From the Team – March 2009
I’m not an artist but I know what I like, I’m not much of a footballer (and never was) but I get great pleasure from watching Cristian Ronaldo weave past would-be tacklers and score goals that can rightfully be described as ‘beautiful’. I am not a journalist but every day I read the work of our own journalists (Nadine Isler and Andrew Gregory) and plenty of others in selected publications, and I know what appeals to me, provokes me, is beneficial for me to read, bores me, irritates me and what I just don’t like.
Nadine Isler has had a bee in her bonnet about this for a while now so I asked her to have her say. To share her opinion about her much maligned profession. And she did, and here it is.
Tim
“Don’t let truth get in the way of a good story.” It’s an old cliché, and when we hear it we chuckle, and collectively sigh about the state of the media today.
It’s about time those resigned sighs are questioned. For too long, journalists have been allowed to live up to their less than favourable reputations. We are down there with lawyers and car salesmen, and quite frankly, the reputation is deserved. You only need to read some of the stuff the media in this country is pumping out to see what I mean.
So let’s challenge this state of affairs, let stop accepting that journalists are slimy, under-researched and exploitative. And lets give the profession a chance to change, and turf out the remaining individuals who continue to do a bad job.
“Bad news sells”: Now there’s another cliché that needs to be challenged. Read the newspaper, and you want to go slit your wrists.
So lets report some good for a change. They say that criticism and depression is what audiences want, but the positive stories we have presenting in the pages of this magazine have been met with increasing enthusiasm. And believe me, at first even I was surprised. I thought readers needed a twist, some scandal, perhaps a hint of seedy underbelly, to be truly interested… but nope, it seems we genuinely appreciate supportive, informative writing. Who would have thought?
Now I am not saying we should produce sugar-coated drivel, and close our eyes to the miserable things that do go on in our world. I’m just saying that there is the opportunity to see things from different perspectives, and not all of them involve doom and gloom.
Telling people what is happening in their cities, their countries and the world need not be an underhand and depressing exercise. There is room for balance and good, supportive writing, and I for one would love to start seeing more of it.
NADINE ISLER
Thanks Nicolas appreciate the positive (and constructive) comments. I’ll make contact directly soon by email, would be good to catch up soon.
Cheers
Tim
Since I arrived to NZ six years ago, very, very few things disappointed me from my new country. Like most of the people that chose NZ as home, we believe that it is a great society, and we want to contribute to keep its quality and hopefully even improve it. We want our children to live and grow here.
Then, why the media has to have so poor quality? And it is not about presentation,it is the lack of vision of the big picture for the future of the Nation, or understanding of the real mission of the Media in a democratic society.
I never heard in NZ the concept that press is the “fourth power” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers#The_press) probably because never has been under real threat. But the fact that NZ is one of the few countries in History that never had an interruption of its democratic system, should only reinforce the role of the Media as a channel for education and leadership for the country in the broadest sense. However, it is reduced to a mere entertainment, or gossip at every level (business is not an exception) sometimes really below average.
Hence the good quality of your magazine is a positive surprise.
Mark Ahn introduced me to Tim Collins a few months ago at the Koru Club. All of us had a good conversation while waiting for our planes around a number of topics related to global innovation, venture capital and strategic entrepreneurship and how the future of NZ will be strongly tied to these areas.
I’m extremely pleased to see a recent interview of Mark, which positively shows the big vision that the magazine is aiming for. However, I must point a criticism: it was unnecessary to have a “characterisation” of Mark as a “Rocket Man”…which put the article in the category of “needing a catchy title to be read”…while there are much more deep ideas that are worth follow from his comments.
Congratulations and keep up with the evolution.
Nicolas Erdody
great looking site and descent copy
the whole presentation comes accross as slick without being smug!
keep up the good work and stay human