RNZ: Mediawatch

Pat Booth's life and legacy; can the crowd fix Facebook and online news?; media's unhealthy appetite for fast food news.

The media aren't always inclined to bite the brands that feed when fast food firms put a new product on the market. The makers of a new sweet treat in Auckland had the media eating out of their hands this past week.

The holiday news drought was washed away by a flood of reports and reckons about the PM’s pregnancy.

The boss of major media company MediaWorks has hit out at the new government's plan to boost public broadcasting  - and even claimed it could wipe out his business.

Reports of a New Zealand doctor scandalised by stewardesses’ skimpy uniforms on a foreign airline made headlines around the world this past week. But was this for real - or fake news?  

PM's pregnancy sparks media frenzy; media boss hits out at new government's public broadcasting policy plan; airline outrage yarn goes viral - but was it for real?

Media personalities sometimes confront the online trolls that abuse them on social media and text messages. But are they always able to claim the moral high ground?

People boosting their personal brand online by puffing up the products of big brands are making it harder to distinguish genuine opinion from paid-for promotion in our media. Do we need new rules to make it clear what they're up to?

Mediawatch isn't giving out its annual awards this year. Instead we're taking an NCEA-style approach and picking out some who 'achieved' - and some who didn't.

The media's achievements in 2017. Also: under the influence of online marketing and ads in disguise - and taking on the trolls.

The press watchdog says some sponsored stories from overseas carried by New Zealand’s two biggest news websites were “deliberately designed to deceive” and have breached professional standards. The publishers say they will now do more to distinguish this content from genuine news.

Manus Island has been in the headlines a lot lately on both sides of the Tasman, but few reporters have been able to report on what has really been happening there. Ben Robinson has been following the story  - and the growing concerns about efforts to manipulate the media.

Online services like Netflix, iTunes and Amazon work out what we like based on what we do online. News websites know what we have read and shared, but not what we might want next. Mediawatch meets a scientist who joined a newsroom to fix that.

Manus Island and media manipulation; prime time presenters call it quits; how the media work out what we want next.

Toni Street and Mike Hosking are quitting TVNZ’s Seven Sharp to spend more time with their families - and their respective radio networks. What next for a show that's often in the news because of its hosts?