Mediawatch

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the strange saga sparked by the sexist behaviour of Spain's football chief at the Women's World Cup final. Also - broadcasters' election plans; the political heckler problem - and alarm over the All Blacks record-breaking beating and claims Wellington's golden mile is on the slide. Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the strange saga sparked by the sexist behaviour of Spain's football chief at the Women's World Cup final. Also - broadcasters' election plans; the political heckler problem - and alarm over the All Blacks record-breaking beating and claims Wellington's golden mile is on the slide. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

It's meant to be clear what's advertising and what isn't, but 'sponsored content' and 'native advertising' blurred that line a long time ago. Now some outlets form 'partnerships' with clients to get messages across in exchange for big bucks - and even get their own journalists to help out. It's meant to be clear what's advertising and what isn't, but 'sponsored content' and 'native advertising' blurred that line a long time ago. Now some outlets form 'partnerships' with clients to get messages across in exchange for big bucks - and even get their own journalists to help out. "What's New Zealand's favorite dinner routine? We've got our go-to food guru Nadia Lim to shed some light on it," Jeremy Wells told viewers in TVNZ's Seven Sharp earlier this month. A round up of dinner-time favourites with a media-friendly food guru was fairly standard lifestyle-type fare for this show. Nadia Lim has been on it plenty of times over the years and the meal kit company she co-founded usually gets a mention. But this time Hilary Barry told viewers: "We've partnered with My Food Bag to reveal some of their insights" and sharp-eyed Seven Sharp viewers would have seen a 'brought to you by My Food Bag' message on the screen. After Lim cooked some chicken, rice and salad on Seven Sharp, she drove home the commercial message in a chit-chat with the co-hosts. "Lovely to see you. What is it about these meals that makes them so popular?" Jeremy Wells asked Lim. "I think it's the fact that now we've literally got something to suit everyone," she added, describing the expanded now range now available. Sponsored content, advertorials, paid promotions and partnershipsThere's nothing new about TV shows brought to you by sponsors.Five years ago, TVNZ ran an entire series called Mind Over Money commissioned by Kiwibank.Shortly after, TVNZ aired an entire prime time series about Qantas which was billed as fly-on-the-wall documentary but was actually made for and paid for by Qantas in Australia. There's also nothing new about news and current affairs shows being a vehicle for commercial sponsors. For years Seven Sharp's forerunner Close Up was 'Brought to you by Toyota' while the rival show on TV3, Campbell Live, was 'Driven by Mazda'. Ten years ago, the Herald on Sunday's editor Bryce Johns was made the Herald's 'head of content partnerships' and a former Sunday Star Times editor Lauren Quaintance founded an agency in Australia creating native advertising. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Brought to you by 'partners' - critics question sponsorship deals pushing clients' content into news media; IMANZ - a new umbrella body for independent local media marketing agencies; low key reveal of legislation to push big tech platforms to pay for local news.Mediawatch looks at consternation caused by content that blurs the lines between ads and news. Also - the prospects for legislation to force big tech companies to pay for local news - and can a new body representing local ad agencies really help boost local media companies?Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Long-awaited legislation to force big tech platforms to pay New Zealand media for the news they disseminate online is now before Parliament. It could give our media with much-needed money in years to come if it becomes law and also fill a funding gap for the government at the same time. But neither the media or the government have made much of it. Long-awaited legislation to force big tech platforms to pay New Zealand media for the news they disseminate online is now before Parliament.It could give our media much-needed money in years to come if it becomes law and also fill a funding gap for the government at the same time. But neither the media or the government have made much of it. "Google and Meta. Are you putting the hard word on them to secure deals to pay for content? Are you going to legislate?" Newshub Nation host Simon Shepherd asked the broadcasting and media Minister Willie Jackson when he appeared on the show a year ago. He said if the big tech platforms did not do deals with New Zealand's news media companies to pay them for the news that they carry on their search services and social platforms online he was prepared to draft a law to make it happen by arbitration "They've legislated over in Australia and Canada . . . and I want to see some fairness. I want to see all these Kiwi news organisations looked after. These big players have the funding and the resourcing to be able to do that," he said. There was some movement after that from Google, which has now done deals with almost 50 local large and small news media outlets, though the sums