Did anyone see Close Up on One on tuesday night? The first story was damn near completely pointless, they hyped up this story of injustice about these ladies who were baking and making jam in their home kitchen for general sale but were called out for breaking this 30 or so year old obsolete food safety rule and would have to get a separate kitchen for the food that they were selling. But when they brought out a couple reps for a live talk they pretty much summed up that it was a non-issue and the rule was planned to be amended as it was, as I said, obsolete for these times. Sainsbury then tried to justify his waste of television time by saying something like 'was this problem only resolved because of media involvement?'. Seriously? Leave this petty stuff to shows like Target and Fair Go. Give me relevant opinionated news as I'd expect from a show like Close Up. Anyway, just a little criticism of NZ media. It's not all bad though.

I still prefer Campbell.

Blaming the media is a tired old philosophy. The media are usually only reflective of our society.

More gossip and salacious rumour popping up on sites? Well that's what's being talked about in hairdressers/shopping malls/schools etc.

Misinformed articles? Okay that's a no-no, but it's no different to the rumour spreading of the general public.

Sporting opinions that fly right off the handle and are completely uninformed? Constant bagging of the All Blacks/Black Caps/etc? No different than happens in pubs/clubs etc....and no different in fact to the comments on this very website.

Maybe we should look at ourselves too.

And Stuff is one of the worst..... Oh how I hate this weird addiction that keeps me coming back.

When I became a journalist, it wasn't because I wanted to tell people's stories or write about important current events. It wasn't so I could play a part in upholding a healthy democracy, or bring injustices to the public eye.

It was so I could create fear, trump up events and scrape the bottom of the barrel for sensationalist news items, obviously.

Not all journalists are part of this apparent hive mind "THE MEDIA," I think you'll find. Many of them write really well-informed, insightful stories. I've never met one who didn't care about their work.

It's easier to b**tch about the bad stuff than recognise the good though, isn't it.

Another one that riles me up is how the media always choose to show firearms in a bad light, forget the 250,000+ people that go out every weekend to target shoot and enjoy their sport and compete (some at international level). Far easier to show shootings on TV and make the public believe that all firearms in any hands are bad.

#70 Anna... where did you get your "more journalists are short course, rather than post grad qualified nowadays" facts from, out of curiousity?

The state of the media in NZ has been abysmal for many years now and it has gotten particularly bad over the last 5 years. The reporting on the things that I have had personal involvement with or have insider knowledge of makes me despair… unfortunately the media here doesn’t investigate the news; instead it blindly reports the statements given to it in press releases. If a journalist even bothered to call up some of the people with direct involvement in these stories then they would get a wealth of information to report on, but instead they choose to prepare stories that they can get to air/print in the shortest possible length of time. There are a huge number of stories out there that would be of interest to the NZ public if a journalist just took the time to look into them.

I avoid NZ television news now, since they insist on wasting money to do unnecessary live crosses and using upcoming stories as hooks to get people to keep watching… for example “find out why this man appeared in court, coming up later”. I have even been appalled to see footage ‘enhanced’ with background music to give an emotional response. Sadly, much of the news that should be shown never makes it to television since the stations can’t get interesting pictures to show.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I remember when news reporting was about... news. I don't want to see personality when people present the news, I want to see facts. Is it too much to ask?!? And this whole competition of who can break the news first... how about waiting a little while to confirm facts, THEN presenting them? I don't care if you're 5 minutes later than the other guy. If you get it right, then I'll come back. Heck, I might even pay to read the news online. IF IT'S RIGHT!

H1N1, Sars, Y2K bug, food crisis last year, Great Depression this year.

That is all you need to know about the media.

Big surprise, the NZ media is taking up more sensationalist rubbish which grabs attention and sells. Watch the close up show after the news and listen to the silly things asked "How did you feel when you found out your brother had been shot?".