School of Communication Studies - Te Kura Whakapāho

Permanent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10292/1316
The School of Communication Studies is committed to innovative, critical and creative research that advances knowledge, serves the community, and develops future communication experts and skilled media practitioners. There is a dynamic interaction between communication theory and media practice across digital media, creative industries, film and television production advertising, radio, public relations, and journalism. The School is involved in research and development in areas of:
  • Journalism
  • Media and Communication
  • Media Performance
  • Multimodal Analysis
  • Online, Social and Digital Media
  • Asia-Pacific Media
  • Political Economy of Communication
  • Popular Culture
  • Public Relations
  • Radio

Browse

Browsing School of Communication Studies - Te Kura Whakapāho by Author "Baker, Sarah"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item
    Examining the changing face of television current affairs programme in New Zealand from a 'political economy' perspective
    (Australia and New Zealand Communication Association International Conference (ANZCA), 2006) Baker, Sarah
    This paper will look at the changing face of current affairs television programmes in New Zealand from a political economy perspective. As part of that exploration it will examine the contending cultural studies position and address the claimed limitations of the political economy method. The Political Economy approach provides a framework from which to examine key areas of change in Western and New Zealand broadcasting. Many Western governments have lessened their commitment to public service broadcasting and the political economy method is well suited to research where economic structures, social and cultural life are interconnected, and can be used to evaluate these relationships. For New Zealand broadcasting a defining event of recent years was the application of neo-liberal policies after the 1984 election, taken even further by successive governments. These changes mirrored other Western nations where broadcasting became increasingly commercial, deregulated and globalised. As debates continue about the reduction of quality current affairs programmes on New Zealand television, this paper will explore the application of a political economy approach to changes that have occurred to this television genre.
  • Item
    JMAD Aotearoa New Zealand Media Ownership Report 2023
    (AUT Research Centre for Journalism Media and Democracy, 2023-12-08) Baker, Sarah; Hoar, Peter; Hope, Wayne; McEwan, Rufus; Middleton, Atakohu; Te, Saing; Treadwell, Greg
  • Item
    The changing face of current affairs programmes in New Zealand, United States and Britain
    (New Zealand Communication Association (NZCA), 2006) Baker, Sarah
    This paper will explore the changing face of current affairs programmes in three countries, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. News and current affairs programmes have been the subject of much debate in recent years in these three countries. It is common to read of the tabloidisation of news and current affairs and its general decline. This paper will evaluate how key drivers such as legislative changes, globalisation and technological advances have impacted on current affairs programmes in these countries. A recent British study by the University of Westminster is used as one example to discuss the issues facing current affairs as a genre with the claim that it is in crisis and possible terminal decline. For other academics and television executives comes the response that the genre of current affairs has changed with the demands of changing audience taste and commercial realities. This paper suggests that the genre has undergone significant change and is in some crisis. It argues that the change in itself is worthy of investigation and consideration and questions whether the once respected formats of the past that offered context, depth and serious commentary represent the norms of a discarded television genre.
  • Item
    The death of a genre? Television current affairs programmes on New Zealand Public Television
    (Australian New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA), 2007) Baker, Sarah
    “We need the angry buzz of current affairs programmes” (Professor Sylvia Harvey in Holland, 2006, p. iv). “In a public system, television producers acquire money to make programmes. In a commercial system they make programmes to acquire money” (Tracey, 1998, p.18). Television current affairs programmes have from their inception been a flagship genre in the schedules of public service broadcasters. As a television form they were to background, contextualise and examine in depth issues which may have appeared in the news. They clearly met the public broadcasters' brief to 'inform and educate' and contribute to the notional 'public sphere'. Over the past two decades policies of deregulation and the impact of new media technologies have arguably diminished the role of public broadcasting and profoundly affected the resources available for current or public affairs television with subsequent impacts on its forms and importance. This paper looks at the output of one public broadcaster, Television New Zealand (TVNZ), and examines its current affairs programming through this period of change.
  • Item
  • Item
    The suitcase, the samurai sword and the pumpkin: Asian crime and news media treatment
    (Pacific Media Centre, 2008) Baker, Sarah; Benson, SJ
    In 2005 and 2007, two high profile crimes were reported in the New Zealand media. The first case involved the murder of a young Chinese student, Wan Biao, whose dismembered body was discovered in a suitcase. The second case involved domestic violence in which a Chinese man murdered his wife and fled the scene with their young daughter - who the press later dubbed 'Pumpkin' when she was found abandoned in Melbourne, Australia. The authors discuss how news and current affairs programmes decontextualise 'Asian' stories to portray a clear divide between the 'New Zealand' public and the separate 'Asian other'. Asians are portrayed as a homogenous group and the media fails to distinguish between Asians as victims of crimes as a separate category to Asians as perpetrators of crimes. This may have consequences for the New Zealand Asian communities and the wider New Zealand society as a whole.
Items in these collections are protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). These works may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use:
  • Any use you make of these works must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
  • Authors control the copyright of their works. You will recognise the author’s right to be identified as the author of the work, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate.
  • You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the work.