Have you heard anything about renewing the state of NZ’s democracy, even whispers, from the new Government? How about from other organisations? I’ve been listening but, despite worrying trends in voter turnout, trust and confidence, haven’t heard much at all. ‘Listening is an instrument of power’ [1], so you know something is up when the…
If you happened to be in Wellington last week and were hanging out at Victoria University and a few other venues around town then you would’ve had the opportunity of catching one or more of Victoria University’s discussions on democracy. Simon and I went along to a few and found the events well organised and…
This is a shout out to Colin Peacock and Jeremy Rose at RNZ Mediawatch for their excellent programme about public engagement by the New Zealand media, which was broadcast on 25 June 2017. The programme included an interview with my PEP partner, John Pennington, and me about our work with Scoop Independent News and the…
I’m sure many of us have experienced the situation when we’ve tuned into something new and suddenly the very thing which we now recognize or see or understand starts to turn up in a variety of places. This happened to me very recently when I came across this passage in Dana Spiotta’s new novel: Innocents…
This PEPtalk is about a news organisation that is firmly focused on its democratic role and on innovation in a fast changing world. Step forward Scoop Independent News. Scoop is a major New Zealand online news organisation. It was established in a Karori garage in 1999 and has a history of providing news services on…