Media matters: Musical chairs & the etiquette of death

The New Zealand media’s game of musical chairs continued this week with three key members of erstwhile MediaWorks current affairs show 3D finishing up with their feet under desks at Fairfax.

The hiring of Paula Penfold, Eugene Bingham and Toby Longbottom – award-winning journos all – reflects the company’s “focus on increased investment in high-quality journalism,” according to Fairfax executive editor Sinead Boucher.

Most interestingly, Ms Boucher noted the threesome will be “encouraged to experiment with telling in-depth stories in modern formats on existing and new platforms” and told NBR, that “the success of projects like Serial and Making a Murderer overseas show that there is a real appetite for investigative journalism presented in new and engaging ways.”

That almost certainly means they will be producing video content for Stuff, Fairfax’s flagship news site – Mr Longbottom is a TV editor rather than one of the blue pencil brigade, after all – and it strongly suggests Fairfax has ambitions to develop a digital TV channel, à la NZME’s WatchMe, which is currently devoted to comedy content.

As such, expect to see both Fairfax and NZME join the traditional broadcasting supplicants for funding from NZ On Air, which began supporting digitally distributed local content several years ago (indeed, NZME has already received funding for The Civilian, a web series spinoff of Ben Uffindell’s satirical website).

The reach offered by the two news organisations’ digital platforms will surely be highly attractive to the funding agency, which has also begun taking more of an interest in getting behind current affairs reporting. As NZOA chief executive Jane Wrightson has noted, its $500,000 of funding for the 3D Investigates strand kept 3D on screen for 2015.

Knocking off contacting grieving families?
In other news, a recent Press Council decision has caused a touch of uneasiness within journalism circles.

A Fairfax journalist twice contacted the family of a woman killed in a tramping accident, which was ruled once too many by the Press Council. The complaint was upheld for privacy issues, as one of the council’s key principles is privacy – with special conditions for those suffering from trauma or grief.

More importantly, since the decision there have been two or three police press releases referring the media explicitly to the ruling after stating a victim’s family does not wish to be contacted. But the decision didn’t say journalists weren’t allowed to contact families at all, just that they shouldn’t do it again after being knocked back.

Have the police over-interpreted the advice, or should families be left alone to grieve?

The rules regarding reporting on suspected suicides, however, are pretty clear-cut, which makes an egregiously insensitive effort by the NZ Herald to turn a terrible tragedy into click bait ("First photo of truck driver who killed himself") earlier this week as puzzling as it was dismaying.

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