, online is just the medium.

Stephen Fry on the internet. (Podcast here )

But the internet is a city and, like any great city, it has monumental libraries and theatres and…

Why are kids that gullible? Do they need to know more about their sexuality and its place in 2009? Do we all need too?

What's been quoted from the study doesn't say the kids are gullible at all. About 95% of them dealt with the sexual propositioning to some degree…

Why are kids that gullible? Do they need to know more about their sexuality and its place in 2009? Do we all need too?

and who…

We need the govt to set up a program where students who miss out can get solicited too. Some sort of public-private partnership, I suppose.

I am shocked by the idea that you would expose children to trained solicitors. Have you no sense of decency?

Some sort of public-private partnership, I suppose

You mean integrated schools? :)

Survey finds 25pc of students sexually solicited online

Think of the children! Especially the 75% of the children not solicited... surely they will have self-esteem issues... "Am I too ugly to be solicited?", "All the cool kids get offers all the time!"

We need the govt to set up a…

yeah, agree Russell – I should've put astonishment marks round the whole headline- it was just really strange to be reading stuff here, and then switching to RNZ and finding – gak.

O, is Poneke's site now permanantly behind a Wordpress log-in?…

Survey finds 25pc of students sexually solicited online

Surely that's just 25pc gone mad!

Thank you! I'll be here all week, remember to tip your waitress.

Joshua: run immediately to the nearest library and see if you can borrow this book.

Thanks, Stephen. That's exactly the sort of thing I was after.

And then, you can do this journalistiky thing of asking people. There are plenty of people who can and will explain this stuff.

Yes,…

Last time I looked (which, to be fair, was in about 1997) the press had an exemption.

If that's the case, then the law doesn't seem to have caught up with trends in media ownership consolidation. Or should that be media cartelisation?

It gets worse: the RNZ site has this- "Internet predators target 1 in 4 *children*" (my emphasis.)

So it does.

I'd have put the emphasis around "internet predators" and "target", because both have virtually nothing to do withwhat has been revealed of the report the story is purportedly based on.…

This online thing sounds bad...jeez we need a herald poll to sort it out.

This headline just up in the Herald

Link: Survey finds 25pc of students sexually solicited online

Anyone trust the "statistic" ?

It's an NZPA story linked to this interview on Nine to Noon today.

It's from the forthcoming Convergence Generation report, which, according to NetSafe director martin Cocker, has found…

Link: Don't waste your time with the Press Council. I'd say the only avenue left is the Commerce Commission.

Last time I looked (which, to be fair, was in about 1997) the press had an exemption.

Once I could have cited chapter and verse, as my first "proper" job out…

Link: Survey finds 25pc of students sexually solicited online

Anyone trust the "statistic" ?

photo of the wrong Korean student on its front page

It doesn't really matter which one ... the important thing is it's time to send some back.

Heh.

Buying the herald is a traitorous act to the city of auckland (and of course it's free online).

It's even more free by activating your browser's ad-blocker.

The problem is that the damage is already. It might be worth taking a complaint to the Press Council but, in my experience,…

I can't help the suspision that the herald is trying purposely to help a certain community out; it's just not the general community.

They…

photo of the wrong Korean student on its front page

It doesn't really matter which one ... the important thing is it's time to send some back.

It sounds like the people who understand the gravity of the mistakes aren't allowed to speak to the media.

No, I don't think that's true. There might have been a statistician behind the scenes who was going ape-shit, and true, the comms guy wasn't going that far, but he knew…

Don't just phone up the editorial desk – respond quickly and officially to the inaccuracies in the comments under the story, issue your own press release which will be picked up by Scoop.

In this case they did. And they got it wronger.

But a little sympathy here: Public sector…

I also thought the paper's "correction" was inadequate. It was buried at the bottom of the online version of the original story, where very few people were likely to see it.

And wronger!

I run on this principle: make it very VERY simple to read. The problem, I feel, tends to be caveats and definitions. Nearly all data comes with them and they aren't the easiest things to make palatable.

On a constructive note, it might be helpful to make actionable caveats. i.e.…

I am heading to "The Future of Journalism" conference at Cardiff University later this year but, given the latest Herald…

I wonder if "Recorded Offences in Schools and Other Educational Institutions" includes arson attacks and vandalism?

Yes, but they were not requested in the OIA.

