Vol. 13 No. 1 (2007): Journalism Downunder: Census 2006 and the NZ journalist

Cartoon: © Malcolm Evans
Editors: Ian Richards and David Robie

Journalists want changes to training and pay, NZ research shows
A survey of more than 500 New Zealand journalists has revealed marked unhappiness about levels of pay, resourcing and training. The “Big Journalism 2007” survey found that, while many individual journalists are very satisfied with aspects of their jobs, overall most want improvements in (respectively) pay, support, mentoring and staffing levels. They want more opportunity for discussion and input into ethical and professional issues such as sensationalism, more guidance on how to cope with commercial and advertising pressures, and more time and resources to pursue investigations. The survey, titled "Under-paid, under-trained, under-resourced, unsure about the future - but still idealistic", published in the latest Pacific Journalism Review, is the first to ask NZ journalists what they think about a variety of topics such as quality of news coverage and their ethics and standards. The survey was conducted jointly by Massey University lecturers James Hollings, Alan Samson and Dr Elspeth Tilley, and Waikato University Associate Professor Geoff Lealand. It builds on Dr Lealand's previous surveys of NZ journalists.