involved are confidential commercial secrets. One year later, Jackson was back on Newshub Nation earlier this month and that legislation to force the issue was still not out. But he said it was imminent."It has taken too long, but the main point is it's in now. Any right thinking person or right thinking party would support this," Jackson said. Income from these deals could be a significant source of revenue for cash-strapped media. But the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill wasn't launched with a ministerial media conference or even a media news release. And there wasn't an awful lot of interest in it either from the media. Reflecting on that and his weekly column Knightly News, former New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief Gavin Ellis said that might be because the bill will just die if the current government's not re-elected in two months' time. National Party broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee told Stuff this week governments should not be involved in the business of the Fourth Estate. …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 dire poll for Labour raising the spectre of a media-driven death spiral; a reorganisation at NZME; a plea for help from Discovery; a political apology from TVNZ - and does the demise of one cafe chain signal doom for the capital's CBD?In this week's edition of Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a dire poll for Labour raising the spectre of a media-driven death spiral; a reorganisation at NZME; a plea for help from Discovery; a political apology from TVNZ - and does the demise of one cafe chain signal doom for the capital's CBD? Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The Women's World Cup 2023 attracted record crowds in the stands and on TV - both here and in Australia. It also delivered drama and off-pitch stories that livened up standard sports coverage. But will all that change the way the media cover sport? Mediawatch asks two journalists with an eye on the media on both sides of the Tasman.The Women's World Cup 2023 attracted record crowds in the stands and on TV - both here and in Australia. It also delivered drama and off-pitch stories that livened up standard sports coverage. But will all that change the way the media cover sport? Mediawatch asks two journalists with an eye on the media on both sides of the Tasman.The Football Ferns peaked in the World Cup in game one on day one - scoring their one and only goal of the tournament to defeat Norway. Even though it was all downhill after that - and then out - after just three group games, Kiwis bought into the Cup in a big way.Parts of the media not normally moved to mention women's football much suddenly couldn't stop - and it wasn't all about the winners. "All respect to the losers. Without you the tournament is nothing," said longtime Newstalk ZB sportscaster D'Arcy Waldegrave on his All Sport Breakfast show. "As of midnight on Sunday, only one team will experience the unadulterated joy of ascending their sporting Sagamartha - or Everest as the colonising empire called her," he said, unleashing some Kipling-esque emotions. But the losers were literally a big part of the World Cup story. All former winners were out by the quarter-final stage, including the incumbent champs from the United States whose official advert didn't date well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfTKdHXWdhoWhile the biggest teams getting knocked out early was a novelty, the World Cup also delivered unique off-pitch stories for the media. Morocco featured the first ever hijab-clad player in a World Cup. The so-called Reggae Girls from Jamaica, who knocked out Brazil, also had the most mothers in the squad. Unlike some other teams, they had to leave families and children behind because of the expense.What went right - and wrong? No major event goes off without a hitch. The deadly Queen Street shootings on the morning of opening day shut down the fanzone in Auckland. Less seriously, the Dutch weren't happy with a rock-hard cricket wicket in their Tauranga training pitch - and at least some of the Spanish squad found Palmerston North a bit too dull. And this week, Football Ferns captain Ali Riley revealed they were nearly late for that opener against Norway because their bus was stuck in Auckland traffic. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Our World Cup runneth over - what legacy will it leave? Lifting the lid on exploitation of migrant workers and human trafficking.Mediawatch looks at media coverage of the FIFA Women's World Cup - and the legacy it might leave for our media. Also - persistent reporting that has lifted the lid on abuse of migrant workers and human trafficking in New Zealand. