A journalist reflects on a career in which the media has felt like a hostile environment for Māori and other minorities. Most Pākehā couples that applied to adopt in the 70s didn’t want Māori children. Māori boys were at the bottom of their wish-lists. The couple that did adopt me were one of the rare … Read more
The editor of Critic Te Arohi backgrounds the magazine’s major investigation into sexual harassment and troubling culture at Knox, one of the University of Otago’s oldest residential colleges. Over the past month Critic Te Arohi, the University of Otago student magazine, has been investigating how Knox college deals with sexual assault and harassment, and how … Read more
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke at the National Remembrance Service today. This is what she said. E rau rangatira mā, e ngā reo, e ngā mana Tēnā koutou katoa Ngāi Tahu Whānui, tēnā koutou E papaki tū ana ngā tai o maumahara ki runga o Ōtautahi Haere mai tātou me te aroha, Me te rangimārie, … Read more
A synthetic white victimhood is generated by a swarm of social media users that centre on a core belief and consistent narratives, writes Bharath Ganesh, an expert on extremism at the Oxford Internet Institute The Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto began with a refrain: “It’s the birthrates.” His concern was the death of the white “European” people. This is … Read more
We’re overjoyed to today launch our new webseries about drawing and stuff, Two Sketches. Here’s what it’s all about – plus, watch the first episode below. Popular illustrator and The Spinoff’s resident cartoonist-in-chief Toby Morris loves drawing and loves chatting to other pencil pushers, so why not combine the two? In this new webseries we … Read more
With questions for media swirling about what their platforms get used for, New Zealand’s biggest news site has closed a huge swathe of their notorious comments section. Stuff editor in chief Patrick Crewdson spoke to The Spinoff about why they made the choice. They say don’t read the comments, but what they really mean is don’t … Read more
It’s all relative, sure, but New Zealand’s media has clearly done a far better job at holding the line against Islamophobia than their UK and Australian counterparts, writes Elle Hunt from London. The danger of speaking relatively about race relations is that it risks excusing wrongdoings already being committed and in doing so allowing them … Read more
The Christchurch Mosque Shootings saw journalists scrambling the country over to cover the unfolding horror. New Zealand’s subreddit experienced an unprecedented rush too, swamping the volunteer moderators and exposing them to some of the worst reactions on Reddit. We speak to the moderators of r/newzealand. Almost as soon as news broke that a gunman had … Read more
The removal of extremist content alone isn’t going to solve the problem of right-wing terrorism. Instead, we need to harness new technology to find such individuals early and intervene. Last week, 50 lives in Christchurch were lost in another act of terrorism by a white nationalist. This follows 11 dead in Pittsburgh. Nine dead in … Read more
The man accused of killing 50 worshippers at mosques in Christchurch will be going on trial this year, which means media organisations will have difficult decisions to make. Craig McCulloch reports in this piece first published on Radio NZ. Media outlets have begun discussions on how best to cover the court case of the accused … Read more
Not for the first time, the bleakest corners of the internet have apparently spawned real world tragedy. What is 4chan, and how does it foment so much hate? Even as the nation was plunged into a whirlwind of shock, horror and grief, there were plenty of online communities that had an opposite, chilling reaction – … Read more
How New Zealand and international organisations are dealing with inflammatory and racist moments in their pasts. UPDATED to include apparent false information from the National Party, and the National party’s subsequent response. In the wake of the Christchurch terror attack, organisations around New Zealand have removed content which might be seen as part of the culture … Read more
Australian media helped feed the anti-Muslim prejudice that led to the Christchurch attacks, writes Australian journalism lecturer Dr Nasya Bahfen, a practising Muslim of Indonesian heritage. Despite not personally knowing anyone who was gunned down at Friday prayers in Christchurch, I did not sleep that Friday night. I know I am not the only one who … Read more
Rose Hanley-Nickols: I survived a mass shooting 23 years ago. Here’s how to help survivors today “Don’t play audio or video from the event. Ever. Last year I was woken up by gunfire from the Parkland shooting. Thanks for that, RNZ National. Don’t fixate on the numbers of dead and injured. It dehumanises the victims … Read more
