Kerre Woodham: Where does the media go from here?

First up today, a suite of announcements around the media. Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Broadcasting, thank heavens, has agreed to progress the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill. This was a bill initially proposed by Labour and rejected by National. Now, however, the coalition government, minus one of its partners, is progressing with amendments to support our local media companies to earn revenue for the news they produce and in effect, throw them a lifeline, help them survive. Paul Goldsmith says the key change, the reason why they are now supporting the bill, is adopting a ministerial designation framework. This will enable the Minister to decide which digital platforms are captured by the bill, allowing the government to manage unintended consequences.

The unintended consequences are part of why ACT are not supporting the bill as David Seymour explained to Mike Hosking this morning.

“It's not always obvious who needs who the most, and when it comes to digital media, whether it's the Herald online, or Stuff, or whatever, they are benefiting from being able to be found on Google, from having their stories shared on Facebook and Instagram, and I've heard from people who work on those companies, that they're trained to help enhance their visibility on these internet platforms so they get more readers.

“Now, if you're going to try and strike a deal it's not actually obvious who should be paying who, for what service. But to put a politician in the middle trying to figure that out, well, that's the kind of policy we expect from the Labour Party and of course, the, the origin of it is a Labour policy, and I just think we’ve got to be honest about, you know, the problems with the media actually relate to the product. It's never been easier to share news, you know, it's not like you have to pay a network of thousands of school kids to deliver papers every morning. Anyone can start a media company. It's easy to communicate. The issue is, I don't think people want the product. And if you start trying to subsidise by pulling down other companies that are doing, well, you're just delaying the change that needs to happen that we need more journalism we can actually trust.”

And therein lies the point really, is it just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic? One of the unintended consequences they were concerned about was that in Canada, Meta blocked users’ ability to share or view news content. And that led to a significant reduction in traffic to smaller independent media websites and the government having to bail them out. And if news disappears from social media platforms there's fears misinformation will take its place. Well, that's already alive and well and thriving in different corners of the Internet.

Goldsmith says, however, they will ensure an appropriate independent regulator is appointed as the Bills authority. In addition, he points out much of the legislation underpinning the media landscape is outdated and stifling innovation. While full legislative review does take time, Paul Goldsmith said we're starting by removing outdated advertising restrictions for Sundays and public holidays. So basically, that means you can see your KFC, and McDonald's, and your Beds R US, and Tina from Turners on Sundays now, Christmas Day, and Easter.

And don't you dare complain because nobody's watching terrestrial television anymore, or certainly not in the numbers to warrant any complaints to be taken seriously. The government's also going to tweak the eligibility criteria for the New Zealand's Screen Production Rebate for local shows with strong industry and cultural value. Why should international film producers get their rebate when local producers don't? So, Shortland Street gets a lifeline. Does this mean it adds so much cultural value that it can justify being publicly funded rather than standing on its own two feet? It's an adult now. It's been around for long enough. Should it still be living at home with the government, getting funded by the government?

I don't know that giving television the ability to advertise on Sundays and public holidays is going to save it either. I'm not sure the revenue that's going to come in is even remotely going to help in terms of keeping traditional media, mainstream media, alive. Is it simply delaying the inevitable?

Where do you get your news from? Where do you get trusted sources of information? Do you also go to places where you find yourself railing at either the announcer or the tenor of the interview, or the information just so you can hear another side? Or do you prefer to hear your own views reinforced? Do you still check in with the mainstream media websites? Is there anyone still getting a newspaper delivered? When my mum gave up her subscription, I thought well, that's it. That's the end of that, I thought to myself. Is it just going to have to transform itself completely in terms of not only how it delivers news, but what it delivers? What sort of information you want?

Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.