Latest canary in coalmine littered with dead birds

 Crux, one of New Zealand’s most outstanding regional digital news start-ups, has “gone into hibernation” and there is a question mark over whether it can emerge from a deep sleep.

The creation of news veteran Peter Newport, Crux has been serving the Southern Lakes area since 2018 (and more recently Dunedin) on a combination of digital advertising, subscriptions, and contestable government funding.

The latter dried up with the present government’s cessation of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, although segments such as Local Democracy and Open Justice continue to be funded. Crux’s access to government money has stopped and the other two sources are insufficient to sustain it.

Newport, as its founder and managing editor, announced the “hibernation” during a media panel at the Queenstown Writers’ Festival. There was no small irony in the choice of venue. Sitting next to him was Media Minister Paul Goldsmith. He said in the announcement of the ‘hibernation’ that the minister had asked for an urgent review of regional media. However, this is probably no more than a reference by Goldsmith to the task of “supporting rural connectivity initiatives around New Zealand”  that he has delegated to his Under-Secretary Jenny Marcroft.

Goldsmith has picked up Labour’s Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill as a way for our media to extract money from the transnational search and social media platforms. If it has any chance of success (and I have my doubts) one thing is certain: local and regional operators like Crux will receive a pittance, if anything, from such ‘bargaining’. Continue reading “Latest canary in coalmine littered with dead birds” →

History moulded by molten lead

You know you are old when the subjects in a history book are people you have met.

I had that experience ambling through Ian F. Grant’s Pressing On, the second volume of his history of New Zealand newspapers.

It is shorter than his first volume Lasting Impressions – 670 pages against 676 pages – and covers the period 1921 to 2000. However, it wasn’t the modern era that threw up names I knew well. I found myself recognising characters that first entered the industry before or shortly after the Second World War.

There is one particular photograph to which I was drawn. It pictures the editorial staff of the Hawera Star in 1948. In the front row is a fresh-faced Pat Booth who would later earn an indelible place in New Zealand journalism as a crusading editor and investigative journalist. At the end of the row stands Harry Dansey, still bearing the memories of the fierce fighting he witnessed as a member of the 28th Māori Battalion. Continue reading “History moulded by molten lead” →

Issues of avoidance: Bomb threats…or news in general

 

Our news media had a tough call to make over the weekend on whether or not to report a bomb threat. Did they get it right?

The incident in question related to a trans-Tasman Air New Zealand flight from Wellington that was held on the tarmac at Sydney Airport for an hour over what a passenger described as “a bomb threat”.

Radio New Zealand reported the incident as a bomb threat (after Australian media first did so) and the RNZ report was reproduced by other New Zealand media including NZME, Stuff, and TVNZ. OneNews carried a report on its 6pm bulletin that made no mention of bomb threats but the TVNZ website continued to run with the RNZ story.

The RNZ story quoted a passenger on the flight, who said that the pilot had reported “a slight problem” but 10 minutes later another passenger showed her a news report saying there was a bomb threat. The passenger went on to state the reaction of passengers and offered a theory on the threat: “There may have been a note on the plane – that is what caused this – so we all sort of gathered the note had been picked up on the plane.”

For its part, Air New Zealand simply issued a statement saying it was aware of “a security incident” on the flight and that “standard security protocols” were followed.

There was a delay of about an hour in disembarking and processing the passengers, and the return flight was cancelled. However, the operations of the airport do not appear to have been otherwise affected.

The question is: Should the incident have been reported as a bomb threat? Continue reading “Issues of avoidance: Bomb threats…or news in general” →

The trolls stood on the burning deck

The sinking of HMNZS Manawanui has brought out three of the nastier human traits: The belief that everything is black-and-white, the readiness to rush to judgement, and the targeting of people who are already down. Sorry, make that four. We must not overlook plain old-fashioned bigotry.

Social media – the alter-ego of the disaffected – was the obvious avenue through which these baser instincts were given air. They were amplified, however, by some media who used faux outrage to repeat them.

Among the worst was the Daily Mail Australia, whose story of “vicious trolls” targeting the ship’s commanding officer quoted exactly what they had said online and reinforced the message with screen shots of their posts.

At the forefront of the attacks were Commander Yvonne’s Gray’s gender and sexual orientation, (prompting Defence Minister Judith Collins to call out misogyny) and direct blame for hitting a Samoan reef was implicit in many of the comments. Bigotry was not far below the surface in comments questioning why a New Zealand-born officer was not in command (Gray was born in the United Kingdom). Even Norway (where the ship was built) took a hit. Continue reading “The trolls stood on the burning deck” →