Media of New Zealand

The media of New Zealand include television stations, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and Web sites. Most outlets are foreign-owned, with media conglomerates like New Zealand Media and Entertainment, Fairfax New Zealand, MediaWorks New Zealand and Sky TV dominating the media landscape.[1] Most media organisations operate Auckland-based newsrooms with Parliamentary Press Gallery reporters and international media partners, but most broadcast programmes, music and syndicated columns are imported from the United States and United Kingdom.

The media of New Zealand predominantly use New Zealand English, but Community Access and several local other outlets provide news and entertainment for linguistic minorities. Following a Waitangi Tribunal decision in the 1990s, the Government has accepted a responsibility to promote the Māori language through Te Māngai Pāho funding of the Māori Television Service, the Te Whakaruruhau o Nga Reo Irirangi Māori and other outlets. NZ On Air funds public service programming on the publicly owned Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand, and on community-owned and privately owned broadcasters.

Censorship

The 2014 RSF Press Freedom Index puts New Zealand in the highest category for press freedom.

There is limited censorship in New Zealand of political expression, violence or sexual content. Reporters Without Borders ranks New Zealand highly on press freedom, ranking it seventh-best worldwide in 2008, and eighth in 2010. In the same 2010 study, for comparison, the UK placed 19th, and the US 20th).[2][3]

The country has strict libel laws that follow the English model and contempt of court is severely punished. The Office of Film and Literature Classification classifies and sometimes censors films, videos, publications and video games, the New Zealand Press Council deals with print media bias and inaccuracy and the Broadcasting Standards Authority and Advertising Standards Authority considers complaints.

The Department of Internal Affairs is responsible for Internet censorship in New Zealand and runs a voluntary filtering system to prevent Internet users from accessing selected sites and material that contain sexual abuse or exploitation of children and young people.[4][5][6] Internet censorship in Australia is more extensive, and New Zealand has refused to follow suit.[7]

Conventional media

Television

Television in New Zealand was introduced in 1960. Provision was first made for the licensing of private radio and television stations in New Zealand by the Broadcasting Act 1976. In addition to a legacy analogue network, there are three forms of broadcast digital television: satellite services provided nationwide by Freeview and Sky, a terrestrial service provided in the main centres by Freeview, and a cable service provided in Wellington and Christchurch by TelstraClear. There are currently 11 national free-to-air channels, 22 regional free-to-air stations and several pay TV networks. Programming and scheduling is done in Auckland where all the major networks are now headquartered.

The first nationwide digital TV service was launched in December 1998 by SKY TV, who had a monopoly on digital satellite TV until the launch of Freeview's nationwide digital Satellite service in May 2007. The Freeview terrestrial service, named Freeview|HD is a high definition digital terrestrial television service launched on 14 April 2008. The service currently serves areas surrounding Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier-Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Digital cable television currently operates in Wellington and Christchurch on TelstraClear's cable TV system. High Definition programming is available from Freeview on terrestrial broadcast only and on SKY TV through the MY SKY HDi decoder. Only a limited range of channels are available in High Definition.

Radio

Main article: Radio in New Zealand
Radio New Zealand headquarters in Wellington.

New Zealand radio is dominated by twenty-seven networks and station-groups, but also includes several local and low-powered stations. Radio New Zealand operates four public service networks: the flagship Radio New Zealand National, the classical music network Radio New Zealand Concert, the Pacific shortwave service Radio New Zealand International and the Parliamentary broadcasters AM Network.

Two companies have a staunch rivalry in the commercial radio market. NZME Radio operates music station Coast, hip-hop station Flava, rock station Radio Hauraki, 80s and 90s station Mix 98.2, talk network Newstalk ZB, sports network Radio Sport, pop station The Hits and youth station ZM. MediaWorks New Zealand operates sport network LiveSport, dance station George FM, New Zealand music station Kiwi FM, Māori station Mai FM, pop station More FM, talk station Radio Live, oldies station The Sound, easy-listening station The Breeze, youth station The Edge and rock station The Rock.[8]

Rhema Media operates four evangelical Christian networks, most student networks belong to the Student Radio Network and most public access broadcasters belong to the Association of Community Access Broadcasters. The Iwi Radio Network is funded by Te Māngai Pāho and the Pacific Media Network is predominantly funded by NZ On Air.[9]

The number of newspapers in New Zealand has dramatically reduced since the early 20th century as a consequence of radio, television and new media being introduced to the country. Auckland's New Zealand Herald serves the upper North Island, Wellington's The Dominion Post serves the lower North Island and Canterbury's The Press and Otago Daily Times serve the South Island.

