Jean Balchin • May 14, 2017 •
“Science values detail, precision, the impersonal, the technical, the lasting, facts, numbers and being right. Journalism values brevity, approximation, the personal, the colloquial, the immediate, stories, words and being right now. There are going to be tensions.” – Quentin Cooper, of BBC Radio 4’s Material World. Open up Facebook or scroll through Twitter … Read More
Donal Curtin • May 05, 2017 •
Yesterday I warned you that I was writing a piece for competition policy tragics, and this is it. In the event it’s not terribly technical, so give it a go even if you’re not a tragic – especially as it shows how we’ve got, finally, to a better place when it comes to assessing things like the NZME/Fairfax … Read More
Peter Griffin • May 03, 2017 •
The Commerce Commission’s rejection of a plan for our two biggest media companies to merge is one of the most significant determinations from the regulator in years. Many journalists in NZME and Fairfax New Zealand newsrooms around the country will be disappointed. The merger was pitched to them as the last hope for sustainability in a cash-strapped industry struggling … Read More
Guest Work • Apr 04, 2017 •
By Andy Miah, University of Salford It’s not an easy time for scientists to talk to the wider public. The US president, Donald Trump, has called global warming “bullshit” and a “Chinese hoax”. In the UK, leave campaigner and MP Michael Gove famously declared that people “have had enough of experts”. But now UK MPs have published … Read More
Peter Griffin • Dec 14, 2016 •
Nature’s made herself well known in science this year, with the recent Kaikoura earthquake dominating media attention for the past month. A plan to make New Zealand predator free and the campylobacter outbreak that sent Havelock North hurtling to the bathroom made science a crucial part of news stories this year. As 2016 draws to a close, the Science Media … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 17, 2015 •
Matthew Powers, University of Washington Earlier this fall, Greenpeace announced it was hiring a team of journalists and making investigations a pillar of its advocacy work. Now the public is beginning to see the fruits of that investment, as well as some of the questions that get raised when advocacy groups utilise some of journalism’s more controversial … Read More
Victoria Metcalf • May 14, 2015 •
Over the ditch there’s a little madness going on. The need for humans to converse with each other, to engage in conversation, is in a fashion under threat. That’s because the latest government budget announced includes a halt to the funding for the Australian media website initiative The … Read More
Alison Campbell • Apr 26, 2015 •
Today's Life/Style section in the Herald on Sunday brings us the latest 'beauty trend' to hit our shores: the snail facial. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently one can (if one has a sufficiency of funds) already purchase Snail... Read More
Alison Campbell • Apr 06, 2015 •
Will Grant & Rod Lambert, from the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, listed these 10 common mistakes in an article published in The Conversation. And as they say, if we're honest we've probably made at... Read More
Eric Crampton • Mar 07, 2015 •
Did you hear the story of the indebted journalist who, when on assignment hanging out as a beggar for a while to be able to write on life from the streets, found he made more money begging than he did as a journalist? So he quit his journalism job and ... Read More