WELLINGTON - The sale of Radio New Zealand's commercial stations to The Radio Network in 1996 marked the death of regional radio journalism in New Zealand, says a communications expert.
A recent political science doctoral thesis by an Auckland University student found that Television New Zealand news had become trivialised, commercialised
and tabloidised.
However, Dr Margie Comrie, Massey University senior lecturer in communications, says the decline in radio journalism has been much more extreme.
Radio New Zealand used to get news from its national network of stations, each equipped with a newsroom. But all that was lost when it sold its 41 commercial stations to The Radio Network.
The sale of those stations was a disaster for Radio New Zealand News, Dr Comrie said.
IRN was the only true commercial radio news service, she said. "And what have we got? Fire engines, sex, scandal, a bit of celebrity and some sport and crime. It's much more extreme than TV. Your average commercial radio is just a quick dash-through. There is very little there of any content."
Radio New Zealand News had been left covering parliamentary and official news and "easy coverage" such as crime had also increased.
"But the real local news has just gone," Dr Comrie said. "The drop in news has not been driven by people turning off from news ... It is being driven by high cost. It is expensive to produce.
"If you rely on institutional news all the time instead of people going out, you have got a weak media, an unquestioning media."
The general manager of IRN News and Sport, Ed Taylor, rejected Dr Comrie's criticism.
He said IRN and specialist news station Newstalk ZB had 15 journalists based around New Zealand and employed freelance journalists. IRN had better coverage than ever in terms of the number of journalists employed. "The old days of stations having all news for all people have gone now."
He said some stations had no news service but there were specialist stations people could turn to if they wanted news.
The approach to news gathering had not changed, but story selection was different from that of Radio New Zealand News.
"We tend to talk about the stories we believe most New Zealanders will be talking about that morning."
Listeners had a choice between styles of news, which was good. "We are just trying to reflect what is happening in New Zealand society and the news that people are interested in."
- NZPA
