Public Address | Cafe | Random Play: Alt.Nation: Word . . . Up

Matt Jeffs

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:12:16 +1300

Stephen. Yes the UK papers are rabidly partisan but you know that when you buy them. You wouldn't buy The Guardian and expect to have wall to wall stories telling us how brilliant free market globilisation is. The whole point is you have a choice. There isn't a be all…

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:03:54 +1300

Felix: A short list might include advocacy of any number of simple redistributionary policies that might address growing wealth and income inequality, child poverty, etc... things like an increased minimum wage, increased provision of social housing...

To take a topical example, there has been effectively no discussion in the media…

Felix Marwick

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 21:37:35 +1300

Marcus,
out of curiousity (and I do genuinely want to know) what part of the politics of the economy, as relates to news coverage, do you feel are being missed due to the owners and management of NZ media companies?

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:20:19 +1300

Felix: I wasn't referring to the TRN/Clear Channel episode, and I do not believe that its shareholders routinely interfere in the development of particular stories. My point is though there are nonetheless, through its ownership and management certain constraints on what issues and stories can be run – particuarly in…

Stephen Judd

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:36:51 +1300

How ironic that Marcus should complain about poor journalism here of all places.

PA – created by journalists. Producing an amazing assortment of lengthy, thoughtful, interesting pieces. For free. With comments from many thoughtful and intelligent people (and me as well).

Right under your nose, Marcus.

And specifically – the…

Felix Marwick

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:22:22 +1300

Marcus,
I assume you are referring to the US based activities of TRN shareholder Clear Channel and its policies for its US based networks with regard to the Iraq war. Policies incidentally which were criticised on air by ZB hosts.

While there may be those that believe that the shareholders…

Joanna

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:08:06 +1300

I'm going to go with the defensive quibbles thanks. And the thing with big issues is that they're actually made up of the small stuff.

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:01:23 +1300

Joanna: Blog/webpage... you could defensively quibble over definitions, or you could engage with the bigger issues...

merc

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:54:10 +1300

Hey Marcus, I'll pit my NZ journo's against your Brit journos anytime! I jest, I jest, glib that's me.
I'm with RB, we're bloody well served considering The Man is usually from offshore and likes his widdle Kiwi's to be warm, cuddly and strictly POCO, (post colonial).
Besides in a…

Joanna

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:42:45 +1300

But I don't have a blog. Perhaps it is your reading that is at fault here, not the writing of other people...

merc

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:13:48 +1300

Glib moralising, moi? Ouch! The fourth estate is dead because advertising is dead. It's like relying on billboards and RWC's and Merica's Cup (TM) to promote your local business by proxy.
That's what thar Interweb is for!

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:08:10 +1300

Merc: Putting aside the question of your rather glib moralising – a good part of the issue is that, politics aside, even the art of journalism in terms of written experession is very poorly practiced in NZ. If we had right-wing arguments of the quality, of say, The Economist I…

merc

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:35:45 +1300

I don't even get lunch money from my poetry and I've got 2 books with great reviews out there. But that's not the point, journalism straddles the line between love of writing and hard commerce...ah soddit, we've had this chat before.
Do whatever it is that you need to do…

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:26:30 +1300

Russell: I am highly mindful of the impacts of market-rationalities and ownership plays on the NZ media – hence my comments above about the media barrons – I realise that journalists are compromised by the ownership and management strucutures that they operate within.

As an aside, it seems that even…

Russell Brown

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:57:29 +1300

I am sorry if you and the other journalists, spin doctors, and hacks are taking this personally, but I do consider the generally poor writing and analytical skills of NZ's journalists an issue of public concern.

Okay. Britain has 15 times the population of New Zealand, the ability to attract…

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:37:52 +1300

Joanna: Read the music reviews on your blog, then go read the music reviews at the Guardian Online by way of comparison – it is not cultural cringe driving me, or some desire to bait journalists for the sake of it. As the writing in (for example) the Guardian demonstrates,…

Marcus Neiman

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:19:31 +1300

Felix: You appear to work for Newstalk ZB are apparently unreflexive about what your station does and the wider political and social projects that it is engaged in. This is exactly why the NZ mass media is so contemptible.

Joanna

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:04:59 +1300

Joanna: I am particuarly referring to Communications grads

You're right, my mind is not sharp at all. Actually, women only go to university to find husbands, so I suppose in that capacity AUT failed me.

Matt Jeffs

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:02:25 +1300

Having lived in the UK for nearly 10 years it is refreshing to live in a country where both sides of a political argument are widley reported. You have the Guardian and The Independant reporting on the left and The Times and The Telegrapgh for the right. They make no…

81stcolumn

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 00:42:53 +1300

(Three year courses at AUT do not seem to produce sharp or courageous minds...)

Nor indeed are they likely to with the current management in place.

It speaks volumes about AUT and education as a whole when it is pointed out that AUT is now AUT University.

Felix Marwick

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:51:39 +1300

Help! Depending which forum I'm in I'm either liberally biased or a right wing stooge.

I'm confuzzled.

Perhaps I should blame it on the regular checks from the media baron who tells me what to write?

Jeremy Andrew

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:53:11 +1300

As we're visibly sliding slowly into the sh*t, we ought to be hunting around pretty franticly for some new hand-holds/leverage to shift the balance back towards exporting.

So whacking a penalty on fixed mortgages to encourage people to leave their mortages floating, so that the Reserve Bank's rate changes will…

Michael Savidge

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:03:26 +1300

I'm sure you meant erudite....heh.

Marcus Neiman

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:19:55 +1300

Joanna: I am particuarly referring to Communications grads – but that said, my observation about three-year undergraduate programs could probably be applied to any tertiary institution and most courses. I guess I blamed AUT simply because that is where, from my personal experience, a lot of journalists come from.

More…

Joanna

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:40:24 +1300

(Three year courses at AUT do not seem to produce sharp or courageous minds..

In general or are you specifically talking about journalists who graduated from AUT?

Rob Stowell

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:28:32 +1300

Yeah, I think the "arrogant" meme has begun to stick- even to the point where labour supporters have started to use it.... I hope if Key's gonne be PM he has to earn it and doesn't get to just walk in with a smarmy grin and a fistful of "no-comment".…

Russell Brown

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:07:09 +1300

I have to say that I do have a slight bit of sympathy for Labour given the state of the NZ media these days.

In this case a bit, yeah. Cullen wasn't voicing policy or anything like it. The mortgage levy was among ideas raised in a Treasury-Reserve Bank report…

Marcus Neiman

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:29:18 +1300

I have to say that I do have a slight bit of sympathy for Labour given the state of the NZ media these days. While there is considerable anti-Labour bias (particuatly in reporting about the political economy), more generally there is simply very little serious coverage of current affairs in…

Public Address

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:29:18 +1300

Discussion from blog post.