Current Issue
Abstracts of Vol 14(1), April 2008
A joint edition produced by Massey University's Department of Communication, Journalism and Marketing and AUT University's Pacific Media Centre.
Edited by Grant Hannis and David Robie
Editorial
The challenges
Grant Hannis, p. 5
Theme:
THE FUTURE OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA
1. Commentary: The news media – the Prime Minister’s view
Helen Clark pp. 8-14
New Zealand has not always been the robust little democracy with the freedom of speech enjoyed today. The election of the first Labour government, the 1951 Waterfront Lockout emergency regulations and the Muldoon era were all testing times for the news media. In the first of the three commentaries, Prime Minister Helen Clark examines a politician’s view of media rights, responsibilities and ethics. Fortune magazine Bethany McLean profiles her expose on the 2001 Enron financial scandal, and The Dominion Post editor Tim Pankhurst, whose newspaper celebrated its centenary in 2007, outlines the innovations undertaken by his newspaper in meeting the technological challenges of the mainstream media.
2. Commentary: The smartest guys in the room – covering the Enron saga
Bethany McLean pp.15-31
3. Commentary: The power of print remains undiminished
Tim Pankhurst pp.33-44
4. Testing times: Kiwi journalists and the military
Denise Mackay and Margie Comrie pp. 46-63
War correspondents, long the object of popular fascination, have been the focus of academic study since Phillip Knightley published The First Casualty in 1976. While New Zealand journalists did not cover the second Iraq War in 2003, the furore over the US practice of ‘embedding’ journalists was felt in New Zealand. Drawing on in-depth interviews with seven seasoned defence reporters, this article examines the relationship between the New Zealand Army and journalists during times of conflict. Concentrating on wars in Bosnia and East Timor (Timor-Leste), the interviews cover defence journalists’ perceptions of constraints on reporting, spin in military communication and changing military attitudes to media relations. The comments underscore the tensions inherent in the media’s reliance on military support. While it appears Kiwi journalists’ experiences are generally more satisfactory than many of their overseas counterparts, the article considers some implications of military public relations in the face of New Zealand’s under-resourced media industry.
5. Scandalising media freedom: Resurrection of an ancient contempt
Mark Pearson pp.64-78
The ancient charge of ‘scandalising the court’ (publications aiming at lowering the authority of the court) has had a resurgence in Australia over the past decade, at the very time judges and magistrates have developed an inclination to sue for defamation. The combined effect is to send a warning to media organisations to take care when criticising judicial officers or the judicial process, particularly if that involves implying some improper motive on the part of a judge or magistrate. In New Zealand there have been some isolated but significant threats and cases, particularly in the volatile area of family law. This article reviews some recent Australian and New Zealand cases where a charge of scandalising the court has been either threatened or enforced and considers the implications for freedom of media expression in a new era of anti-terrorism when important questions are being asked about the fairness of justice processes.
6. New Zealand print freelancers: Who they are, what they earn, where and what they publish?
Grant Hannis pp. 79-92
This article provides a statistical picture of print freelancers, the largest freelance sector in New Zealand. Compared with journalists employed in the print industry, freelancers had generally the same ethnic profile and distribution throughout the country, but were more likely to be older and female. In our content analysis, 20 percent of daily newspapers’ copy, a third of weekly newspapers’ copy, and about 60 percent of magazine copy came from freelancers. The analysis suggests the newspapers found freelancers particularly useful in providing specialist copy and comment. Although some freelancers were relatively well paid for their efforts, print freelancers’ average income was markedly less than that of their employed counterparts. This was because many freelancers work relatively few hours. Further, female freelancers’ average income was about two-thirds of that earned by male freelancers. Many of those who embark on a freelancing journalism career should therefore be prepared to work relatively few hours and receive little financial reward.
7. Deconstructing the discourse of citizen journalism: Who says what and why it matters
Elspeth Tilley and John Cokley pp. 94-114
Since it emerged early this century, ‘citizen journalist’ and its related terms have been increasingly contested among groups including professional journalists, academics, and citizens themselves. This article creates a typology of five key participant groups in this contest and uses it to analyse the discursive constructs each group uses to advance their position. We argue that the terms citizen and journalist are multivalent discursive constructs, and that recognising the various contexts in which they are deployed is essential to understanding the ways in which changes to relationships between media participants are occurring and being resisted.
8. The media and leadership: An exploratory study of Howard and Costello
Stephen Tanner pp. 115-130
This article explores the proposition that the Australian federal Press Gallery operates as a pack and, as such, engages in feeding frenzies when presented with a major story. It uses framing analysis to argue that while the gallery can act as a Pack, even when the journalists have to work independently to obtain the background needed for a story, this does not mean that a feeding frenzy takes place. In fact it argues that Gallery journalists can act as ‘wise heads’ and potentially calm an issue down, rather than beat it up for their own purposes.
Articles
The Māori Party and the media: Representations in mainstream print leading to the 2005 election
Ann Sullivan pp. 131-149
This article investigates the 2005 pre-election print media coverage of the Māori Party and its candidates. It shows that while the reporters and journalists generally represented the Māori Party in a fair and unbiased manner, at times their reporting was undermined by unbalanced or biased editing or subediting.
Bogans in the news: A case of media reflexivity
Dave Snell and Darrin Hodgetts pp. 150-167
In March 2007, the New Zealand government announced the outcome of its competitive funding round for Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships. This article traces the news controversy emerging with the awarding of a scholarship for the first author to study the everyday lives of Bogans. Across radio, newspaper and television news outlets tensions emerged regarding the (mis)use of public monies, representations of Bogans, and common understandings of academic research. The authors document their efforts to extend news deliberations beyond negative reactions to the scholarship.
Commentary
Media blind spot over West Papua
Maire Leadbeater pp. 168-175 .
NZ media 2007
The year of the accountant
Bill Rosenberg pp. 176-213
While the news media in New Zealand—and internationally—continued to search for their place in the increasingly digital world in 2007, the names of the companies which dominate them in New Zealand—Fairfax, APN News and Media (ANM), MediaWorks, News Corporation—remained stable. Yet even there, changes in who controls the purse strings were intensifying the commercial drivers that frequently conflict with the social needs we have for news and information. These drivers led to job losses in news rooms and intensified moves to rationalise production, in ways that aroused concern in the industry about the quality of the news available to New Zealanders. If it was the year of anything for New Zealand media, it was the year of the accountant. This review of the year 2007 surveys what happened in each media sector, and takes a closer look at the changes in the owners and their companies.
