You’re probably using the term clickbait wrongly, explains Alex Braae. A shocking abuse of language is taking place in media every day, and experts are completely lost on how to deal with it. One word has been so brutally abused, overused and mangled that it is now completely unrecognisable. Do you know this word? Click … Read more
Each week, Jesse Mulligan talks to hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, through TV, radio and in print, and his voice is beloved throughout the country. He tells Alex Casey about the humiliating failures, awkward experiments and games of Strip Honk he endured along the way. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. Jesse Mulligan … Read more
Can newspapers based in tiny towns be profitable? A publisher based on the sparsely populated West Coast believes it can, and is expanding as a result. As the so called death of journalism gathers momentum, media companies are increasingly looking to consolidation for survival. More content syndication, covering a bigger geographical area with single titles, … Read more
Two Auckland schools went into lockdown recently, so why did one dominate the coverage? The Side Eye looks into the way King’s College and Ōtāhuhu College featured in reporting. The Bulletin is The Spinoff’s acclaimed, free daily curated digest of all the most important stories from around New Zealand delivered directly to your inbox … Read more
New Zealand’s blue-chip business newspaper is these days chiefly an online operation, and its owner has plans to boost the subscriber base to 100,000. Against a backdrop of social media grenades and staff disquiet, Spinoff business editor Rebecca Stevenson talks to the NBR’s outspoken head honcho Todd Scott. Todd Scott is a truculent tweeter, taking … Read more
Whether to report on the false rumours about the prime minister’s partner created a quandary for the media. Could they report on slurs designed to do damage without amplifying the effect of them and playing into the hands of the rumour-mongers? Colin Peacock of RNZ’s Mediawatch programme looks at how they responded. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responding to … Read more
Tomorrow, with the support of Vector, The Spinoff smashes a bottle across the bow of a new email newsletter rounding up the best and most important NZ news of the day. We think it will become an important part of your morning. For all the complaints about the state of journalism, the one you won’t … Read more
‘I shan’t bother writing any more for NBR,’ says Sir Bob Jones after his piece calling for Māori gratitude is deleted from the paper’s website. Toby Manhire and Duncan Greive report. Bob Jones will be filing no more for the National Business Review after the deletion of his most recent contribution, which included a call … Read more
Ever noticed that every summer news story is recycled from previous years? We’ve even regurgitated this story by former sadsack reporter Hayden Donnell (with a few updates to make it appear relevant) who last year designed a drinking game to improve, or at least anaesthetise, your holiday news reading experience. The news will be the … Read more
Tributes have abounded today for NZ reporter Yasmine Ryan, who has died in Turkey aged 34. Here, Kamahl Santamaria remembers his compatriot and former colleague. Below, on a recent trip home she joined media commentator Gavin Ellis to discuss doing journalism in some of the world’s most volatile places. Born in France and brought up … Read more
Aotearoa is home to the biggest Polynesian population on earth – a fact brought home to us all in high definition colour as the red sea of Mate Ma’a Tonga fans flooded the Rugby League World Cup in celebration. But for Pasifika Human Rights advisor and South Auckland local Tuiloma Lina Samu, it was a … Read more
When journalist Angela Cuming was sent a “grossly inappropriate and offensive” “joke” by a Hamilton City Councillor she called the behaviour out online. It sparked a discussion about the everyday sexism women face in the workplace, assembled by Emily Writes. Comments, “jokes”, microaggressions, and out-right hostility by insecure men were common. Here are some of … Read more
It’s one thing for Winston Peters to snarl and threaten the press as an opposition MP, but taking legal action to force media to reveal their sources as deputy PM is quite another, writes Toby Manhire. Towards the end of the morning, a serious man in a polo shirt appeared at Spinoff headquarters, sweating a … Read more
Not content with plastering billboards and bus stations in the real world, fast food giant Wendy’s are inserting themselves inside virtual worlds too. It’s a trend that makes Don Rowe feel nauseous. Anyone halfway familiar with the term microtransaction is well aware that many of the entities which slither about the swamp we call the … Read more
Want us to do more investigative journalism? Now you can help make that happen, writes Duncan Greive. The Spinoff was founded as an experiment in magazine journalism. An attempt to figure out if there was a way to fund it online without the torrent of empty calorie content which has been the hallmark of many news … Read more
