Mediawatch

Mary Holm's been writing about personal finance weekly for the same paper for more than 25 years. But she tells Mediawatch it's really the readers who have kept it going. Mary Holm's been writing about personal finance weekly for the same paper for more than 25 years. But she tells Mediawatch it's really the readers who have kept it going. "I want to thank all those who have sent in letters over the years - and especially the majority whose questions didn't make it into the paper. Without them, there would be no column." Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In this week's Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about the Greens' entire manifesto crowded out by coverage of a single law and order tweak from Act . Also a Mediawatch mess-up; a sub-par speed limit story; more BBC presenter problems, commentators cheering Cane's kick (or was it a trip?) and remembering Steve Orsbourn.In this week's Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about the Greens' entire manifesto crowded out by coverage of a single law and order tweak from Act . Also a Mediawatch mess-up; a sub-par speed limit story; more BBC presenter problems, commentators cheering Cane's kick (or was it a trip?) and remembering Steve Orsbourn. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Political reporters often say people need to get to know National leader Christopher Luxon. But he's ubiquitous in the media and has been in the job 18 months. Is it possible he's unknowable? Or is it time to retire the narrative?Political reporters often say people need to get to know National leader Christopher Luxon. But he is ubiquitous in the media and has been in the job 18 months. Is it possible he is unknowable? Or is it time to retire the narrative?Back in November last year, 1News political editor Jessica Mutch-McKay delivered some frank political advice to National leader Christopher Luxon during a panel discussion on RNZ's Morning Report."We've been encouraging him to do some more photo opportunities," she said. "People need to get to know him."The idea that voters have not got to know Luxon has become a kind of received wisdom in the press gallery and political circles.Newsroom political editor Jo Moir cited some on-the-street evidence for the theory on the site's weekly podcast Raw Politics back in April."Certainly I do my best to talk to people in the regions, have done a little bit of that lately," she said. "They still say they don't know who Chris Luxon is and what he stands for."That sentiment hit the headlines again this week after Luxon was confronted on his lack of cut-through with the public by cafe owner Michelle Cam during a carefully choreographed walkabout in Tawa.She recounted the conversation to Newstalk ZB's Nick Mills later that day."I just feel like I never see him out," she said. "It always seems to be Labour you see on TV and doing stuff in the media. We need to get to know him more. We need to know what he's about."Luxon's own MPs say the same thing. On Mills' show, National deputy leader Nicola Willis told him people just need to see the 24/7 Luxon she does."She was just really clear - 'more people need to get to know you'," she said. "And I think she's right. The more people get to know Chris, the more people hear National's plans, the more support we will get in this election."In March, National health spokesman Shane Reti blamed a poor preferred prime minister result for Luxon on voters not sharing his up-close, all-hours experience of the party leader. "I see the man that you don't see. I see the man after hours, and get to have those conversations and I think if New Zealanders can see that, they'll be as impressed as I am," he told RNZ."There are still many parts, many facets of Chris Luxon to be revealed to the public, and I'm impressed and I stand behind him."…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The New Zealand Herald column Sideswipe ended in May after a 21-year run. Its creator attributes its longevity to good curation and building a community.The New Zealand Herald column Sideswipe ended in May after a 21-year run. Its creator attributes its longevity to good curation and building a community.When Sideswipe ended in May, the question some people asked was how it had survived so long. The New Zealand Herald column collating quips and oddities from around the internet and sometimes from its readers ran for 21 years.When it started, the world wide web was still in its dial-up era. There was no Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, or TikTok. Even Myspace did not exist.When those platforms came along, some predicted Sideswipe's demise. Jokes and quirky news were not just easy to come by on social media; they often arrived unbidden, in a torrent.But Sideswipe kept trucking along in spite of that, outlasting every other column in the country and a number of media outlets - from Buzzfeed News to myriad local papers - that big tech did manage to murder.Even its death in May has not been permanent.Sideswipe has emerged, Jesus, or perhaps, cockroach-like from the grave, finding a place in The Listener's new digital subscription service under a new name, Ana Samways' Digital Bonfire.Samways said creating a community and careful curation were the keys to her column enduring in the face of online headwinds."I started before all that happened so I think I had a captive audience who couldn't be arsed finding their own content so they wanted it curated for them. They're busy people and you just have to scroll through so much to get the gold. So I think that's part of why it worked."Samways said Sideswipe was partly successful as one of the first "snackable" media offerings.It also helped that it did not have the same mean tone or toxic content of a place like Twitter, she said."Not being horrible because the internet is a nasty, nasty world out there and I think that really made a difference."Samways said there was not much fanfare at NZME over the end of the column, despite its longevity."My understanding is there was still a decent amount of engagement, decent amount of readers. Like everything these days, it comes down to money and you've only got a limited amount and you've got choices to make and you make choices based on what you think is going to be most profitable for your organisation."Ana Samways' Digital Bonfire might have elements of Sideswipe, but it was more likely to contain more opinion and investigative work, she said…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

