:the way we report
THE WAY WE REPORT
What effects is the New Zealand media having on the global perception of our country?
SUPPLY AND DEMAND… THAT'S the way the world works isn't it? Consumers are provided with what suppliers believe they want.
The same can be said about the news we, as an audience seek out. For one week from Monday 13 to Friday
17 August I paid particular focus to the news stuff.co.nz selects to include on their homepage. During this period I found that 52
percent of the total front page story headings highlighted stories of a negative nature e.g. Mother too late to visit son. Of the top stories (the leading story, four to five secondary leading stories and the six pictured links) 55 percent were negative, 25 percent were positive and 20 percent were neutral. The Editor's Picks tended to follow suit
with 55 percent negative, 34 percent positive and 11 percent neutral. What is most interesting is the Most
Popular stories contained 78 percent negative headlines, 12 percent positive and 10 percent neutral. Hence we can see that this particular media outlet is simply providing what it believes and is proven the public want. It is a common perception that New
Zealand media take preference to report on bad news over good news. During my time at journalism school, I was greeted each day with a poster on the wall which was often referred to by lecturers – 'if it bleeds, it leads' was its message. With reporters tending to focus on
only the bad that is happening, an image is created of an incredibly volatile country when really there is a lot of good that is happening here. And the effects of this selection of information are far reaching.
48 | www.hermagazine.co.nz
