Twitter emerged as an important source of live updates, news and images during the Arab Spring more than a decade ago. Many in the media also joined the platform to share news and commentary with users worldwide. But a year after Elon Musk took it over, 'X' is a mess - and a group of local users recently gathered to 'Bury the Bird' for good. Twitter emerged as an important source of live updates, news and images during the Arab Spring more than a decade ago. Many in the media also joined the platform to share news and commentary with users worldwide. But a year after Elon Musk took it over, X is a mess - and a group of local users recently gathered to 'Bury the Bird' for good. Last week the UK hosted a summit on the dangers of AI at Bletchley Park, the site of the celebrated Enigma code-breaking effort in World War II. The British government said that they hoped the presence of the world's richest ever entrepreneur, Elon Musk, would "attract international attention". It did. Musk's interview with the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also made headlines when it was livestreamed on the social media platform that Musk owns - X, formerly Twitter."Having a referee is a good thing. And if you look at any sports game, there's always a referee. And nobody's suggesting to have a sports game without one," Musk told Sunak when asked how AI advances should be regulated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjdVlmBjRCA"I think the right way to think about this is for governments to be a referee to make sure there's sportsmanlike conduct and public safety is addressed. We care about public safety," Musk told Sunak. That would ring hollow for users of X who blame Musk for systematically dismantling 15 years' worth of moderation at Twitter in the past year since he bought it. Two days later, Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan he bought Twitter to save it from an "extinctionist mind virus" - but it's Musk himself who seems to be speeding up Twitter's decline - and possible extinction. Twitter was heavily used by the media because it became a powerful way of spreading and sharing news as well as commenting on it. Its other unique selling point was 'micro-blogging' - making it possible to post short, sharp messages for followers of individual accounts and directly to some of the best-known and most powerful people and institutions in the world. But Musk has driven a series of changes over the past year which slashed the platform's value by more than half while also destroying most of its value to its users, including the media and journalists. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mediawatch - A business lobby group is urging New Zealand to emulate Ireland, which has a GDP twice as big as ours - but is the GDP picture warped? The incoming government wants to grow the economy and attract more foreign investment.A leading business lobby group is urging us to emulate Ireland, which had a GDP the same size as ours 30 years ago, but now has a GDP twice as big. The statistics are sobering, but is that the full picture? One of the areas where there may have to be compromises between the parties forming a new government is economic policy. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters' views on the economy, international trade and foreign investment "pre-date Rogernomics, in that he has staunchly opposed the neo-liberal views held sacred by the Thatcherite ideologues within the business community, the Luxon-led National Party and the Act Party", columnist Gordon Campbell wrote at Scoop.co.nz. On his site Politik, veteran political journalist Richard Harman said National would "have to tread between two very different views of how to grow New Zealand's economy". He pointed to a freshly-published report from The NZ Initiative (NZI) think-tank called Irish Secrets - An Irish lesson in prosperity.Harman said one set of figures stood out in the report: In 1990, New Zealand GDP per head was just under $US15,000 - slightly ahead of Ireland's. By last year, Ireland's had jumped to $US127,000, but ours was only $US52,000.The Irish Secrets report followed a week-long tour of Ireland by three dozen businesspeople in June. "The Emerald Isle leapt forward, leaving the Land of the Long White Cloud in its wake. Ireland now sits just below the US at sixth while New Zealand languishes at 20th," NZ Initiative chair Roger Partridge wrote in the New Zealand Herald on their return, about what he called "prosperity's most meaningful measure" - GDP per capita.After the Ireland visit in July, NZI executive director Oliver Hartwich made the post-1990 GDP comparison in an interview with Reality Check Radio."Ireland has commonsense and we have ideology," he said.NZI published a more detailed report - Benchmarking New Zealand's Economic Performance Against Ireland's - in August. This report said Ireland's GDP per capita in 2020 was far higher than any other OECD member country, except Luxembourg, because "Ireland has attracted so much overseas investment that a significant proportion of what it produces at home belongs to overseas investors." …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

