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Mediawatch: Google's AI Overviews underwhelm
Some AI applications appear to be trying to tell us what we want to hear - and even avoid answers that might upset us. Is AI human after all? If so, should the media be wary? Video
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Media in the middle of political skirmishes over sickness and health
22 Jun 2025Polls show health is a huge concern, so it's no surprise it's hotly contested in politics - and the media. This week sick leave suddenly surged to the top of…
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Are media managing decline? Or settling on a sustainable structure?
15 Jun 2025Greg Hywood ran the Australia's Fairfax Media that bought most of this NZ's newspapers for more than $1 billion in 2003 - and sold them back for just a dollar… Video
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Mediawatch: Who calls the shots after change at the top?
8 Jun 2025Two big media players made huge moves on the same day as Stuff twinned with Trade Me while NZME shook up its boardroom.
Mediawatch headlines with summaries.
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Property pays the bills for news media
Stuff's half-and-half deal with Trade Me for its digital wing is a full circle moment for the publisher. The outfit that's attracted ads so successfully is now a co-owner. And Stuff's main rival is…
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Climate change coverage in a changed media climate
1 Jun 2025Media outlets were firing up new projects and joining alliances to cover climate change just a few years ago. Now there's just one mainstream NZ media reporter focused solely on it.
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Mediawatch: C-word strategy obscures equity issue
18 May 2025The sudden change to legislation for pay equity claims sparked political rows which ended up blurring the focus on the actual issue in the media. And one rude word in one newspaper column had a…
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Mediawatch: Dead c-word strategy obscures equity issue
The sudden change to legislation for pay equity claims sparked political rows which ended up blurring the focus on the actual issue in the media. And one rude word in one newspaper column had a…
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Sudden surge of political concern about social media
11 May 2025An entire generation has grown up online with little regulation of their digital world, but this week, there has been a sudden surge of political concern about teenagers - and a bid to ban social…
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Mediawatch: Bad stats boost bootcamp bid
A call to consider universal military service was enthusiastically endorsed in the media this week. But those backing it seized on stats that also tell a different story.
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A war of letters at NZME
4 May 2025With an attempted billionaire boardroom coup at NZME unfolding mostly behind closed doors, journalists warn the public deserves answers.
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Mediawatch: The health of health reporting
Almost every day in the news we're told the health system is in crisis. What's the best way to cover a sector with so many stories - most of them bad? And why does it seem so hard to get the hard data…
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How a Christian radio broadcaster has become NZ media's quiet success
20 Apr 2025The country's main Christian broadcaster is revamping and expanding its output, even as its target market shrinks and pleasing a broad church is tough in times of polarisation.
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Jailed journalist's life spread across the big screen
20 Apr 2025What is it like for a journalist jailed just for doing his job to see the worst moments of his own life on the screen?
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Mediawatch: Is the media trust freefall over?
13 Apr 2025Fresh figures out today show less than a third of us trust the news most of the time. But they also show the slump has stalled - and every news outlet surveyed is more trusted this year.
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Mediawatch: Offshore drift of ad revenue continues mostly unreported
6 Apr 2025Latest annual stats show ad revenue's gone up again, but the proportion of it going to local media is down.
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Mixed media messages on 'green shoots' and 'dire data'
30 Mar 2025Are our media confusing us with claims about "green shoots" in the economy - while also reporting every bit of "dire data"?
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How the Listener magazine is beating the odds in NZ journalism
23 Mar 2025Cost-cutting in newsrooms lately has shrunk lifestyle sections, but RNZ's just launched with a new section online - and the new Listener magazine is changing its mix in print too.
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Lid-lifting Kiwi gagged over Facebook book
23 Mar 2025A Kiwi whistleblower whose book lifts the lid on Facebook was gagged before she had a chance to talk to RNZ. Why? And what did she say in other interviews before Meta called its lawyers?
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Media pump up rumours of PM's possible demise
16 Mar 2025The PM's got plenty on his plate right now - the economy, health, housing, Trump, and school lunches. Now the media are also hinting he might not be in the top job for long - but based on very little.
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RNZ's Gaza conflict coverage abided by its editorial policy - Review
14 Mar 2025A review of RNZ coverage regarding the conflict in Gaza has concluded it has abided by its own editorial policy - as well as the standards and principles of media and broadcasting watchdogs.
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Defending media against defunding
The two main public media networks in the US are facing bids to de-fund them - as well as MAGA-driven inquiries into bias and how they do business.
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Media alarm over Chinese ships - and the end of 'benign' times
2 Mar 2025Chinese warships appearing in what we like to think of as our "benign strategic environment" sparked something of a media frenzy. It culminated in claims our defence spending's going to have to go up…
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Will Australia and US set our media policy?
23 Feb 2025The government's new media plan doesn't do much to aid the ailing industry, and a law change that might help has stalled.
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Golden visas obscured by politics and talkback pushback
16 Feb 2025Mediawatch: Media management helped the government's new 'golden visas' into the headlines, but it also got obscured by the ACT leader's antics.
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Media in the middle of diplomatic drama
9 Feb 2025Mediawatch -Trump's alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand's had diplomatic drama in the news too - with the media in the middle of it.
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The media gets serious after silly season
2 Feb 2025Mediawatch - Summertime, and the living is easy, the old Gershwin song says. But he didn't have to cope with the Kiwi summer news drought. Video
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Mediawatch ranks media's best-of 2024 lists
22 Dec 2024Mediawatch: Christmas coincides with media tackling the gargantuan task of ranking everything humanity produced this year. Audio
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