For a desperate and difficult period of at least eight hours, Facebook and Instagram suffered a massive outage. They’ve so far kept a stony silence on the reasons. And wild uninformed speculation loves a vacuum. Here are 10 definitely true theories. 1. Facebook have confirmed on Twitter that they have not gone down because of … Read more
Yesterday Google went down. Today it’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Please call an internet plumber immediately. The shit hit the fan about 2.30 yesterday afternoon. Here at Spinoff Towers we were about to launch our webseries On the Rag. “Can anyone send an attachment?” Fucking Gmail was down. I woke up this morning bleary after … Read more
Alex Casey combs through the most furious complaints made to the ASA about sanitary product advertising. In preparing for the period-themed episode of our new webseries On the Rag, I found myself watching a lot of old tampon, pad and liner ads. Remember the one where the lady uses a pad to clean up spilt … Read more
A landmark court ruling in Australia reexamines journalism’s weight on its practitioners, writes former AUT professor Lyn Barnes. At last, it’s finally being acknowledged – secondary trauma encountered on the job as a journalist can do psychological damage. The $180,000 awarded to the Australian woman in a Melbourne court case last month may not be … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Alex Casey: Long blacks for lads, hot chocs for ladies: what’s the deal with that? “Gendering food and drink is all the rage these days, from National’s sausage sizzle innuendo to Whittaker’s new gender reveal chocolate bars. Blue for boys, pink for girls. Sausages for boys, clueless political … Read more
Re-introducing On the Rag, The Spinoff’s feminist podcast that is launching as a webseries next Wednesday. Any woman that has ever been to a sleepover, a coffee group, or assembled drunkenly in a bathroom knows that a very special thing happens when we get together in a tight circle. Safe from the rest of the … Read more
New Zealander Maha Albadrawi went to an all-night Taika movie marathon in London, and managed to stay awake for nearly all of it. It’s an unusually warm Saturday night and I’m standing outside the Prince Charles Cinema in London’s West End. I’ve been living in London for five months and have genuinely loved it, but … Read more
The flood of fun memes, hot takes and utterly inane dog speak springing from the social media accounts of public organisations and corporates needs to stop, writes Anna Connell Call me old, call me jaded, call me someone who enjoys the pain of shooting herself in the foot, but I don’t think every company or organisation … Read more
Last week we published a piece from a journalism student who feared there might not be a worthwhile career for them when they finally graduated. Today, a rebuttal from journalism academic Daniel Nielsen who says actually, it’s not as bad as you might think. In times of incessant job cuts, mergers, failed mergers, fake news, … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. A landlord: I was a landlord, and I hated the person it made me become “Two weeks ago we sold up our mum and dad investment and went back to just being a mum and dad. We sold it because we could, because we … Read more
Love Island has smashed streaming records all over the world and Three’s purchase of the global rights, along with a pricey local franchise, will complete a radical transformation of the channel. This week The Spinoff learned that Mediaworks, parent company of Three, plans on launching a New Zealand version of ITV’s megahit Love Island. The … Read more
The news that Reading Cinema’s wonderful cinema staff are being made redundant was a shock given Reading Cinemas had just said the complex would reopen. Emily Writes salutes the workers. This piece began as a tribute to my favourite cinema complex, and then the news broke that all staff there would be made redundant. Like … Read more
As New Zealand’s media scramble for solutions to a borked business model, tertiary journalism courses are shrinking, too. Just how bleak is it? Communications student Sam Brett asks around Until relatively recently journalism was a career which you tended to learn by doing, not studying. On the job training was how most people entered the news … Read more
Alex Casey talks to Brough Johnson, co-founder of Narrative Muse, about a NZ-made platform that puts the spotlight on women and non-binary creators. If you don’t think representation in popular culture matters, you should really familiarise yourself with The Scully Effect. The study, conducted across 2000 women in America, revealed that nearly two thirds of … Read more
Bringing you the best weekly reading from your friendly local website. Danyl Mclauchlan: The subtle art of not giving a fuck about Jordan B Peterson “That’s the thing about Jordan Peterson. His name is Legion for He is many. You can watch hours of his videos on YouTube, listening to his insights on religion and psychology … Read more