100 days to go; unknown Luxon; Listener goes online and brings back NZ's longest lasting columnist; confusing news on the economy. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Midweek Mediawatch - Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the reaction to two politicians who both filled the front page of The Post this past week: cabinet minister Kiri Allan and Wellington mayor Tory Whanau. Also: the PM dodges a China crisis - and intense coverage of petrol pump pain. Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch's weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talks to Mark Leishman about the reaction to two politicians who both filled the front page of The Post this past week: cabinet minister Kiri Allan and Wellington mayor Tory Whanau. Also: the PM navigates a China crisis - and intense coverage of petrol pump pain.Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

A new report says the arts and culture get just half of the space in our media that's devoted to sport. Mediawatch asks a leading local culture critic if the arts are just a 'nice to have' for our media now - and why he's warned cultural criticism could disappear with the older Pākehā blokes like him. A new report says the arts and culture get just half of the space in our media that is devoted to sport. Mediawatch asks a leading local culture critic if the arts are just a 'nice to have' for our media now - and why he is warned cultural criticism could disappear with the older Pākehā blokes like him.Creative New Zealand inadvertently picked a pretty intense week to release a new survey showing the media coverage of arts and culture issues is dwindling. One day earlier the media were finally able to publish a flood of stories about the crimes of multi-millionaire arts benefactor and patron Sir James Wallace, following a four-year legal tussle over name suppression that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The crimes were described by many in the media as a "worst kept secret" but on Morning Report the next day longtime arts writer and RNZ producer Mark Amery pointed out plenty of people engaged in the arts - including in organisations Wallace backed - would not have known the truth.Amery also pointed out Sir James' financial input into the arts was such that the revelation raises significant questions about future funding which arts writers will now have to confront as well. "I think that's good. I think there's a lot of silence for artists (who) don't want to bite the hand that feeds. There's a very interesting tension in the arts over where the money comes from," Amery told Mediawatch. How the arts are covered in our media had already been on Amery's mind when - before the Wallace revelation - he wrote his final weekly arts column for the capital's daily The Post this week. "Like journalism, the arts ask us to consider other perspectives. Both our differences and commonalities become more visible in the media and we need to report them with care - something we currently struggle to resource," he said. That was thrown into sharp relief by Creative New Zealand's Visibility Matters survey of arts and culture coverage in New Zealand media, which Amery himself suggested to the national arts funding body. Isentia's breakdown of media content in the year to June 2022 found 25 percent of our media coverage is about sport - but arts and culture only accounts for half as much. It said the arts coverage was "diluted and sparse" and about three quarters of it was consumer-focused stuff about TV, film and music. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

The shock of the news - and a critical shortage in the state of the arts; TVNZ top-table changes; reserving the right to be wrong - even in an emergency.This week Mediawatch looks at a new survey which found that the arts and culture gets only a half of the coverage that our media devote to sports. A leading local critic tells Mediawatch how to improve that - and the quality of arts criticism. Mediawatch also looks at a watchdog's ruling on broadcasts that downplayed the danger of Cyclone Gabrielle earlier this year. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

Dolphins mating in a prime-time TV documentary was deemed a breach of broadcasting standards this week by the broadcasting watchdog - but dismissing official information and experts on air during Cyclone Gabrielle was not.Dolphins mating in a prime-time TV documentary was deemed a breach of broadcasting standards this week by the broadcasting watchdog - but dismissing official information and experts on air during Cyclone Gabrielle was not. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In this week's Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a titanic amount of coverage of the Titan submersible tragedy. Also: complaints about an unfair focus on Christopher Luxon; a harsh headline for Michael Wood; media caning Chiefs' captain for post-defeat no-show - and a tonally jarring lifestyle mag on the supermarket shelves. In this week's Midweek Mediawatch, Hayden Donnell talks to Mark Leishman about a titanic amount of coverage of the Titan submersible tragedy. Also: complaints about an unfair focus on Christopher Luxon; a harsh headline for Michael Wood; media caning Chiefs' captain for post-defeat no-show - and a tonally jarring lifestyle mag on the supermarket shelves. Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details