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2007 Report download
2007 4-page Summary
2008 Media Consumers' Checklist
2004 Report downloads
2004 Accuracy, balance and fairness leaflet
Media studies headline resources from 2004
Media studies article resources from 2004
Submission on review of NZ Press Council
Results
 Many newspaper stories in our 2007 sample were written from a Pākehā perspective and represented Māori as a source of problems or conflict. They used or did not counter the Māori Privilege theme when it was used by sources. Despite being dismissed as unfounded by the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, this enduring and self-serving Pākehā theme enabled Māori to be viewed as having privileges unfairly denied to Pākehā while also being depicted as poor, sick and a drain on “the taxpayer”
2007 Mass TV news programmes (One News, 3 News, Prime News) talk of unity in their coverage of Waitangi Day emphasised a form of New Zealand nationalism that silenced Māori rights and aspirations. When Māori TV news programmes did so, the unity was in diversity, focused on tino rangatiratanga and challenged the Government to honour te Tiriti o Waitangi. Māori language news assumed that the fight for Māori rights and aspirations is a necessity and is not divisive or unjustified; the opposite assumption prevailed on mass news.
The terms “radical” and “activist” were overwhelming applied to Māori in newspapers in 2007, and used largely by journalists rather than in quotes. The imbalance in these terms indicates an overall conservative viewpoint on Māori resource issues and a lack of alternative frames for these stories.
Māori focus group members regularly faced hostile reactions at work from Pākehā workmates that were directly related to negative media depictions of Māori and Treaty issues. Members found these patterns to be damaging to Māori health and wellbeing and reinforcing of negative Pākehā perceptions of Māori.
Te Kaea and Te Karere used different frames for stories in 2007, used fewer politicians as sources and a much wider range of Maori sources than mass TV news. Maori programmes allowed sources to speak for longer, and used a less confrontational approach even though their stories had the same proportion about conflict. Overall, they demonstrated the monocultural nature of the news values which mass TV news programmes have long stated to be universal.
Newspapers used more Government sources (31%) than iwi (23%) in 2007; mass TV news programmes relied even more heavily on Government sources and used only a small proportion of iwi sources, while the opposite was true of Te Kaea and Te Karere.
Newspapers quoted twice as many Māori men as women and three or more times as many Pākehā men as women in 2007 and 2004. In 2007, mass TV news used more than three times as many male as female sources in 2007, compared to Māori programmes, where women made up nearly half the sources. This indicates a possible greater role for women as spokespeople in the Māori world compared to the Pākehā one.
Mass media items continued to provide little or no background explanation or context about the Treaty or Māori issues in 2007.
The proportion of newspaper Māori stories using words of te reo and the average number of Māori words per item (two) in 2007 was the same as in our 2004 sample, a clear indicator of its low priority.
Journalists aspire to be a watchdog for all citizens and sceptical about everything, particularly the statements of the powerful. However, our representative samples in 2004 and 2007 indicated that the mass media acts as a watchdog for Pākehā interests and is rarely sceptical of Pākehā initiatives that breach the Treaty. Instead, it is sceptical of Treaty-based initiatives or points of view.
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2007 downloads (all PDF)
Summary 2007- 4 A4 pages (400Kb PDF - designed to be printed as A4 portrait pages on a double-sided landscape A3 page)
Media and te Tiriti o Waitangi 2007 (900Kb PDF - 54 pages; designed to be printed as a double-sided A4 book; page 2 is the inside front cover)
Media Consumers' Checklist 2008 (250Kb PDF - 4-page A4 landscape document)
Media Consumers' Checklist 2008 (200Kb PDF - A3 portrait pages, double-sided)
We have produced this resource to support action by media consumers against negative representations of te Tirit or Maori issues in news media. It inlcudes a list of negative themes and media frames to look for; questions about the media item's use of sources, te reo Maori, images and aspects of coverage that are missing. It also provides examples of different actions to take about negative coverage.
Click here to order bound copies of the 2007 report
They cost $15 for individuals and non-profit community groups; $20 for libraries, government agencies and businesses.
2004 Report downloads (all PDF)
Media and Te Tiriti o Waitangi 2004 (whole report, 550Kb)
Research summary (4 pages, 200Kb)
Introduction and method (12 pages, 300Kb)
Analyses and findings (12 pages, 300Kb)
Case studies (9 pages, 310Kb)
Conclusions and references (13 pages, 400Kb)
Click here to order bound copies of the report
They cost $7 for individuals and non-profit community groups; $14 for government agencies and businesses.
Other Journalism and Media Studies resources
Accuracy Balance and Fairness A4 leaflet relating media standards to the research results (350Kb)
Newspaper headlines about Maori and the Treaty
We have collected three examples of newspaper headlines from 2004 and 2007, and ask -
What words and images come to mind about Maori?
What words and images come to mind about the Treaty and settlements?
Replace the words Maori, tribe or iwi with Pakeha. What effect does that have?
Headline example 1 (200Kb PDF)
Headline example 2 (210 Kb PDF)
Headline example 3 (230 Kb PDF)
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Newspaper articles about Maori and the Treaty
We have copied four articles about Maori and the Treaty from 2004 onto single A4 sheets, and ask -
What is being said?
Who is speaking?
What text components and associations are used and evoked?
Who is the audience?
What is the effect of saying it this way?
Mallard and powhiri article (210 Kb PDF)
Lake Taupo airspace article (320 Kb PDF)
Foreshore and seabed hearings article (290 Kb PDF)
Marine farms Treaty settlement article (250 Kb PDF)
Submission on review of NZ Press Council
Based on existing research and our 2005 study, Kupu Taea recommended -
The creation of a separate and completely independent body, with the promotion of ethical journalism as its sole focus
Formal separation from the media industry
Representation of Maori media and journalism organisations and media consumer organisations on the board
Rewritten media standards that acknowledge the Treaty of Waitangi and include Maori as well as Pakeha perspectives on balance, fairness, accuracy and other standards
Inclusion in the standards of balance in the underlying frameworks and assumptions used in articles, an absence of systemic bias against any population group, and the existence of balanced reporting of both Maori and Pakeha perspectives
A requirement to investigate emerging ethical issues and issue advisory opinions relating to print media standards and ethical conduct
The power to have NZPC decisions published in every member publication, and to levy financial and other penalties on publications when complaints against them are upheld.
Download the submission (340Kb PDF)
The Media and Te Tiriti Project was supported by the Treaty of Waitangi Information Unit, the Cathy Pelly Maungarongo Trust, the University of Auckland Staff Research Fund, and the Auckand Wordkers Education Association, the parent group to the TRC.
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