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A spike in shocking cases of exploitation has put the plight of migrant workers in the media spotlight. But these latest stories are part of a longstanding issue that's sometimes flown under the radar.A spike in shocking cases of exploitation has put the plight of migrant workers in the media spotlight. But these latest stories are part of a longstanding issue that's sometimes flown under the radar despite the efforts of a few journalists.On Monday, Nick Truebridge sat in the Newshub at 6 studio after it aired his story about 40 migrant workers holed up in a Papakura house without food. "I've got to say as a Kiwi it was pretty embarrassing standing there last night," he told presenters Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts. "I don't think any of us should accept this as normal."Truebridge followed that with another story the following night about four more substandard properties crowded with migrant workers.He took the Newshub camera on a tour of one of the houses, revealing crammed bedrooms and broken pipes leaking sewage under the house.That seemed less than ideal, and Truebridge explained the migrants had been subjected to these conditions after trying to find a better life under the Accredited Employer Work Visa Scheme.He's not the only one who's been covering the plight of workers suckered in by offshore immigration agents illegally selling non-existent jobs under that scheme, which Immigration NZ acknowledges is a "higher trust model" than the six visa options it replaced a year ago.At RNZ, Lucy Xia has been telling the stories of migrants allegedly exploited and left all-but destitute after being told they're heading into decent jobs.One of those victims, Keisha Kung, told Xia she survived on instant noodles and foraged food after travelling to Dunedin for work that never materialised.On Wednesday the New Zealand Herald's Lincoln Tan reported that 164 accredited employers are under investigation for migrant exploitation.At his newsletter The Kaka, Bernard Hickey has called the proliferation of immigration scams a symptom of our "churn and burn" economy."There was a time New Zealand, or at least its former PM John Key, aspired to become the 'Switzerland of the South Pacific' - providing high-value financial services to the world's richest families."Instead, we've become a version of the Dubai of the South Pacific - allowing fraudulent agents and fly-by-night firms to bring in desperate and poor workers with suggestions of high-paid jobs and residency, only to pull the rug out from under their feet and leaving them indebted and even more desperate," he wrote…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch: Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman while Australia's Matildas were playing England's Lionesses in Sydney and breaking TV viewing records. Also: election fever building in the media here; a frenzy over fruit and vegetables - and overwrought claims of collusion.Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. This week Colin Peacock talked to Mark Leishman while Australia's Matildas were playing England's Lionesses in Sydney and breaking TV viewing records. Also: election fever building in the media here; a frenzy over fruit and vegetables- and overwrought claims of collusion. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Political calls to crack down on crime are echoing in our media ahead of the upcoming election - not for the first time. Two seasoned journalists showed this was part of a pattern in a report on crime coverage which recommended new approaches. It was commissioned five years ago - but never saw the light of day. Political calls to crack down on crime are echoing in our media ahead of the upcoming election - not for the first time. Two seasoned journalists showed this was part of a pattern in a report on crime coverage which recommended new approaches. It was commissioned five years ago - but never saw the light of day. Picture this: an election is looming and one of the electorate's top concerns is seemingly out-of-control crime.Pressure groups are hammering the message that offenders are getting off lightly.They've got support from National, repeatedly accusing the incumbent Labour government of being soft on crime.Expert, evidence-based analysis of criminal justice is increasingly drowned out in the media by a clamour for more punitive measures.On the back foot and losing the public debate, Labour starts talking up legislative changes to lengthen sentences and increase penalties for crimes that hit the headlines most often.That, of course, is a description of the 2002 general election, where the Sensible Sentencing Trust and National Party leader Bill English spearheaded a tough on crime narrative following a number of high-profile murders.If it sounds familiar, it's because history repeats and everything old becomes new again in the justice debate from the 1990 election, where the National Party campaigned on a 'return to a decent society' to the upcoming one in October.All that is spelled out in a 227-page report titled 'Developing good practice in criminal justice and journalism'.It was commissioned in 2018 by the Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group (Te Uepū Hāpai i te Ora), and written by the current editor of Newsroom Pro and former editor of the Sunday Star-Times, Jonathan Milne - and by David Fisher, a senior journalist at the New Zealand Herald and former chief reporter at the Herald on Sunday."It is important our audiences are able to form an accurate picture of the communities in which they live through the media they consume. Surveys on public perception of crime show this is not the case. The surveys also show our communities develop these inaccurate perceptions through the media they consume," the report concluded. The report calls for reporters to include context and facts about crime - to explain the 'why', rather than just the 'what' and the 'how'…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details