RNZ: Mediawatch

An original work can now be copied and shared with anyone online in a matter of moments - thanks to the internet and digital technology. But that wasn't the case when our main copyright law was written 23 years ago. Mediawatch looks at what's at stake now the law is up for review. 

Comedian Billy Connolly once joked that a cat stuck in a tree could make the headlines in New Zealand. This week a Kiwi cat killed by a car made news around the world.

Andrew Mangan started a blog about English football team Arsenal 15 years ago. Now it’s a go-to source for scoops about the club and a thriving small business hosting one of the longest-running sports podcasts anywhere in the world. Why do we have nothing like it yet in New Zealand?

Paddles' passing goes global; the rights and wrongs of copyright; the fan who turned his passion into a mini-media empire.

Downsizing your daily paper; if you can't beat them, join them - TV broadcasters adapt to ondemand; more moves to get Te Reo on TV.

Fairfax Media is planning to shrink its daily papers around the country to a tabloid - or ‘compact’ - size next year.  Why? And how will it change what’s on the pages? Mediawatch asks Fairfax Media CEO Sinead Boucher.

You can now get the shows you want from our biggest TV broadcasters without tuning in to them - or even owning a TV set. This week's All Blacks games are available live - and legal - online without a subscription to Sky Sports. What does the rise of TV on-demand mean for broadcast television as we know it?

The leftfield idea of a National-Green coalition made many headlines this week, even though political reporters and pundits insisted it was never going to fly- referencing Rosa Parks and The Sex Pistols in the process. ​

As reporters tried in vain to work out which way Winston was leaning and what he wants from political partners, the issue of sport on TV suddenly appeared on the agenda again.

After seeing out another election at RNZ, newsgathering boss and former political editor Brent Edwards has left after 16 years at the broadcaster. Mediawatch asks him why, and how he sees the state of journalism today.

Turning up the noise on an unlikely 'teal deal'; sport on screen suddenly back on the agenda; Brent Edwards signs off at RNZ.

The two big TV broadcasters aggressively promoted and reported the opinion polls they paid for during the election campaign, which returned some very different results. How did they compare with the result the mattered last weekend? Do we need more of them - or none at all?  

Party leaders picking on the media post-election; too much talk about too few polls; the Hef's death tops the bulletins

When Winston Peters took centre stage this week, he also took a big swing at the media. Other party leaders also criticised the media coverage of the election, but some political players and the media seemed to get along just fine.

These days Playboy is just one of many pornographic products on the shelf and a lucrative logo slapped on other stuff. Its founder has long been a ludicrous figure in a dressing gown and the ship’s captain's cap. But when Hugh Hefner died on Thursday afternoon, the media thought nothing else was as important.