Provincial and community newspapers, such as the Waikato Times daily, serve particular regions, cities and suburbs. Ownership of New Zealand newspapers is dominated by Fairfax New Zealand and APN News & Media with Fairfax having 48.6% of the daily newspaper circulation.[1] Local and overseas tabloids and magazines cover food, current affairs, personal affairs, gardening and home decor, and business or appeal to gay, lesbian, ethnic and rural communities.

Literature

An early New Zealand printer used by CMS Paihia to publish Bibles during the 19th century.

Māori in New Zealand had non-literate culture before contact with the Europeans in the early 19th century, but oratory recitation of quasi-historical and hagiographical ancestral blood lines was central to the culture; oral traditions were first published when early 19th century Christian missionaries developed a written form of the Maori language to publish Bibles. The literature of New Zealand includes many works written in English and Maori by New Zealanders and migrants during the 20th and 21st centuries.

Novelists include Patricia Grace, Albert Wendt and Maurice Gee; children's authors include Margaret Mahy.[10] Keri Hulme won the Booker Prize for The Bone People; Witi Ihimaera's novel Whale Rider, which dealt with Maori life in the modern world, ' became a Nikki Caro film.

Migrant writers include South African-born Robin Hyde; expatriate writers like Dan Davin and Katherine Mansfield often wrote about the country. Samuel Butler stayed in New Zealand and set his novel Erewhon in the country. Karl Wolfskehl prepared works of German literature during a sojourn in Auckland. New Zealand's lively community of playwrights, supported by Playmarket, include Roger Hall.

Film

Main article: Cinema of New Zealand

The New Zealand film industry is small but successful, boasting directors such as Peter Jackson and Jane Campion. The cinema of New Zealand includes many films made in New Zealand, made about New Zealand or made by New Zealand-based production companies. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was produced and filmed in New Zealand, and animation and photography for James Cameron's Avatar was primarily done in New Zealand; both films are among the highest-grossing movies of all time. The New Zealand Film Commission funds films with New Zealand content.

Mainstream American, British and Australian films screen in theatres in most cities and towns. Some arthouse films and foreign language films reach cinemas, including weekly Bollywood screenings in many city cinemas. Asian films, particularly from India, China, Hong Kong and Japan, are widely available for rental on videocassette, DVD and similar media, especially in Auckland.

New media

Internet

Internet is widely available in New Zealand. There are 1,916,000 broadband connections and just 65,000 dialup connections, with almost every home having an internet connection.[11][12]Digital subscriber line over phone lines provides two-thirds of broadband, and fibre to the home now covers over a third of the main towns and cities. Parts of Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch have cable internet access, satellite internet is widely available, most of the country is covered by 3G mobile broadband, and 4G is available in major centres. Broadband pricing is at, or above the OECD average, and most connections have a fixed data cap. There are about 80 ISPs, with two of them having three-quarters of the market. The New Zealand Government is funding two broadband expansion initiatives, with the aim of providing fibre to the home of 75% of the population and bringing broadband to 97.8% of the population by 2019. International connectivity is mainly provided by the Southern Cross Cable.

Internet portals like Google New Zealand, Yahoo New Zealand, NZCity and MSN New Zealand have been popular in New Zealand since the outset of internet access. News websites like stuff.co.nz, tvnz.co.nz, nzherald.co.nz, 3news.co.nz, radionz.co.nz, odt.co.nz and newstalkzb.co.nz are increasingly taking over the portal role. Scoop and Voxy publish raw news coverage such as press releases, while skysport.co.nz, radiosport.co.nz and Sportal provide dedicated coverage of sports news.

Blogging and social media

Blogger David Farrar.

