It\u2019s 'Our Place\u2019, to do our thing. Kiwis can put quality-made programmes up on the site. He says it asks of Kiwis \u201cWhat are you going to DO with this new
\n resource? You can MAKE things with this. You don\u2019t have to ask permission\u201d .<\/p>\n
Bryan explains the problem with our current NZ media: a producer has to go through the gateways of the commercial television channels who really are trying
\n to assess your programme on the one question of : \u201cHow big an audience can you bring to the commercial gaps?\u201d.<\/p>\n
It has always been thus. And if you\u2019re good at that, then they will buy your next programme. It\u2019s not about how good a programme is, it\u2019s about what kind
\n of audience? and how big will it be? to cater to the advertisers in the commercial gaps - and it all comes down to producing money instead of quality.
\n Bryan says the main channels are going to self-edit. They're not going to take a programme that is not going to fit well with their sponsors.
\n <\/p>\n
The other side of it is we tend to think of government - funded broadcasters as being more independent, but that is not true either, because they are not
\n going \u2018to bite the hand that feeds them\u2019 and stand up to their government money-source.<\/p>\n
If mainstream media gets money from a business, then that piper calls the tune.<\/p>\n
Bryan then explains that the idea for this came up about 3 years ago when he walked out of TVNZ one day having had it explained to him that his programme
\n on health was probably going to get lots of ratings but \u201cReally we\u2019re not necessarily into the business of doing programmes in the public good. They
\n have to be commercial because we might sell ourselves off one day\u201d .<\/p>\n
Bryan walked out of that building and thought: \u201c Well, if these guys aren\u2019t going to do NZ public television, maybe I can.\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bryan registered a company called \u2018NZ Public Television Ltd\u201d, and he talked to friends: \u201c If you were starting television today, you wouldn\u2019t do it in
\n the way that the BBC told us how to do it all those years ago - no big dishes, sky satellites, large building. How would we do it today ?\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the answer is clear: we\u2019d use the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n
And how would we put our programmes up? <\/p>\n
When Bryan talked to servers, they had gleeful visions of making lots of money out of this being a version of Netflix. But Bryan instead saw it as a bus
\n station. You, the viewer, come to NZPTV to be pointed in the right direction of a programme that someone else is hosting on Vimeo or YouTube or other
\n sites. So NZPTV is a curator of quality programmes with NZ content. He then says that the producers and their websites - the people who own the copyright
\n to their own work- will be acknowledged .<\/p>\n
At the same time, NZPTV will also make its own programmes and put those up on NZPTV Vimeo and direct viewers to that content also. So Vimeo might be the
\n host of a programme but NZPTV will direct traffic there.<\/p>\n
At its core, the aim is to work out how to make cost-effective television and then also make it a People\u2019s Channel which says - Look , you might see Bryan
\n Bruce or others doing an introduction but it\u2019s not his channel, it\u2019s OUR channel. NZPTV will also help producers. Bryan says he has been to see NZ
\n on Air and asked how many eyeballs a week does NZPTV need for independent producers to be able to be funded to make and put their programme up on this
\n new platform. \u201c They couldn\u2019t tell me\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He then states \u201c This is a new world for them !\u201d NZ on Air don\u2019t know what the numbers might be so NZPTV will educate them on what the numbers CAN be.\n <\/p>\n
Bryan then talks of his own motivations in programme making: \u201cWhat I try to do in a programme is say \u201c Here\u2019s a problem. How did we get to this? Let\u2019s
\n unpack it a bit and look at some solutions\u201d. That\u2019s where hope arises - rather than leave people in a dark place with overwhelming negative story-telling
\n \u201c<\/p>\n
When he made \u2018The Investigator\u2019, each case involved some element of The Law that needed further examination - for example- David Tamihere was identified
\n while wearing handcuffs outside the courtroom . Was this a correct identification? And what are the rules for identifying someone? The Defence said
\n this was unfair. The Court allowed it- so now there are new rules that apply to each of us. Bryan also says when making a programme it\u2019s important
\n that you\u2019re not just doing it because \u2018crime rates\u2019. Why are you upsetting people and going through all of this misery again for the families that
\n were involved for no good reason?<\/p>\n
So Bryan says he encourages producers to ask \u2018Why am I making this? What is the outcome I want to have from it?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Then he asks the big question that we all need to ask. \u201c Who owns the media now? Who owns the way that our attitudes and our opinions and our thoughts
\n about life are formed?\u201d .<\/p>\n
The Big Questions to ask are \u201c Who-How-What-Where-Why\u201d. He says those questions are often not being asked in journalism today. \u201c It worries me. I watch
\n reporters ask very simple questions - even, are you having a nice day ?\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bryan sees Free Media and True Democracy as connected .<\/p>\n
