The latest idiotic tweet by a politician comes courtesy of the National Party’s Jo Hayes, who launched an unprovoked attack on a Labour supporter, calling him ‘ugly’. You know how it is. It’s just before 11pm on a Friday night. It’s been a long week. All there is left to do is log on to … Read more
Parents editor Emily Writes on everything wrong with Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig’s latest work on motherhood. Two of the most beautiful and profound friendships I have had in motherhood were conceived in similar ways. When my son would not stop crying, I developed a habit of walking up and down our steep street. I was … Read more
The top-selling food magazine in New Zealand is closing its print operation. Niki Bezzant, Healthy Food Guide‘s former editor, reflects on the challenges the title faced. The news that after 14 years and 176 issues Healthy Food Guide magazine is closing its print operation came as a shock to some. It certainly was a shock … Read more
In the final of our series on the loss of faith in free market economics we ask New Zealand business leaders how they’re grappling with the almighty power of a technology that barely existed 20 years ago. Hands up who’s read the Financial Markets Authority’s website. Come on, be honest. No, of course you haven’t. … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee with which she tells … Read more
Is Slack really the force for productivity it claims to be, or just another form of social media in disguise? Jihee Junn talks to Slack co-founder and chief technology officer Cal Henderson on the right (and wrong) ways to use his messaging platform. Every morning, Cal Henderson spends around 50 minutes walking to work, not … Read more
Fears are growing about the seemingly unstoppable descent into alt-right radicalisation many young men are falling into. A visiting expert says it doesn’t have to be like that, reports Sophie Bateman. Since the Christchurch mosque attacks, a number of urgent changes have been made in New Zealand: semi-automatic weapons have been banned, media guidelines for … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tax break for oil rigs raises subsidy questions, crackdown by police against Ihumātao occupation, and Boris Johnson set to become UK PM. A story about tax breaks for oil rigs has shown how difficult disentangling from the fossil fuels industry will be. Writing on Stuff, Henry Cooke … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: More revealed about aftermath of Hit and Run raid, police delete social posts glorifying tactics to catch kids, and regional airports may be bailed out. Politicians were shown edited footage of the Hit and Run raid which throws into question the NZDF version of events, reports … Read more
Adding to the negative impact that Instagram is already having on mental health and body image, a set of unrealistic standards for school lunchboxes is unearthed by Juliet Speedy. If I was asked to offer my most valuable piece of culinary advice to parents, it would be this: don’t Google “lunchbox ideas”. In fact, if … Read more
Alex Casey chats to a group of 16 year-olds about the pressures of Instagram, weird men in the DMs, and their multiple online identities. “I’m planning on getting it,” says Neha. “Just my breasts. They’re just too small. It doesn’t look really nice in clothes and stuff.” Aaliyah would too, but wouldn’t touch her butt. … Read more
Being a big brand, corporate, or government department means restraining yourself on social media, no matter how grievously you feel you’ve been wronged, writes Anna Connell I used to manage social media for a bank. We had good days and bad days. Days when we desperately wanted to say how we really felt or point … Read more
Two major studies show that women and minorities in New Zealand are being harassed to the point that they’re leaving online spaces in droves. Leonie Hayden reports on the growing tension between the right to free speech and the right to live without fear. You don’t know unless you know. This is the only way to … Read more
In the latest episode of On The Rag, based on the podcast of the same name, watch as Alex Casey, Michele A’Court and Leonie Hayden wrestle with the positives and perils of being a woman online. In episode three of our On the Rag web series, we explore the ways that the promised utopia of the … Read more
It’s not the screen use that’s the problem, but the type of content we’re consuming right before sleep. In both Europe and the US, more than 90% of adolescents have their faces buried in screens before bed. Often, this comes at a cost to sleep. Frequent screen users are much more likely to report falling … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fears for cities with loss of trees, competitive battle looms for Dunedin mayoralty, and teacher strike talks to take place amid new secondary strike action. New Zealand’s urban environments are losing worryingly high numbers of irreplaceable mature trees, reports Charlie Mitchell at Stuff. It comes a decade after … Read more
If we want to reduce the harm done by social media in any meaningful and sustainable way, we have to address the root causes, writes Marianne Elliott Read the full text of the Christchurch Call here In Paris this morning Jacinda Ardern announced the successful agreement of the Christchurch Call, a voluntary pledge by governments … Read more
What is Wish? Is it legit? And why does it advertise so damn much? “If Wish targeted ads are a window to your soul, then my soul is an absolute nightmare,” food editor Alice Neville quipped in the office one day. On Facebook, she’d received ads for a severed ‘finger’, a gimp suit, a wig-beard, … Read more
The goal is a crackdown on violence and extremism online. But if the French president’s record is anything to go by, anyone who values civil liberties should be very concerned, writes Branko Marcetic. This time next week Jacinda Ardern will be preparing to leave for Paris to co-chair with French president Emmanuel Macron a G7 … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Simon Bridges puts up bill with major tax system changes, social media crackdown call unpacked, and lower crowd numbers at main Auckland ANZAC services. This happened earlier in the week, but is worth unpacking because it would be quite a big change to the tax system. Newshub reports … Read more
Jacinda Ardern will head to Paris next month to co-host a forum devoted to an accord on ‘eliminating terrorist and violent extremist content online’. What could such a pledge look like, and what could it usefully achieve, asks Jordan Carter of InternetNZ. Jacinda Ardern this morning announced that New Zealand and France are working together … Read more
Good morning, and welcome back to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: More revealed on funding cuts disability advocates say are happening by stealth, dire warnings in environment report, and could National go for Māori seat? More light has emerged on a rumoured squeeze on funding for the disability sector.It comes from documents revealed to the NZ Herald, … Read more
The censorship of a food writer’s Instagram post of piggy trotters and ears on a kitchen bench is a disturbing example of how disconnected from our food we really are. The other day while I was mindlessly scrolling Instagram, I came across an image posted by London-based Ukrainian food writer Olia Hercules. My rapidly swiping … Read more
An open letter from the CEOs of Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees to the global CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google To: Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO, Facebook Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google A call from the companies providing internet access for the great majority of New Zealanders, to the companies with the … Read more
The People’s Harassment Report, a study undertaken by ActionStation and UMR, found one in three Māori online faced racial abuse in 2018. Here we look a bit closer at the methodology of the research. From August to October 2018, ActionStation ran a pilot project called Tauiwi Tautoko where 20 volunteers were trained and supported to … Read more
A new study analysing the number of racist versus supportive comments in two large online forums reveals some sobering facts about Māori experiences online. To illustrate the difference in the Māori and Western/Pākehā worldviews about the power of speech, it’s worth looking at two different whakataukī or proverbs. The first is the old adage that … 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
Social media has provided access to more information than ever, but at the same time it’s harder than ever to tell what’s real and what’s fake. InternetNZ policy advisor Nicola Brown looks back at the year Fake News broke the internet. Bad news spreads fast. In 2018 we saw what might be the breaking point of … Read more
Last week, a survey attempted to measure the impact of more than 30 local social media influencers on Instagram. But Lucy Revill, a Wellington-based blogger and social media influencer, argues that the survey should have zero influence over New Zealand’s content creators and brands. On my blog, I’ve worked with many brands both big and … Read more