The Herald only asked for Drugs, Sex and Violence.

Ahem.

Just don't assume anything you read in the paper is true unless you have other evidence.

But it would be nice to have the expectation that almost all that was reported in the newspaper or on the TV news was 'true', just by nature of being news.

I'm a healthy…

This particular fact really irks me. Do we actually need to have "it's wrong to hit girls" enshrined in our law? Can't we just agree that hitting *anyone* is wrong?

I think it's a product of its time.

At the time of the Crimes Act (1961?), to record statistics about…

Just don't assume anything you read in the paper is true unless you have other evidence.

A sensible person like myself would assume that nothing in the paper was "true" in the sense of being reliable and fully accurate, until proven to be so. They're interested in breathlessly publishing as…

And a lot of the stories you read that have a political dimension are not written (or otherwise reported) by reporters with accreditation. They're reporters whose only interactions with Ministerial offices or Departmental comms units are via phone and email.

Agreed and understood – also about the accreditation to the…

The paper wanted to run a story on how our schools are hotbeds of crime, part of their general agenda of how NZ is going to hell in a handbasket.

I think it would be obvious to anybody that "recorded offences in schools and…

Maybe government should require reporters to have passed Stats 101 and Public Policy Making 101 (at least) before being accredited to the parliamentary press corp? May not cover all reporting of public service issues, and newspapers shouldn't be Pravda, but it might help?

Accreditation is through the Chair of the…

Can't we just agree that hitting *anyone* is wrong?

See the removal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act

They for example have a common assault charge, and a 'man assaults woman' charge.

This particular fact really irks me. Do we actually need to have "it's wrong to hit girls" enshrined in our law? Can't we just agree that hitting *anyone* is wrong?

I run on this principle: make it very VERY simple to read. The problem, I feel, tends to be caveats and definitions. Nearly all data comes with them and they aren't the easiest things to make palatable.

Police statistics are weird, and often not particularly useful.

They for example have…

are there any crash-courses in stats I can take to avoid being this problem in the future? I don't want to be the journalist who makes a fuck-up like this. And my maths is terrible.

The easiest way to do this is to make sure you read the information carefully.…

Maybe government should require reporters to have passed Stats 101 and Public Policy Making 101 (at least) before being accredited to the parliamentary press corp?

This might help them!

Would there be scope for Stats NZ or other party to issue a Press Council complaint?

The head statistician in the UK complained about how their stats were politically distorted... and not a lot happens... but at least it makes it into the paper!

why don't agencies get (even) more proactive in responding?

Because...

It sounds like the people who understand the gravity of the mistakes aren't allowed to speak to the media.

And once you've dealt with this:

I think asking of our journalists to have advanced reading skills and the ability to…

why not take the matter to the Commerce Commission instead?

Love it.

The New Zealand Herald isn't fit for use?

I guess they could argue that it is primarily sold as lavatory paper.

It also illuminates the question of why public sector organisations aren't more robust in demanding corrections to inaccurate reporting. Instead of complaining about 'stupid journalists wasting public money with silly OIA requests' and 'undermining the levels of public trust in government/public services', why don't agencies get…

Media do however claim to have standards so there's the Press Council and BSA respectively, even if their main penalty is embarassment. The power of Keith's…

I also thought the paper's "correction" was…

Any "correction" is already lost in the noise. So the answer lies with Media 7 or…

Heaps. Usually media organisations will ring the Ministry to check figures and facts. If they don't a retraction or correction can be written. Beyond that, it could become a legal ...um...thing (Graeme, help!).

I'm no tin foil hatter, but is there a covert plot to boost shares in metal detector…

Nearly all data comes with them and they aren't the easiest things to make palatable.

Yes, and I think asking of our journalists to have advanced reading skills and the ability to wrap their minds around caveats and definitions is a bit too much. We should make our report something…

Is there any right of recourse when we are mis-quoted?

Heaps. Usually media organisations will ring the Ministry to check figures and facts. If they don't a retraction or correction can be written. Beyond that, it could become a legal ...um...thing (Graeme, help!).

I run on this principle: make it…

It's so depressing when public sector releases are:

a) Digested and excreted by a political machine then printed verbatim

b) Requested, explained then converted to the old "issue, hero, villain" model to an extent where the truth is lost

c)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15Y6t3rDmo

Now with HQ button!