At the start of the last century, the total number of people you could address verbally was on a street corner through megaphone. But the end of the 20th
\n Century, you could address the whole world through the various media and now with the internet, you can reach places that don\u2019t even have broadcast
\n facilities but have telephone lines. \u201cIf you can control the means of talking to people, whether for your private ends or for the government\u2019s ends,
\n that\u2019s a lot of power. That\u2019s actually a means of accumulating power.\"<\/p>\n
And now what NZPTV does is give the power BACK to the People and says \u201c YOU are in control of the stories\u201d .<\/p>\n
This is a Wake Up. it\u2019s more than just a channel. \u201c We\u2019ll grow as much as the People want to do it. My call is out to independent producers. Our gateway
\n is much wider than any of the public or private broadcasters. You can come to us with a programme provided that it is professionally made , something
\n you might see on a commercial channel in terms of its quality of production. For example, if you have made a programme about the TPPA or Water Issues,
\n and you\u2019ve done your homework and kept to the Broadcasting Standards Authority issues of fairness and balance .<\/p>\n
He then explains balance in the context of his programme 'Jesus, the Cold Case' which was criticised because Bryan talked to certain theologians but not
\n others. He says that the \u2018balance\u2019 is that, on any given day, a viewer can turn to the Christian channels and hear the opposite view.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s equally so for NZPTV, which would make sure that, with a controversial programme, then somewhere there is the counter view shown, or NZPTV itself
\n would run the counter view so the viewer could see both sides.<\/p>\n
He then states, that it\u2019s not true to say there are NO editing gateways to go through, but they relate more to the legal ones- you cannot defame people
\n , and if it\u2019s an argument for one viewpoint, it must be well though out , or if it\u2019s science-based, it must be peer -reviewed.<\/p>\n
NZPTV is not going to say to a producer \u201c It doesn\u2019t quite fit with our sponsors\u201d (because there are no sponsors of the channel)- or \u201cIt doesn\u2019t quite
\n fit with our \u2018brand\u2019 \u201c (which is commonly heard in Mainstream Media ).<\/p>\n
In fact The NZPTV \u2018Brand\u2019 is Independence ! \u201cIf it fits with that, we should have it \u201c.<\/p>\n
Bryan then underlines that \u201cIf we don\u2019t hold on to life rafts like this , we\u2019re all going to drown\u201d. That public education has taught questioning and yet
\n we have a media that tried to manipulate people who are actually very intelligent .<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always amazed at the wisdom that comes out of people from whom, at face value, you wouldn\u2019t assume that wisdom\u201d. He continues and gives an anecdote
\n from a programme he made called \u201cStand By Your Man\u2019 about three women whose partners had committed major crimes. \u201cAnd she said \u201c They never fixed his
\n drug and alcohol addiction - and that was his problem.\u201d And you\u2019re just about to move from this interviewee, when suddenly they come out with this
\n absolutely insightful gem about what we\u2019re NOT doing for men or women in prison. We\u2019re not addressing the issues that have led to them being IN there!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Bryan outlines that one of the ways that governments gain power over us is: if they don\u2019t collect data on, for example, how much Chinese money is
\n coming in to the country, then they can pretend it isn\u2019t a problem. No one knows! \u201c Oh\u201d, they say \u201cit\u2019s all just anecdotal. You\u2019re just bashing the
\n Chinese\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bryan says \"NO! I\u2019m saying: let\u2019s collect the data! You\u2019re giving away visas to very wealthy people - gold visas. If you have ten million you can
\n buy a residency in our country . But what are these people DOING for our country ? And where is that money going ?\u201d. And the answer comes back from
\n the government: \u201cI\u2019m sorry we don\u2019t know because we don\u2019t follow the money trail\u201d . He then suggests that one of the roles for NZPTV is to encourage
\n independent producers to pick a topic, investigate it, and bring us the data that the government is not collecting because it\u2019s' inconvenient \u2018. \u201cThe
\n last thing that governments want is inconvenient truths\u201d.<\/p>\n
Evidence shows that if you DO your homework and collate the data, then policy changes\u201d .<\/p>\n
This interview also covers the effect of his programme \u2018Inside Child Poverty\u201d which went out on TV3 the week of the election in 2011. \"There was a debate
\n about whether it should have been screened in election week, driven by right wing commentators like Sean Plunkett who said Bryan Bruce should not be
\n funded to make programmes like this! Then a marvellous thing happened. The National Government which had initially said \u201c This is made up by a left
\n wing journalist\u201d, then started to change its tune and admitted \u201c Well it might exist but we can\u2019t measure it\u201d. Then the Children\u2019s Commissioner Russell
\n Wills said \u201c Ok, I\u2019ll get a group off academics together and we WILL measure it\u201d They put out an amazing report. It could not be ignored any more.