This week Mediawatch looks at how the media have followed the formation of the next government going on behind closed doors. Also: a push to persuade policymakers to emulate Ireland's economy - and local media people lamenting the decline of what was the media's favourite social media platform, Twitter. This week Mediawatch looks at how the media have followed the formation of the next government going on behind closed doors. Also: a push to persuade policymakers to emulate Ireland's economy - and local media people lamenting the decline of what was the media's favourite social media platform, Twitter. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about political reporters' ongoing efforts to get party leaders to talk about forming a new government and media companies' growing financial problems. Also - an opportunity for journalists honouring Brian Gaynor - and the UK press picks up on the controversial British TV star accused of 'colonising' a Tasman town. Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about political reporters' ongoing efforts to get party leaders to talk about forming a new government and media companies' growing financial problems. Also - an opportunity for journalists honouring Brian Gaynor - and the UK press picks up on the controversial British TV star accused of 'colonising' a Tasman town. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Protecting people who offer the media important information is a fundamental obligation for journalists. Chris Cooke quit TVNZ after it didn't keep a promise to Erin Leighton, whose off-the-record disclosures ended up being aired in court in the defence of her abusers. They're now pushing for a 'shield law' to ensure our media can guarantee confidentiality.Mediawatch - Protecting people who offer the media important information is a fundamental obligation.Producer Chris Cooke quit TVNZ after it failed to keep a promise to a sexual assault victim, whose off the record disclosures ended up being aired in court in defence of her abusers. Cooke and the victim, Erin Leighton, are now pushing for a 'shield law' to ensure our media can guarantee confidentiality. Last month, convicted fraudster Paul Bennett and a woman, whose name is suppressed, were sentenced to a term of imprisonment for offending against Erin Leighton in 2008, a crime the judge described as "completely premeditated."Suppression orders prevented the media from reporting details of that case until the pair's recent conviction and sentencing. But Leighton, a teenager at the time she was abused by the pair, waived her own right to name suppression to pursue justice. Bennett was previously the subject of plenty of news stories, when he was tried for fraud after skipping to Australia in a stolen yacht. Leighton spoke to TVNZ's Sunday about her frustration that the couple were known to be in Australia, but had not faced justice here for the offences against her. She gave TVNZ an interview on the understanding her account of the offending would remain confidential - but footage ended up being played in the Auckland District Court as part of Bennett's defence. Lawyers for both defendants highlighted differences between Leighton's accounts in a 2008 police interview video and the TVNZ footage from 2015.Last week the New Zealand Herald said TVNZ had gone to court to oppose the release but eventually complied with a court order under the Criminal Disclosure Act. "TVNZ (was) compelled by the courts to provide specific material for the purposes of a fair trial. There were no further realistic legal avenues left for us to pursue, regardless of how individuals felt at the time," TVNZ told the Herald.But former TVNZ producer Chris Cooke told the Herald that TVNZ breached a promise to Leighton to keep the interview confidential. Cooke said he had urged TVNZ to challenge the decision and honour a commitment it had made to Erin Leighton that it would appeal to a higher court to prevent the release of the interview footage. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Discussion on the need for laws to protect journalists' sources; coverage of the Gaza airstrike and criticism of Rugby World Cup; opinions on the quality of the Rugby final and concerns for its future; the story of Erin Layton and frustrations over extradition; push for a shield law; controversy over rugby refereeing and Elon Musk's views on AI; downfall of Twitter under Musk's management and the future of social media.