Now more than ever, says Simon Wilson, critics are good for restaurants and good for their customers too. The real problem in media coverage is the exact opposite: it’s uncritical feel-goodism and the lack of critics. Everyone’s a critic. It’s always been true about restaurants, because we all eat so we all know what we … Read more
Saturated with Trump commentary, Danyl Mclauchlan’s brain felt like a tiny teacup with a firehose gushing into it. Here he explains why he decided to refocus his attention away from the floods of content and the ‘ludic loop’ of social media, where, more than ever, the audience is the product. I keep a large stack of books … Read more
Myles Thomas of the Coalition for Better Broadcasting explains why they teamed up with Action Station to launch the People’s Commission on Public Broadcasting and Media, which has a workshop in Auckland on Sunday March 26. Godwin’s law is a pretty well-known internet meme which states “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of … Read more
Marianne Elliott of ActionStation explains why they’re launching a People’s Commission into Public Broadcasting and Media. In the wake of Trump’s victory, the world seems to have finally woken up to the dangers of getting our news via memes in our social media bubbles, and to the critical role of quality, independent journalism in keeping … Read more
Ever noticed that every summer news story is recycled from previous years? Former sadsack reporter Hayden Donnell designs a drinking game to improve, or at least anaesthetise, your holiday news reading experience. Soon everything will stop happening. The holidays will arrive in a blissful swirl of sunshine. Politics will retreat into its sooty tomb. Gareth … Read more
Congratulations, New Zealand. The court of public opinion has outdone any mere judge, delivering a punishment that reeks of knee-jerk outrage and lazy prejudice, writes Madeleine Chapman. Losi Filipo was today re-sentenced to nine months’ supervision and counselling for assault. After being discharged without conviction earlier this year, the victims spoke out to the media … Read more
Hayden Donnell recently speculated on the meaning of a leaked internal memo from Stuff.co.nz. Today the site’s editor Patrick Crewdson tells him why he’s not really a slave to Mark Zuckerberg. Before I begin, here’s a haphazard, non-complete listicle of great journalism being carried out in mainstream New Zealand commercial media. 1. Everything by Stuff … Read more
A top-level Fairfax memo has somehow found its way into the hands of youth web tool The Spinoff. We picked it apart for clues as to the future of journalism. About a week ago, we received an email originally sent out to editorial staff at Stuff.co.nz. It was filled with intrigue, Facebook, slightly concerning editorial policy, … Read more
Former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis claims New Zealanders are sleepwalking through an all-out assault on their democratic rights. Ben Thomas thinks Gavin Ellis should chill out a bit. “The country in which we live is not quite as free as we like to think,” warns former New Zealand Herald editor Gavin Ellis, who ditched the … Read more
This excerpt from former editor-in-chief of New Zealand Herald Gavin Ellis’s new BWB Text, Complacent Nation, has been modified for exclusive republication with The Spinoff. In November 2015 an acknowledged academic authority on gang culture revealed – with the backing of his Vice-Chancellor – that he had been deemed by the New Zealand Police to be … Read more
2016 has been a breakthrough year for mental health reporting around the country. Yet a draft report leaked to Jess McAllen – herself a mental health reporter – shows that Mental Health Services are anything but welcoming of the scrutiny. An editor once told me mental health stories were “unsexy”. Silky, lacy numbers like car … Read more
Working for free has long been accepted as a near-unavoidable first step in a career in media, politics or the arts. But when you’re working for months on end for little or no reward, when does paying your dues become exploitation? Sasha Borissenko reports. NB: the Spinoff has chosen not to name the participants speaking … Read more
The only universally understood business in Auckland today is housing. So what better metaphor for Tim Murphy to use to describe the motivations and implications of today’s Sky-Vodafone deal. The Parable Vodafone New Zealand and Sky TV are happy next door neighbours. Two houses. One with a view, the other with a sprawling yard. Both valuable. Both relied on by … Read more
A Vodafone-Sky merger works for companies waking up to new realites about content, distinctiveness and immediacy. Whether it’s good for consumers is another matter altogether, argues Paul Brislen. There are two major trends in the telecommunications market that directly relate to the Vodafone-Sky-TV merger. The first is the commoditisation of everything. If you can reduce … Read more