Mediawatch

New Zealand's biggest publisher of news this week joined big global names in blocking Open AI from using its content to power generative artificial intelligence tool Chat GPT. Stuff says it is being harvested without permission for AI products already turning out low-quality results. Mediawatch asks Stuff's if keeping Ai at arm's length is a good move. New Zealand's biggest publisher of news this week joined big global names in blocking Open AI from using its content to power generative artificial intelligence tool Chat GPT. Stuff says it is being harvested without permission for AI products already turning out low-quality results. Mediawatch asks Stuff if keeping AI at arm's length is a good move. "It's not that we're stealing your content. We want to just be a neutral librarian helping you find the right book - but not not having written in the book," Google's chief technology advocate Michael Jones told Mediawatch in 2012. Back then, Google itself was only eight years old, but already news publishers were worried about how many people were finding their news through it. Critics complained its online search had created a 'walled garden' around the online content it had indexed so well. "I cannot imagine us saying; 'Get the news from Google - and we'll tell you what the news was'. It feels very awkward," said Jones at Project evolution, a conference at AUT all about the growing impact of online digital technology and social media.Jones died two years ago, shortly before the launch of the first generative AI applications. And among those which are creating a version of the news for users is Google's own AI service Bard. Last month, the New York Times reported Google was testing an AI tool called Genesis, which uses AI technology to write news articles. Google reportedly pitched this to US news outlets as an aid for journalists, rather than a replacement for them. Earlier this month at another Auckland University of Technology event - the AI + Communications Symposium - former journalist and PR strategist Catherine Arrow warned Google's walled garden could become something much more restricted."Search engines created a walled garden where we can pick and choose what they've decided are the best blooms. As we get into search generative experience (SGE), we find ourselves only shown the flowers that they decide that we can look at. There's a real danger there," she said. AI services like Google's Bard and Microsoft Bing Chat and Open AI's ChatGPT respond to simple prompts from users and then summarise information scraped from the internet - including news produced in the first place by publishers. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Un-spun numbers don't derail duelling versions of the economy; Stuff keeps AI at arm's length; medical school row - and a made-up university.Mediawatch this week talks to the boss of our biggest publisher of news - Stuff - confronting the disruption of artificial intelligence technology. Also: election campaign arguments about the state of our finances - and education. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the coverage of two huge disasters in North Africa; a little local political difficulty in Dunedin - and political party leaders under heavy scrutiny on TV. Also: a much-hyped weekend of sport which didn't go well for our national teams - and whether pets on planes, trains and buses is really a good idea. Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the coverage of two huge disasters in North Africa; a little local political difficulty in Dunedin - and political party leaders under heavy scrutiny on TV. Also: a much-hyped weekend of sport which didn't go well for our national teams - and whether pets on planes, trains and buses is really a good idea. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Business is booming in artificial intelligence technology and new applications appear in the news almost daily. At an AUT symposium this week, experts said it's already being deployed in creative industries to create instant ad campaigns, virtual influencers, robo-journalism and machine-made music. But is AI a creative collaborator - or just a 'handy butler'? Business is booming in artificial intelligence technology and new applications appear in the news almost daily. At an AUT symposium this week, experts said it's already being deployed in creative industries to create instant ad campaigns, virtual influencers, robo-journalism and machine-made music. But is AI a creative collaborator - or just a 'handy butler'? "Artificial intelligence has moved forward at such dizzying speed over the last year it's rarely out of the news. And it's mostly bad news," says Nikki Mandow in a new Newsroom podcast series (with the help of a commercial sponsor): AI - Harnessing The Speed Of ChangeOne industry working out how to harness AI is the media - and the news media is wrestling with how it is already being harnessed by AI. Generative AI products - such as Chat GPT, Google Bard and Microsoft's BingChat can generate text, images and audio automatically in response to simple requests - and the most powerful of the