Anger about rules and referees ruining rugby matches ran for days in the media after last weekend's Rugby World Cup final. Players, pundits and even current national coaches have said the game is 'broken' and bad to watch. But billions ofdollars of media companies' money keep rugby going - so will the media fix it for fans?Anger about rules and referees ruining rugby matches ran for days in the media after last weekend's Rugby World Cup final. Players, pundits and even current national coaches have said the game is 'broken' and bad to watch. But billions of dollars of media companies' money keep rugby going - so will the media fix it for fans? Most fans hoping international rugby's biggest showpiece would be a spectacle didn't get what they hoped for from last weekend's Rugby World Cup final. But some could see that coming. Two days before the final, on the academic website The Conversation, University of Cape Town academic Clive Thompson crunched the numbers and concluded an early red card could ruin the final. "The spectacle is lost whenever there is a mismatch in numbers," he wrote presciently. TVNZ's rugby presenter Scotty Stevenson told Seven Sharp the day after the All Blacks lost by one point that World Rugby's rules had turned top rugby games into "a crime scene".Plenty of others thought so too -- though few fans here were saying that when New Zealand ended up one point ahead after an even lower scoring one-try slugfest final in Auckland back in 2011.Israel Dagg was one of the winners that day, but on Sky Sports' live coverage last Sunday he condemned the game as a "snore fest" not good enough for a final and he reckoned the refereeing had ruined it. "This is our showpiece event being overshadowed by a couple of people . . . taking the glory and gloss away from the players that have worked their absolute butts off. There's people out there absolutely spitting tacks, he said. And was at half-time with the result still in doubt. Having paid millions for exclusive live rights to rugby, it was hardly what Sky TV bosses wanted subscribers to hear. Later on his own radio station SENZ Dagg said: "You can see why people switch the game. It's boring as hell." TVNZ's Andrew Savile told Newstalk ZB, "it wasn't a great advertisement for rugby." ZB's own Mike Hosking was even more scathing. "Rugby isn't cool. It can still be played well, but too often it isn't. Yes, the All Blacks lost - but not as badly as rugby did," he told ZB listeners last Monday. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a comparative lack of coverage on Gaza, sympathy for Supie's leaders even as their employees miss out, and a wake for the Twitter-that-was.Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. This week Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about media coming under fire reporting the war in Gaza - and the low profile of it in the news here. Also sympathy for founders of Supie after its surprisingly sudden collapse (but not so much for its workers); a 'wake' for Twitter; scepticism of alarming claims about Otago University initiations - and an embarrassing double-up by a major paper. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Major news media outfits have cut back in the regions in recent years. That doesn't just leave locals worse off - it also means all New Zealanders miss out on important ideas, events and perspectives. But even though the media's margins are tight, intrepid publishers and people are still doing the business there. Mediawatch checks in on Whanganui to find out how their media are doing - and how they're doing it.Major news media outfits have cut back in the regions in recent years. That doesn't just leave locals worse off - it also means all New Zealanders miss out on important ideas, events and perspectives. But even though the media's margins are tight, intrepid publishers and people are still doing the business there. Mediawatch checks in on Whanganui to find out how their media are doing - and how they're doing it.​At the front desk of the River City Press in Whanganui, John and Sandra Singleton are lining up to buy ads.She's a psychic numerologist. He's there to drum up interest in his local jazz orchestra. "With us, you can either come listen to music or have your bumps read, so it's either/or," says John."I don't do bumps!" retorts Sandra. "Be careful what you say, my boy."The Singletons have their quirks. For one thing, Singleton may not be their real name. They tell Mediawatch they chose it, perhaps to save people the hassle of memorising a double-barrelled surname. Despite having the same last name, the couple are only just about to get married after 59 years together."We've just been trying one another," says John. If they've taken their time committing to their relationship, they've had no trouble making a financial commitment to the Press.They're both regular advertisers in the free weekly paper - and far from the only ones. When Mediawatch comes to visit, the paper's only front page story is wedged between ads for electricians, plumbers, mechanics, vocational training and half-price mattresses.In an office next to a rusting old bicycle, its sole reporter, the 71-year-old former teacher Doug Davidson, is working on a story about a pair of local musicians. Debbie Jarrett.His job is the result of a late career change. He'd been teaching for about 20 years when he saw a reporter role at the Press advertised and applied on a whim."They considered that an older person might be a better fit for a community newspaper," he says."I think it suits the older clientele, but also after 20 or 30 years in a town you make a lot of contacts, and they can be very important."…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Discover how some local media outlets in Whanganui are thriving despite the challenges faced by media companies nationwide. Learn about the success and challenges of community newspapers in the digital age, the importance of local news coverage and diverse perspectives, and the role of FM radio stations in preserving cultural heritage and identity.