Friday 27 April 2012

Sensitive reporting


Tenei te mihi ki a Lloyd Burr.
The TV3 reporter was the first to release a story that the well-respected Maori kuia, Nanny Hui Kahu has died after a battle with cancer.

Nanny Hui was the poi and vocal soloist of the Patea Maori Club’s song Poi E and so the news of her death was worth the nod and I thought it was an excellent example of how mainstream can present a story about Maori issues in an appropriate manner.

I do not know if Lloyd Burr is Maori but regardless of race the story was sensitive without diving too far into the family’s grief. Burr spoke to a family friend about what the loss meant to him and gave enough personal details about Nanny Hui for to gain a better picture of who the lady was. He also said where the tangi was so that those who wanted to attend and pay their respects could do so.

These sorts of stories are often covered by Maori Television’s Te Kaea and TV1’s Te Karere but seldom do they reach mainstream media and it was refreshing to see it covered in such a way.  The Stuff website picked up the story and had to use the line: “Family friend Steve Rangihuna told 3 News she was humble person ‘who put everyone else first - she was generous and giving’”, a good acknowledgement of the reporter's work.

Keep up the good work Lloyd.

Tenei te mihi ki te whanau o Nanny Hui, e aroha nui atu ana ki a koutou i teenei waa. Moe mai e te rangatira.

1 comment:

  1. Hello Karla, yes, that story was quite well done. NZ reporters are very adept at reporting on events as they happen. But not so good at investigating behind headlines to shed some light on why things happen. I'm sure there's plenty of reasons why; resourcing, control of editorial, training, philosophical approach etc.

    I find many of the current affairs programmes produced by the NZ television industry for NZ television to be pretty bland. I did see some excellent work by a journalist named Rob Harley on TV ONE last year. A great in-depth story focusing on a family from Ngati Whatua, searching for a cure for a disease called "adrenoleukodystrophy" - made famous by the movie, "Lorenzo's Oil". The disease is wreaking havoc on their family. Highly informative but also very sensitively treated. You could tell Mr Harley cares deeply for the storytelling craft. It was that aspect I think, which found him reaching across the cultural divide to tell a story which was really, a 'natural'.

    But it was on at 1 am in the morning.

    Incredible.

    BK

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