Christchurch: Media Scrum

by | Mar 2, 2011 | Culture & Ideas, New Zealand

The trouble with most first-time experiences, is the necessity of hindsight and reflection to see all the ways you could have done things differently, what you have learned and how you can be a better person as a result. Like I said in Christchurch: We Are Blessed; this is New Zealand’s first experience of dealing with, responding to and reporting a national disaster of this scale. So for media outlets, we are pushing into new territories and having to learn on the run. As such, the dynamics of our news screens have changed almost each day – as committed journos get tired and as hope fades.

But this is a critical opportunity to make vital learnings in our role as broadcasters and news agents, whether we work in corporate comms or behind newspaper desks, news cameras or on blogs and in social.

I’m anxious that we choose sensible, fact-driven journalism with appropriate spaces for commentary over the sensationalist, tabloid, bleed it leads style of disaster broadcasting that doesn’t fit within our culture and disregards the fact we are all so closely connected to one another.

Here are my few thoughts so far: (more…)

Christchurch: We Are Blessed.

by | Feb 28, 2011 | Culture & Ideas, New Zealand

Some will possibly find this thought offensive.. and that is not my intention. Instead, I want to dialogue the context of international aid and disaster response. I have sat quietly on some of these thoughts since the quake.. they have whispered in the back of my mind. And not because this is a subject for debate, in fact that couldn’t be further from the truth.. there is no wrong or right in this context. In the context of disaster, that is. (more…)

Christchurch, (Aroha mai, aroha atu).

by | Feb 23, 2011 | Culture & Ideas, New Zealand

At 12.51pm yesterday (Tuesday 22nd February) a magnitude 6.3 quake struck at a depth of 5km just outside of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. Although of a lower magnitude than the September 4 quake, the shallow depth of yesterday’s tremor has left a much larger impact on the city and it’s surrounding townships.

New Zealand is a small place. We will all know someone directly involved with and affected by this earthquake. The dust and chaos of some of the first images of devastation and rescue remind me concurrently of 9/11 and Haiti. The care and concern of people overseas is immense, the anxious wait as numbers fluctuate, predictions are made and people registered as missing or found is being felt by just about everyone I’ve spoken too.

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