Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: "Creative" and "Flexible"

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  • Sacha,

    I just resent having to play along with all this business-speak as if it's some sort of important or coherent philosophy rather than a particularly propagandist part of what is, at heart, a giant global pyramid scheme.

    Agree

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Robbie Siataga,

    Yeah nice one Ben. I hear ya and would think i am speaking for none but myself and even then I'm totally hit and miss :)

    I just think its inevitable radio in its commercial form and public form will eventually die as broadband becomes cheaper and home based jocks put out their own programmes, work habits change and advertisers stop supporting radio as they can no longer reach their captive target market.

    I'm also a creature of some habit and when possible tune into saturday nite UK pirate radio which times in nicely for a sunday morning brunch pumping out teh dubstep.

    True, it's only a dollar to support someone elses habit but them dollars add up especially when you consider GST is only getting raised by 2.5 cents in the dollar. So maybe others wayyyy more fortunate can pay for my GST component instead of rewarding themselves with tax cuts funded by an insignificant amount as 2.5 cents. Unfortunately the help each other out thing doesnt seem to be working.

    For really minimal starters you might point to a fair bit of the evening programming being sourced from the BBC World Service or from the ABC - both fairly reputable, I would have thought.

    Makes even less of a case for taxpayer funding if its just collecting news from other sources as opposed to outsourcing and funding an NZ journo to get out in the field and report the news.

    Since Feb 2010 • 259 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    Makes even less of a case for taxpayer funding if its just collecting news from other sources as opposed to outsourcing and funding an NZ journo to get out in the field and report the news.

    No, that is a case for more taxpayer funding, to finance more locally made content. NatRad already makes loads of documentary and news programmes, covering ares which are ignored by the commercial media; but if you want more, then that $10m fuding shortfall has to be made up.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    I just think its inevitable radio in its commercial form and public form will eventually die as broadband becomes cheaper and home based jocks put out their own programmes, work habits change and advertisers stop supporting radio as they can no longer reach their captive target market.

    Perhaps inevitable, but the timeframe is unknown. I used to think there wouldn't be people digging ditches with spades in 30 years, when I was 8. But there they are, just out there on the street in front of me. I also thought text messaging would be a huge flop because it was already an extortionate ripoff bandwidth-wise back when it first started. That was because as a computer-nerd, I thought something that could have just as effectively been delivered with a 300 baud modem, when the POTS was already at a minimum of 9600 baud and cellphones matched this, was surely not the way of the future. Surely bandwidth was only increasing - and of course it was, and has - and surely market forces would drive something a lot better into the mix, or at least take txts down to a 'fair' cost. But no, I didn't factor in that the profits from this extortionate service would make it extremely attractive to the very small pool of massive scale providers, and thus the service would become a standard and everyone would have it, and even be thankful for it. In short, I didn't factor in that people appreciated that it was better than what they had before, rather than feeling bitter that it was only 1% as good as what it could have been.

    Society changes quite slowly wrt to some things. Video calling was a futuristic idea when I was a child. Now we have it, even over cellphones, but it doesn't seem to be taking over at breakneck speed. I do it regularly with family and friends who are abroad. But I don't want to do it with colleagues very much. I still prefer voice. We've been trained by telephones to find this a perfectly acceptable way of communicating, which even has advantages over a 'speaking AND seeing' medium.

    I don't even have a clue what changes will happen to overall work habits. Certainly a lot more people can telecommute, or operate a home business nowadays. But a lot more people don't want to do either one, and at times I can see their point. Going into a workplace has some very nice advantages - you can get pretty lonely and peculiar when you work from home. Sometimes I literally see nobody but my family for days in a row. I miss other people.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    surely market forces would drive something a lot better into the mix, or at least take txts down to a 'fair' cost. But no, I didn't factor in that the profits from this extortionate service would make it extremely attractive to the very small pool of massive scale providers, and thus the service would become a standard and everyone would have it, and even be thankful for it.

    You also didn't factor in Telecom's success at lobbying limp-wristed Ministers who might have regulated their cosy monopoly/duopoly a decade earlier. Mobile termination rates, anyone?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Phil Brownlee,

    ... just collecting news from other sources as opposed to outsourcing and funding an NZ journo to get out in the field and report the news

    Most of what Sam's talking about are feature programmes. Radio New Zealand is more than a news service.

