The advent of alternative media is not recent in New Zealand and we have seen its current presence to the extent we see overseas only since the 2020 Election. We draw a distinction with new media that is a consequence of changes brought about by technology and adequately represented by the recent launch of a database radio channel, Reality Check Radio.
It is not lost on our major political parties, that following the loss of faith in the NZ mainstream, audience attention is drifting towards new sources of information beyond that which can be dismissed as misinformation from citizen journalists.
As pictured above ‘the need to connect’ with the new industry audience and potential voters has not escaped the realm of gaining political momentum in major parties either.
Minor platforms welcome the attention and the boost to their potential.
What neither the interviewer or the guest are immediately aware of is that they are replicating the outcomes of activist media.
Looking back to this post about David Seymour being “set up” as some would say by activist media outlet Counterspin we see how alternative audiences quickly become aware of this spectacle and can form a groundswell opinion giving more potential to growth in what the major parties call the wasted 5% vote
The subject matter mentioned above the picture is essentially the reason for the interview but otherwise immaterial to this discussion.
Other questions are asked, in this interview to give a more balanced view.
Without bringing another discussion into this post one asks why Luxon would see Defence spending as commendable (and not that it isn’t) when the budget covertly decreases police spending, not only in real terms but by continuing to compromise operational independence.
This interview will leave more questions hanging over Luxon’s head while National’s shadow police spokesman Mark Mitchell was busy in Parliament yesterday explaining how we’ve found ourselves with another incompetent police minister appointed by Hipkins.
I’m not taking sides here in respect of either polical party, but I am pointing out the consequences for police and their ongoing effectiveness when this is happening in the political leadership of our two main parties.
The media model we see now in competition with what’s left of Adern’s “Central Source of Information” as it was historically called shows how political leaders become vulnerable to their own incompetence.
That’s the public benefit, including for those who work in the public service, as opposed to protecting political incompetence through a propaganda system of media control.
Writer of Sorts 