applications are already crawling all over the news media for its input. Google has done this for years to inform its online searches. But while Google's algorithm gives searchers dozens of choices from the online information it has indexed, AI-powered search generative experience (SGE) responds to requests with a single summary that's meant to be reliable and factual. Earlier this year Gordon Crovitz, the founder of the US-based fake-news detection service Newsguard, told Mediawatch the chatbots are not that good at it yet."AI models will create highly persuasive well written radio scripts or newspaper articles that are written beautifully with perfect grammar - and completely false. And the machines don't know the difference unless they've been trained. They end up repeating misinformation, The AI can get even worse as the developers think they're making it better," he warned. Last week The UK-based Guardian confirmed that it has prevented the Chat GPT-maker OpenAI from harvesting its content.CNN, Reuters, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, the New York Times are also reportedly blocking AI aps onlineBut the same AI tools extracting useful stuff from news media can also be handy for them in gathering and publishing the news and producing it digitally. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Herald copped criticism for publishing a front-page attack ad targeting the National Party leader this week - but it was far from the first time ads like it have appeared in print. Meanwhile questions were asked about other coverage that looked like it might be taking sides as the official campaign period begins. The Herald copped criticism for publishing a front-page attack ad targeting the National Party leader this week - but it was far from the first time ads like it have appeared in print. Meanwhile questions were asked about other coverage that looked like it might be taking sides as the official campaign period begins. "You've got to survive in the media. You got to take the ads," Newstalk ZB morning host Kerre Woodham told listeners last Monday, explaining the the controversial Council of Trade Union ad labelling the National Party leader "out of touch and too risky".It was clearly an election advocacy ad - and it was identified as such in the Herald. But as soon as the ad came through the NZME ad department, the senior editors there must have known devoting the front page to it would become a news story. The afternoon host at the Herald's NZME stablemate NewstalkZB, Andrew Dickens, certainly thought so. "I think this is news. This is why I'm talking about it on the radio. I'm not involved with this decision. . . but I think they need to write about it and say how they actually determine who gets the 'wraparound'," he told his listeners. The Herald top brass wasn't keen on that, but election ads on the front page aren't entirely unprecedented. A former Herald editor, Tim Murphy, pointed out the Weekend Herald has allowed the National Party to add detachable blue stickers late in previous campaigns.And once papers opened the door to wraparound front-and-back page ads for retailers (who paid a pretty penny for them during the Covid-19 crisis), it was only a matter of time before someone selling political messages rather than fridges took up the space as well. The CTU ad was within the rules for political promotion by third parties. As long as they registered, they can spend the thick end of $400,000 on ads doing down political opponents if they want to. Gordon Campbell on scoop.co.nz said that apart from the front-page spot, there was nothing really novel about an ad criticising a party leader who was actively campaigning as the embodiment of his party's policies. And while the CTU's campaign also appeared on billboards and social media platforms the same day, it was its appearance on the front page of a paper obliged to cover the campaign fairly which raised eyebrows…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Angst over advocacy adverts and content as official election period begins; AI - coming ready or not for news and music.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 National's attempt to weather a storm of journalistic scrutiny of its tax plan, Patrick Gower's unusual aquatic analogy for Winston Peters, and a controversial front page ad in the New Zealand Herald.In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about National's attempt to weather a storm of journalistic scrutiny of its tax plan, Patrick Gower's unusual aquatic analogy for Winston Peters, and a controversial front page ad in the New Zealand Herald.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