New Zealand's blogosphere is dominated by a small community of blogs that comment on New Zealand politics, society and occurrences.[13] One list of over 200 "author-operated, public discourse" blogs in New Zealand (ranked according to traffic, links incoming, posting frequency and comments) suggests New Zealand blogs cover a wide range of ideological positions but a lack female contributors.[14] Some personal blogs have been around since the mid 1990s,[15][16][17][18] but there are now blogs about cities,[19][20] science,[21][22] law[23] and fashion magazines.[24][25][26] Political bloggers include current and former party apparatchiks such as David Farrar (Kiwiblog), Jordan Carter,[27] Peter Cresswell[28] and Trevor Loudon,[29] and journalists and commentators such as Russell Brown.[30]

New Zealand politicians and political groups operate blogs which, unlike overseas counterparts, allow comments. The former ACT party leader Rodney Hide often comments from within the House of Representatives[31] and Craig Foss operates a personal blog.[32] The Green Party expands on party press releases,[33] and Labour MPs discuss policy and Parliamentary business.[34] Blogging is a central campaigning tool for many political lobbying groups.[35][36][37][38] Political bloggers have been described as potentially the most powerful "opinion makers" in New Zealand politics.[39] There is also an active political and non-political New Zealand community on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and Flickr.

References

  1. 1 2 Rosenberg, Bill (13 September 2008). "News media ownership in New Zealand" (PDF). Retrieved 14 September 2008.
  2. ↑ "Only peace protects freedoms in post-9/11 world". Reporters Without Borders. 22 October 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2008.
  3. ↑ "2010 World Press Freedom Index" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 20 October 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  4. ↑ Beagle, Thomas (10 May 2009). "The Response from Internal Affairs". Retrieved 2009-07-12.
  5. ↑ Freitas, Mauricio Freitas (11 July 2009). "Government plans to filter New Zealand Internet". Retrieved 2009-07-12.
  6. ↑ "NZ government now filtering internet". Tech Liberty NZ. 11 March 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
  7. ↑ Keall, Chris (20 March 2009). "Joyce: Internet filtering off the agenda in NZ". NBR. Retrieved 2009-07-12.
  8. ↑ "Radio Brands". Radio Bureau. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "About Us". Te Māonga Paho. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Swarbrick, Nancy (13 January 2009). "Creative life". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 26 April 2009.
  11. ↑ "Internet Service Provider Survey: 2014". Statistics New Zealand. 14 October 2014. ISSN 1178-0509. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  12. ↑ "Dwelling and Household Estimates". Statistics New Zealand. 9 January 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  13. ↑ "The New Zealand Blogosphere". Kiwiology.
  14. ↑ "nz blogosphere". Nzblogosphere.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  15. ↑ "Joanna McLeod (1998)". Hubris. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  16. ↑ "(1996)". Robyn Gallagher. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  17. ↑ Aardvark Bruce Simpson (1995)
  18. ↑ "Google.co.nz search for 'personal blog'".
  19. ↑ "The Wellingtonista". The Wellingtonista. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  20. ↑ "The Aucklandista". The Aucklandista. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  21. ↑ "Science media centre". Science media centre. 25 August 2008. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  22. ↑ "Sciblogs". Sciblogs. 25 August 2008. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  23. ↑ Stephen Marshall
  24. ↑ "Thread". Thread. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  25. ↑ "NZ Girl". NZ Girl. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  26. ↑ "Fashion NZ". Fashionz.co.nz. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  27. ↑ "Just Left". Jtc.blogs.com. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  28. ↑ "Not PC". Pc.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  29. ↑ "New Zeal". Newzeal.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  30. ↑ Cactuslab. "Public Address". Public Address. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  31. ↑
  32. ↑ "personal blog". Craigfossmp.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  33. ↑ frogblog. "Frogblog". Blog.greens.org.nz. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  34. ↑ "Red Alert". Blog.labour.org.nz. 15 August 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  35. ↑ "Climaction". Climaction.blogspot.com. 10 December 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  36. ↑ COG
  37. ↑ "Social Aotearoa". Unityaotearoa.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  38. ↑ Tariq Ali. "SocialistAotearoa.org". Socialistaotearoa.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  39. ↑ "Bill Ralston: Public opinion on Key turns rabid". The New Zealand Herald. 7 October 2007.

Further reading

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