Blog Archives

Bullies behind the screen, Jane Westaway

Whale Oil Margie Thomson Potton and Burton, $40.00, ISBN 9780947503819 The authors of certain books published in this country deserve medals. Not literary prizes, although they might merit these, too. But I mean authors who devote themselves to uncovering connections…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Lies and damned lies, Gyles Beckford

Truthteller Stephen Davis Exisle Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9781925335897 “Aren’t we all investigative journalists?” my colleague asked, as we lamented the quality of the coffee at an early hour in the newsroom kitchen. “We’d all like to think so,” I replied.…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review

Finding the way back, Nicholas Reid

Now When it Rains – A Writer’s Memoir  Jeffrey Paparoa Holman Steele Roberts, $35.00, ISBN 9780947493776 A boy needs a father, but things can go badly wrong if the father is not good at fathering. This seems to be one…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review

Pressing on, James Hollings 

Lasting Impressions: The Story of New Zealand’s Newspapers, 1840–1920 Ian F Grant Fraser Books, in association with the Alexander Turnbull Library, $69.50, ISBN 9780994136046 At a time when journalism is in crisis, with collapsing revenues and governments and elites indifferent…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review

History, memory and representation, Alfio Leotta

The Camera in the Crowd: Filming New Zealand in Peace and War: 1895-1920 Christopher Pugsley Oratia Books, $80.00, ISBN 9780947506346 Filming the Colonial Past: The New Zealand Wars on Screen Annabel Cooper University of Otago Press, $50.00, ISBN 9781988531083 As…
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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction, Review

Getting the news out, James Norcliffe

Surviving 7.8: New Zealanders Respond to the Earthquakes of November 2016 Phil Pennington and Radio New Zealand HarperCollins, $35.00, ISBN 9781775541103   New Zealanders, Cantabrians in particular, have, over the last half-dozen years, become reluctant experts in earthquakes. We have…
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Posted in History, Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Fiasco, Jon Johansson

Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson Potton & Burton, $35.00, ISBN 9780947503390 As someone who has been around the political traps a fair while, my heuristic for…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Protect, promote, and attract an audience, Wayne Hope

Māori Television: The First Ten Years Jo Smith Auckland University Press, $45.00, ISBN 9781869408572 The birth of the Māori Television Service in March 2004 coincided with nationwide protests against the Labour government’s plan to entrench, legislatively, Crown ownership of the…
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Posted in Māori, Media, Non-fiction, Review

Fake news, bad news, old news, Gyles Beckford

Don’t Dream It’s Over:  Reimagining Journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand Emma Johnson, Giovanni Tiso, Sarah Illingworth and Barnaby Bennett (eds) Freerange Press, $40.00, ISBN 9780473364946 I’m a dead man working. My family tells me, my colleagues and competitors tell me,…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review

Cartoonist with bite, Dinah Priestley

Murdoch: The Cartoons of Sharon Murdoch Sharon Murdoch (with commentary by Melinda Johnston) Potton and Burton, $40.00, ISBN 9780947503239 Anne Tolley crouches watchfully inside a beneficiary’s uterus, high heels digging into the soft pink flesh, her two fists blocking the…
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Posted in Media, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology
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