As National announced its long-awaited tax plan, some journalists took a hard look at its numbers, while others focused more on political strategy and impact.As National announced its long-awaited tax plan, some journalists took a hard look at its numbers, while others focused more on political strategy and perception.National leader Christopher Luxon started the day of his party's long-awaited tax policy announcement assuring Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking his numbers were "rock solid".After several elections batting off accusations of fiscal holes and other budgetary misadventures, National had commissioned the consultancy Castalia Advisors to check its plan and it found them to be, in the words of the party's deputy leader Nicola Willis, "possible and plausible".Luxon wasn't giving Hosking all the details of his possible and plausible schemes, but he was saying who they would benefit, setting a record for use of the phrase "squeezed middle" in a five-minute timeframe. The party's effort to relieve the squeeze was unveiled a few hours later and that prompted a tide of headlines trumpeting the tax plan offering the average household $250 a fortnight. That was something of a coup for National's PR team. Not only did they get news organisations to highlight the biggest figure from their press release; they got them to use their preferred unit of measurement for people (households rather than individuals) and time (fortnightly rather than weekly).As Thomas Coughlan noted in the New Zealand Herald, that made the figures look larger - and presumably made the party's political sales job a little easier.$250 a fortnight - or $125 a week as it's sometimes known - would still be a pretty good tension remover for the tightly compressed middle.But as it turns out, National may be unclenching with one hand and squeezing with the other. Its $250-a-fortnight saving for an average family with kids includes $150 from its Family Boost tax credit.But that credit would also replace the 20 hours of free childcare for two-year-olds that Labour offered in this year's Budget. That could be worth around $133 a week for families - or $266 a fortnight.That - according to a robust, consultant cross-checked Mediawatch statistical analysis - is more than $150. Or even $250 (though it is obviously more targeted and comes with less flexibility than a cash handout).Other fishhooks were highlighted in the media as the day wore on.TVNZ Breakfast producer Tom Day flicked through National's tax plan to find a single line noting it would scrap Labour's Community Connect scheme.https://twitter.com/tomdaynz/status/1696687537929281716…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Mongrel and maths collide as campaigns launch - and media ponder National's tax plan; scrutiny of candidates' online footprints prompts pushback and claims of 'agendas'.Mediawatch looks at how the media handled the biggest opposition policy announcement so far in the election campaign - the National Party's proposals on tax. Also: increased scrutiny of some of the candidates for a seat in Parliament - which also sparked a backlash against the media. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Scrutiny of political parties' policies intensified this week - and so did the scrutiny of some candidates for seats in Parliament. When TVNZ reported some election candidates' controversial past statements this week, critics hit back with claims its own news was compromised. Scrutiny of political parties' policies intensified this week - and so did the scrutiny of some candidates for seats in Parliament. When TVNZ reported some election candidates' controversial past statements this week, critics hit back with claims its own news was compromised. TVNZ recently revealed one ACT candidate had resigned after social media posts comparing Covid restrictions to Nazi concentration camps came to light.Another another ACT candidate apologised for comments made during the occupation of Parliament calling the former prime minister 'Jabcinda' and suggesting drowning victims had died from the Covid vaccine."I was just asking questions. It wasn't actually my genuine belief," he told 1News.Last Tuesday 1 News reported a senior ACT MP already in Parliament also had some 'out there' views that were out there on social media before he entered Parliament MP Mark Cameron had said "climate change is a hoax or that people who think the planet is warming are nut jobs". The Spinoff's Toby Manhire found plenty more where that came from in MP Mark Cameron's Twitter account. But when Benedict Collins pressed David Seymour about that last Monday, the ACT leader accused him of "B-grade journalism". In reply, Collins pointed out Cameron could be a Cabinet minister after the upcoming election. But Seymour did have one media voice in his corner for his criticism of TVNZ's news judgment."Trying to drag that up... is really just B-grade journalism," Mike Hosking told his Newstalk ZB listeners last Tuesday morning. But it wasn't TVNZ's inquiries into the ACT MP which wound him up as much as a story in the media last week - the publicly funded Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority buying airtime on TVNZ news shows last year."Their defence was that in the corner of the screen allegedly was some sort of recognition that the EECA was involved. Now that - in my 42 years in this industry - does not even come close to covering your badly exposed arse," he said.Hosking reckoned TVNZ's news story about Act MP Cameron was connected. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details