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Featured Mediawatch stories
RNZ's high-stakes National plan
RNZ National's been losing listeners for years, and now there's a new plan to stop the slide, partly sparked by a harsh review of RNZ's capability and culture. Mediawatch asks RNZ's boss if he can stop the slide, and how.
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Mediawatch: AI and a bid for media to claw back cash online
24 Aug 2025The first online revolution undermined the media's business model based on ads. Will AI make it worse? Or will new tech help media claw crucial cash back from…
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Image problems - the ethics of stock photos
24 Aug 2025Ellen Tamati unwillingly became the face of a political cause she opposed, after her image was picked from a photo library. A media outlet used artificial…
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RNZ flags changes to claw back listeners
17 Aug 2025RNZ is planning to reverse decline in RNZ National's live listenership, but it comes at a time when listeners' loyalty seems harder than ever to secure.
Mediawatch headlines with summaries.
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Palestinian statehood push vexes media
17 Aug 2025An media debate over New Zealand recognising Palestinian statehood was partly overshadowed by party political rows and claims it would only be a gesture.
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Mediawatch: Media applauds old school move on NCEA
10 Aug 2025With news the pupil assessment system is on the way out, many applauded the return to old school ways, but said less about what might be lost. Video
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Mediawatch: 'Surprise' rise in Trump's trade tariff?
10 Aug 2025Many recent stories claimed the hike to a 15 per cent US tariff on our exports was 'a surprise.' But was it?
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Mediawatch: The politics of PayWave
Waving goodbye to PayWave fees in a cost-of-living crisis seemed like a win for the government, until the media checked it out.
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Mediawatch: MEX folds after 160 years
3 Aug 2025After 160 years in print, the Marlborough Express rolled off the presses for the final time last week. Mediawatch investigates if it's a change that's been coming - and could be coming for other local… Audio
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Mediawatch: Ministers' 'helpful' handouts go multimedia
20 Jul 2025More intense campaigns targeting politicians and ministers pitching their own multimedia messages. Are these old tactics or a bid to dodge media scrutiny? Video
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Mediawatch: Pandemic probe media focus flipped to politicians
13 Jul 2025Backers of the latest Covid-19 response inquiry say it's crucial for future planning and to give people a say, but media mostly zeroed in on which big-name politicians would show up in six weeks time.
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Mediawatch: Google's AI Overviews underwhelm
29 Jun 2025Some 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 the news agenda.
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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 17 years later. Video
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Mediawatch: Who calls the shots after change at the top?
Two big media players made huge moves on the same day as Stuff twinned with Trade Me while NZME shook up its boardroom.
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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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