Puck Me! It’s more fake news

If the Trump presidency ends ignominiously next week there is no way ‘fake news’ will disappear along with the fake tan and ginger hair that could have been combed from my cat Rufus.

Disinformation is a pandemic. Donald Trump is one of its super-spreaders but, even if his Twitter account is placed in quarantine, his removal from the White House would no more end ‘fake news’ than Regeneron cured him of Covid-19.

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Election 2020: Video killed the radio star

If RNZ wants to play with the multimedia professionals, it needs to up its game. Its televised coverage of election night was radio with fuzzy pictures and stuttering video production.

The state broadcaster’s coverage was carried on Freeview via Face TV, but it should have stuck to its knitting. 

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This is no celeb-soaked skim read

I had misgivings about writing on the arrival of New Zealand’s latest magazine, Woman. Should a male pass judgement on a publication clearly designed to serve the interests of the nation’s females?

By the time I got to page 80, I was thinking to myself: “I’ve got it wrong. Woman is about women, but it is not only for women.”

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Local Democracy Reporting Review

I recently completed a review for NZ on Air of the Local Democracy Reporting scheme operating in eight regional newsrooms. The review recommended continuation of the scheme and made 19 sets of findings in relation to its operation. The report is available here: https://www.nzonair.govt.nz/research/review-local-democracy-reporting-2020/