Sarah-Jane O'Connor • May 31, 2018 •
It may come as no surprise that at the Science Media Centre we consume a lot of media; it’s very much our job to keep abreast of what’s happening in New Zealand particularly in the science scene. But we also know that for those of you who aren’t eyes-deep in media on a daily basis, it can be hard to … Read More
Guest Work • Mar 23, 2018 •
Jennifer Beckett, University of Melbourne and Monica Whitty, University of Melbourne This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Six months after the explosive allegations of sexual harassment against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein came to light, giving impetus to the #MeToo movement, this series looks at the aftermath of … Read More
Guest Work • Mar 20, 2018 •
Tamar Carroll, Rochester Institute of Technology and Lara Nicosia, Rochester Institute of Technology This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Movements like #MeToo are drawing increased attention to the systemic discrimination facing women in a range of professional fields, from Hollywood and journalism to banking and government. Discrimination is … Read More
Guest Work • Mar 09, 2018 •
Babak Abedin, University of Technology Sydney This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took to the social platform last week to announce a call-out for ideas about how to measure the health of online conversations. The initiative follows recent demands for government to regulate the … Read More
Jean Balchin • Jan 17, 2018 •
‘Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.’ This is the opening line of Janet Malcolm’s sharp, analytical book The Journalist and the Murderer. Published in 1983, the book still challenges journalists these days. Malcolm is a cunning, insightful journalist. Read More
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