Week 2 - A Māori Perspective on Journalism

THROUGH THE GENERATIONS: Audience members at Pasifika Festival, Auckland. (Photo: Danielle Hutchinson).

One of this week’s readings focused on the Māori perspective in journalism and the process of bi-cultural reporting.

‘Tikanga [Māori custom] values listening and allowing everyone to have their say without interruption…interviewees are not hurried.’ (Middleton, 2023).

This contrasts with the convention of short soundbites in Anglo-American journalism, where news hosts may be confrontational and interrupt their guests in order to steer the interview or press a point.

For example, Naga Munchetty has recently been criticised in the UK media for ‘interrupting’ guests in one tabloid (Doyle, 2024), whilst another praises her for ‘grilling’ a politician (Lawes, 2024). This shows that even within one culture there can be debate about the appropriate interview etiquette.

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References

Doyle, A. (2024, March 7). BEEB FURY ‘Stop interrupting!’ fume BBC Breakfast viewers at Naga Munchetty after ‘worst interview in show’s history’. Irish Sun. https://www.thesun.ie/tv/12359182/bbc-breakfast-rachel-reeves-naga-munchetty/

Lawes, R. (2024, March 14). Naga Munchetty praised for making Michael Gove squirm with ‘the right question’ on BBC Breakfast. Metro. https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/14/naga-munchettys-right-question-makes-michael-gove-squirm-bbc-20461691/?ico=just-in_home_just-in

Middleton, A. (2023). Chapter 6: KO TE ĀHUATANGA O TE MAHI: Analysing news values and the Māori perspective. In Kia hiwa rā!: Māori journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. (pp. 138-161). Huia Publishers.