Facing up to Facebook: politicians, publics and the social media(ted) turn in New Zealand

Social media have an increasingly important place in the lives of citizens, and their potential to expand the reach of communication messages beyond individual networks is attractive to those looking to maximise message efficiency. The influence of Facebook in Obama’s 2008 campaign success galvanised many politicians into taking it seriously as a campaign tool. Our study explored the Facebook wall posts (1148 in total) of New Zealand Members of Parliament (MPs) leading up to the 2011 general election to determine posting behaviours and differences. Among other things, we found that women posted more frequently than men and that Labour MPs posted more than their National counterparts. Additionally, most politicians do not invite dialogue with readers of their posts, rarely get involved in comment threads and mostly take a monologic approach, using Facebook as a way of broadcasting information rather than as a medium enabling two-way flow. In other words, same old, same old

Running on the spot: NZ’s record in news media gender equity

This article reports New Zealand’s performance in the latest, 2010 round of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) covering 108 countries. Using quantitative and qualitative content analysis the GMMP measures the representation and participation of women in the news media. The findings demonstrate that gender inequality remains a defining characteristic of daily news content around the world. It is concerning that in 15 years of the GMMP, New Zealand has generally stood still while overall GMMP results show a continuing steady increase in the number of women featuring as news subjects and reporters. Indeed, despite more women working as reporters in New Zealand, the lack of progress was evident in the number of female news subjects. The picture emerging from data in 2010 is of increasingly feminised newsrooms in which women’s experiences and views are still seen and heard much less frequently than male voices in almost all news topics. Worse, women are virtually absent in sports and politics, areas dominating the Kiwi news agenda. We ask why women remain so consistently under-represented in mainstream news and review some suggested solutions to that under-representation

REVIEW: Insider's view of nuclear-free NZ's 'people power'

Book review of: Peace, Power & Politics: How New Zealand Became Nuclear Free, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin: Otago University Press, 2013, 344pp. , ISBN 9781877578588Journalism's focus on major political figures and high level negotiations leaves the more diffuse activities of grassroots politics in the shadows. So it is refreshing to see a well-researched book unapologetically placing civic groups at centre-stage. Marie Leadbeater’s thorough chronology of the last 40 years of New Zealand’s peace movement and the fight for a nuclear-free country fills some gaps in our knowledge about the mechanics of ‘people power’. It’s an insider’s view. Leadbeater, daughter of feminist and peace campaigner Elsie Locke, says activism is in her genes. She was secretary and then spokeperson for Auckland’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, closely involved with the nuclear free protests of the 1970s and 1980s and still demonstrating at Waihopai’s satellite communication monitoring station in 2013

People who move and need news: the economic and social value of providing digital journalism services for mobile and remote audiences

This article proposes historical precedents for policies which support journalism enterprises that serve populations 'on the move' using communications networks and technologies. A contemporary case study is used to support an economic argument that there is a rationale for continued governmental intervention in journalism in the sphere of the international and domestic movement of passengers, cargo and discrete groups of linked individuals. It concludes that this sphere represents a valuable productivity opportunity for Australia which the Federal Government should exploit

Testing times: Kiwi journalists and the military

War correspondents, long the object of popular fascination, have been the focus of academic study since Phillip Knightley published The First Casualty in 1976. While New Zealand journalists did not cover the second Iraq War in 2003, the furore over the US practice of ‘embedding’ journalists was felt in New Zealand. Drawing on in-depth interviews with seven seasoned defence reporters, this article examines the relationship between the New Zealand Army and journalists during times of conflict

The gender of news and news of gender : a study of sex, politics, and press coverage of the 2010 British General Election

In the months leading up to the 2010 British General Election, pundits were claiming that women would be specifically targeted by all political parties. However, this focus never materialized and it was just more business as usual but with the added novelty of televised leaders’ debates, which meant that coverage was more male ordered than ever. The study on which this article is based monitored articles published in the four weeks leading up to election day across twelve newspapers, comprising a mix of dailies and weekend editions, broadsheets and midmarket, and tabloid titles. The study concentrated on articles that had the election as the main story and which mentioned or sourced one or more candidates, both MPs seeking reelection, and Parliamentary Candidates. We were interested in exploring (any) differences in the news coverage of women and men candidates, looking at both frequency and content. Our findings suggest that women were much less likely to feature in news stories than men, even when controlling for Party Leader coverage. Women were much more likely to be mentioned or quoted in feature articles focused explicitly on gender issues, made interesting because of their sex and couture rather than their political abilities and experience