By Dave Williams
New Zealand's media have become a plaything of global finance and the shrinking of the sector is a threat to democracy, says a researcher.
"There are now three major players that own 80 per cent plus of the New Zealand media - APN, Fairfax and MediaWorks," says Wayne Hope of the AUT University Research Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD).
The co-director and media studies lecturer says the sphere for public debate is shrinking with fewer voices, fewer journalists and fewer outlets.
JMAD will release its New Zealand Media Ownership Report 2011, by Merja Myllylahti, at its conference on Thursday and Friday.
The report says New Zealand media companies are increasingly dominated by overseas corporations and are vulnerable to commercial and shareholder pressures.
The companies continue to economise and digitalise, leading to the closure of a 20-year-old weekly business paper, job losses and government loans for a conglomerate with major broadcast holdings.
"Where we have concentration of ownership into a few hands and profit becomes more important than public interest, the danger is not only that we get less information overall, we also get less variety of information," Professor Hope says.
The report chronicles the recent closure of the New Zealand Press Association after more than 130 years, the end of funding of TVNZ7 and TVNZ6, the expansion of Sky to the internet and corporates entering the local news markets.
The $43 million loan to MediaWorks to cover their licence fee and other expenses is a local example of the too-cosy relationship between big media and government, Prof Hope says.
"We all know the dominant media players like to push their own point or view.
"We've seen that made massively clear with Rupert Murdoch. In that situation a handful of powerful media companies also exert undue influence over government."
NZN