Author: Gavin Ellis

Gavin Ellis is a media consultant, commentator and researcher. He holds a doctorate in political studies. A former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, he is the author of Trust Ownership and the Future of News: Media Moguls and White Knights (London, Palgrave) and Complacent Nation (Wellington, BWB Texts). His consultancy clients include media organisations and government ministries. His Tuesday Commentary on media matters appears weekly on his site www.whiteknightnews.com

NZ media must rise from Covid blitz

TUESDAY COMMENTARY

‘Post-war’ reconstruction

This week New Zealand media organisations are participating in a series of workshops that aim to help them through the commercial turmoil of the Covid-19 lockdown. It is an invaluable initiative by the Ministry for  Culture and Heritage that should provide some immediate relief, but no-one should expect it to be the long-term answer to their plight.

If our private sector media are to remain standing when the nation recovers from the aftermath of the pandemic, virtual workshops need to be followed by their own version of the Bretton Woods Conference that reset world financial systems after the Second World War. Continue reading “NZ media must rise from Covid blitz” →

Hurricane in the neighbourhood

Community newspapers

News is like a hurricane: The closer it gets, the more important it becomes to you.

Right now, it feels like we are in Tornado Alley, staring down a twister dangerous enough to cut a path of utter destruction through our own community.

Our hurricane has been designated Covid-19 and we face it without our most locally focussed media. Continue reading “Hurricane in the neighbourhood” →

Adversity journalism

Tomorrow the country will be at Covid-19 Alert Level 4 and reduced to essential services. It is time for New Zealand media to shift to adversity journalism.

This will require journalists and news organisations to see themselves as part of the national effort to defeat the enemy and not as dispassionate observers. They continue to have a role in holding power to account, but in ways that contribute to that national effort. Continue reading “Adversity journalism” →

Balanced on Covid-19 tightrope

Surviving members of the Flying Wallendas high wire act would tell you: Balance is a tricky thing. Get it right, and you earned public acclamation. Get it wrong, and you fell to your death.

That’s what the public came to see. They were drawn by the possibility that the aerialist could fall to the floor of the Grand Canyon or the pavement between two skyscrapers.

Harnesses or safety nets now minimise the risk and treading a tightrope between New York’s tallest is, you might say, tightly regulated. Nonetheless, professional pride means there is nothing more ignominious than dangling helplessly from the end of a safety harness.

Losing balance is equally degrading for news media. Continue reading “Balanced on Covid-19 tightrope” →