Citizen Journalism

No Small Accomplishment

Media conglomerates love sensation.  Sensationalism sells the media's product/service--both directly and indirectly.  More often than not the old media have an axe to grind, and that axe is called self-interest.  The more eyeballs or clicks, the more advertising revenue they can command.

When an ostensibly random individual poured muck over a Cabinet minister recently in New Zealand it was tailor made for sensationalism.  It happened in Christchurch as that city marked the five year anniversary of the big quake.  It was a pretty solemn occasion.  But the random protestor wanted to protest how cruel, heartless, and oppressive the government has been towards the people in Christchurch.

This is how the media framed the incident:

Little Petal

Thin Skinned Media

The NZ Herald is no grey lady.  True, its moniker back in the day used to be "Granny Herald".  Venerable, stable, weighty.  But like many media it has been outpaced and outdistanced by the mass democratisation effect made possible by emerging electronic media.  Like most "mainstream" media it has responded by cutting costs (usually quality reporting staff are the first to go) and by sensationalising the news to attract readers.  Granny Herald has morphed into a bimbo with diamonds on the souls of her shoes. 

Breathless sensationalism is now the staple diet.  Virtually every news story has to be twisted to allude to a  subterranean scandal.  But recently it has sunk to new levels.  It has been caught editing readers' letters to the Editor critical of the paper's performance to blunt the criticism and cast itself in a more favourable light.