    Wellington • Since Sep 2008 • 25 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Thank god we privatised Telecom and got the efficency of the market (?)

    If you wondered what happened to Nick Leeson....

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10628598

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Craig, so it is just coincidence National is destroying local democracy in Auckland and Canterbury, with a few Hospital Borads in their sights etc?
    No this is a clear agenda, and an anti democratic and anti-civil society one.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Alien Lizard (anag),

    the 3G shall last a 1000 years...
    That Hitler Bunker clip has many uses it seems
    that was actually LOL funny...

    One wonders if the good herr doktor PR must be thinking of gattung out while the gettings gut...

    The Arrrgh Complex • Since Jan 2010 • 158 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    You also didn't factor in Telecom's success at lobbying limp-wristed Ministers who might have regulated their cosy monopoly/duopoly a decade earlier. Mobile termination rates, anyone?

    I didn't, but TXT is a global phenomenon. I think the main driver of its success was that it was economically fruitful for business, and it was a service that wasn't already supplied, and yet was useful. It didn't matter that it was a pretty tiny invention technology wise.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    But are you saying that SMS pricing is the same ripoff elsewhere?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    whether it's 2000% markup or 10,000% it's still a rip.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Sam F,

    Makes even less of a case for taxpayer funding if its just collecting news from other sources as opposed to outsourcing and funding an NZ journo to get out in the field and report the news.

    As Phil says above, these are mostly features I'm listing. I haven't had the time so far to look into the other stuff produced on behalf of RNZ

    As regards news, RNZ has its own staff in the field for precisely this reason, and you have to ask in NZ, between what's left of NZPA and the sorely stretched daily papers, who on earth they could reliably outsource production of the daily news to.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • stephen walker,

    Danielle wrote:

    what is, at heart, a giant global pyramid scheme

    yes, yes and yes.

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    Listened to the Mahler live at the Michael Fowler Centre tonight as the NZ Festival of the Arts opener, on RNZ Concert. You couldn't replace that with something automated or interrupted by ads.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Christopher Nimmo,

    So according to the Dominion Post's hilariously contrasting editorials this morning, the Concert Programme is a Terrible Thing because it is all about a niche market, but putting Mahler 8 on a big screen* so you don't have to pay through the nose is a Wonderful Thing. Guess what, DomPost, the Concert Programme does this whole democratisation of the arts thing all year round.

    *sound from the Concert Programme, of course, and yup, Hilary, I was thinking exactly the same thing

    Wellington • Since May 2009 • 97 posts Report Reply

  • Jake Quinn,

    Hi folks, just to confirm I am NOT a lecturer, and have never even given a guest lecture. I'm but a lowly MA student and media/pols tutor at AU.. John must have thought, as you have noted RB, that calling me a lecturer helped the story. Sigh. I've emailed him asking for a correction, he said he'd address it in his next column.

    Hamilton • Since Feb 2010 • 3 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Amazing how many people do not get the distinction between lecturer and tutor. I guess they both sound like "teacher".

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Jake: there is no such thing as a 'lowly' MA student but there are plenty of examples of John Drinnan getting things wrong. Keep up the great work.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    The joys of Nu Zild englush is that although spelt differently Lecturer and Lecherer have little or no decernable difference.

    Lechering predates lecturing in english by a few hundred years.

    Casting no aspirations upon anyone here ;p

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    Mentioning no names but lechering might be a fitting description for several of my colleagues! I wonder, though, when one becomes a Senior Lecturer does it mean you leer at pensioners? I am a Associate Professor which, as I explain to people who know little about university titles, means that I hang out with Professors ;-)

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Jake Quinn,

    I would like to add, further to my above comment, that it is entirely plausible, in fact likely, that John Drinnan's mistaken comments about my position at AU were quite unintentional.

    Hamilton • Since Feb 2010 • 3 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    Quite likely, given the Herald's insouciant attitude towards facts and sub-editing.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Threadjack: I hope you are all off the coast and listening to National Radio right the fuck now.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    An awe-specious rejoinder.

    Hmm, that must come from listening to the kiddies show on bFm. What's the frequency, Kenneth?

    Oh yeah, and what Lucy said. But playing Manic's Tsunami would have been too obvious, even for me ;-)

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

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