Why I really dislike the NZ media

[scott411]

as president of a motorcycle club i have tried and tried to get more media coverage of the motocross races we promote, with little sucess,

however today must have been a slow day news wise, as i have had phone calls from the Herald on Sunday, SUnday Star times, and radio NZ news, why? someone got helicoptered out from a practice day, time to report on motocross again, try to get a report on the NZ champs same day, good luck, but a accident, yes that can be leading news, its really grates me as well,

does anyone else feel that only bad news is worth reporting????,

as for the injured rider, i have no updates but my thoughts are with his family,

[Dave Lobster]

Anything that can be considered bad news about motorcycles in this country is headline stuff.

Cunts.

[cs363]

Yeah, I saw the SHOCK, HORROR! 'Motocross accident' headline and as soon as I saw it was Harrisville I thought of you, knowing how much you put into promoting the sport you love - I feel for the kid that got injured, as that's never good news, however it is a potentiallydangerous sport that you enter into at your own risk and hopefully with your eyes open to the dangers, you also have a bunch of dedicated people striving to make the tracks as safe as possible and yet another bunch on hand to provide care if the worst happens.

We also have rules enforcing the use of protective gear such as helmets, chest protectors & boots and as a result of the above (and probably a whole bunch of stuff I've left out) we have very few serious accidents compared to some other sports yet the media loves to report on the darker side of our sport whilst mostly ignoring the positives.

I take pretty well everything I see or hear in the mainstream media with a grain of salt, everything is sensationalised and twisted, often to suit the political or financial leanings of it's owners/editors.

In short, yes I agree Scott - they suck! :beer:

[carver]

as president of a motorcycle club i have tried and tried to get more media coverage of the motocross races we promote, with little sucess,

however today must have been a slow day news wise, as i have had phone calls from the Herald on Sunday, SUnday Star times, and radio NZ news, why? someone got helicoptered out from a practice day, time to report on motocross again, try to get a report on the NZ champs same day, good luck, but a accident, yes that can be leading news, its really grates me as well,

does anyone else feel that only bad news is worth reporting????,

as for the injured rider, i have no updates but my thoughts are with his family,

you need to speak to the mormon few for promo stuff

[LBD]

Anything that can be considered bad news about motorcycles in this country is headline stuff.

.

Is not on Motorcycle news that attacts the news (although we do seem to be in flavour at the moment) Its any bad or sensational news.. the papers are commercial and bad news sells, which then leads to distorted sensational headlines. A non MC new example in the Southland Times yesterday "Israli supporters protesting" A good eye catching headline, conflict and fights in the streets of Invercargill...The protesters were neither pro or anti Israli...They were protesting against the racisit behaviour of a shop in invercargill. But "peaceful protest against racist behavior" is not as sensational...

What has happen to unbiased reporting of facts? I dare say the truth has long since fallen victim of commerce...

Thats my lecture for the week

[Paul in NZ]

Nah mate - they just know what sells papers....

Honestly, I could invent the cure for cancer and 3 journo's would turn up if you bribed em....

However, a division of our company shuts down in aussie and 34 ring you asking how it's going to affect you.... (wonder how its going to affect the 200 made redundent?)... This despite the last 4,000 news releases explaining that we don't even deal in that market....

[noobi]

I think its because most of the people in New Zealand are very boring

true storey

think about it, if people are attracted to sensationalist views about bad things happening then they must be boring and the bad things are interesting to them because they dont understand it or arnt interested in the good points only the bad things because they like seeing things go wrong

ok now imagine the majority of people, mostly not bikers, and then think of them as joe average who works in cubicle hell, or the snotty house wives and the apparent self appointed higher class, there to important to do things so they just pick at what other people are doing (nzs tall poppy syndrome), and they like to see other people fail

sort of makes sense

[slowpoke]

In this day and age it's not about being informative or even about finding the truth, it's about selling air time, megabytes or papers. In that regard our media is no different to any other county's.

To paraphrase: good news is no news.

[LBD]

good news is no news.
A sad but true commercial reality...sigh

[arj127]

I guess its a newspapers way of doing a "rider down thread".

But yes, it would be nice if they could do a report on something positive, such as last nights Tokoroa Supercross or something.

[Big Dave]

Demand = supply.

[Beemer]

The problem is that many newspapers no longer have dedicated sports sections - they have a rugby reporter and then that person often has to cover everything else as well. If you get a reporter who is interested in motorsports then you will get regular, interesting articles. If you get someone who only likes rugby - then that's what you get.

When I used to work on a weekly newspaper in Wellington we had rally driver Joe McAndrew, motorcycle racer Bruce Anstey, plus several other really good drivers/riders in our circulation area. I loved motorsports and used to go to events every weekend and take photos and I would then interview the competitors and write stories that were worth reading. When I left, the new reporter had no interest in motorsports at all, so the only sports that got covered were rugby and cricket. Oh, and softball.

The best way to get good coverage is to get someone to write a good story for you and for you to send it to the paper with a photograph they can use free of charge. Nine times out of 10 it will be used because they haven't had to do any work themselves. Case in point - sent out a short article on our club's toy run to three local papers just before Christmas last year. I also sent a different photo to each paper. We don't live in the circulation area of any of them, but apparently the story was run in all three papers. It cost them nothing and all they had to do was find space for it.

Get a good writer to write stories for you and it's likely they will be used. Or find someone on a paper who is mad keen on motorsports and cultivate a working relationship with them!

I used to hate rugby so my reports were mostly to do with the fights - easy to cover as everyone had an opinion. Maybe it's the same with motorsports and accidents - the reporters don't have to know anything about the sport, they just have to say someone crashed.