\n The word \u201cchild poverty\u2019 became part of our vernacular. And by the NEXT election it was an election issue\u201d .<\/p>\n
So Bryan uses this example to say that this is what we can do as media people: we can investigate, we can collate data, we can inspire people. He credits
\n The Child Poverty Action Group with inspired him to make the programme . He says they had been doing their work for years and he thought \u201c Well maybe
\n I have few skills in terms of taking complicated things and trying to make them understandable - and that was my role. Something like 580 thousand
\n Kiwis watched that programme and then the Public started asking questions. I had offered the programme to TVNZ and I seem to remember someone saying
\n \u201c Who\u2019s going to watch a programme with \u2018Poverty\u2019 in the title?\u201d ( and 580,000 viewers is up there with All Black fixture numbers in terms of ratings
\n ) \u201c .<\/p>\n
This new media initiative, Bryan says of the NZPTV, is that it is not competitive - but rather, co-operative. \u201cWe could make a programme that is of great
\n public interest and make it in a dynamic way. We could take the online rights and a mainstream media outlet could take the broadcast rights. That would
\n be an adult way of dealing with different kinds of distribution.\u201c<\/p>\n
He further states that it is no accident, that one of the longest running programmes in this country is called \u2018Fair Go\u2019. He feels that deep down, most
\n Kiwis believe in a fair go and many of felt terribly betrayed by 1984 and the adoption of Neo Liberalism and being told it was the only way we could
\n go. \u201c Well it wasn\u2019t, there are about 30 different kinds of capitalism in the world and if you look at what happened in Scandinavia, they took a deep
\n breath and paused - and then they adopted certain elements ONLY. They fenced off policies to do with children, the elderly and housing, and then they
\n said they would allow OTHER policy to be more entrepreneurial .<\/p>\n
Whereas in New Zealand, the government said \u201c ALL of that is wrong and this new evangelistic way is right, and there is now only ONE way to do this\u201d. <\/p>\n
Bryan cites David Lange\u2019s book which shows he later realised this was the worst thing he did. In fact, he may not have fully understood it and \u201c To be
\n fair, I\u2019m not sure that many of us understood it at the time. I certainly didn\u2019t\u201d says Bryan. \u201c I did up one house and sold and got a better house.
\n What I didn\u2019t think about was that 20 years down the track, other people\u2019s children would not be able to afford a house because of what I was doing
\n - and many of us were doing. We were just doing the best by our families and we were encouraged to think that that\u2019s what you should do. <\/p>\n
Even Roger Douglas may have thought he was doing the right thing. I\u2019ve never spoken to him. I\u2019d like to interview him. But the reality is; it WASN\u201dT the
\n right thing. It created a HUGE inequality. When the National Party came in afterwards and created The Mother of All Budgets under Ruth Richardson,
\n then ALL of the childhood diseases that relate to poverty, skyrocketed. And that\u2019s nothing to be proud of. That should have told anybody who had social
\n concern that there is something fundamentally wrong with this economic system that is creating this.\u201d <\/p>\n
Towards the end of the interview, Bryan discusses the structure of NZ Public Television.<\/p>\n
Saying one of the ways it will benefit producers who have good product, is that they give that programme to NZPTV for free for 7 days and then it goes
\n to the \u2018Pay Per View\u2019 section . But all that money goes directly to the producers, not to NZPTV. (This is also a reminder to viewers to check the weekly
\n offerings on NZPTV as there is a brisk turnaround of programmes).<\/p>\n
Finally Bryan says the whole idea of New Zealand Public Broadcasting is to return to an early idea of television: namely , using it to communicate with
\n one another, to talk to each other.<\/p>\n
To find out more, go to nzptv.org.nz<\/a> or sign up to Bryan Bruce on Facebook<\/a> <\/p>\n List of Bryan's many documentaries:<\/p>\n Documentaries Bryan Bruce discusses the November 2017 launch of NZPTV: NZ Public Television. He defines it as being an independent channel for everybody.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourplanet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n \n<\/p>\n\n
\n story.<\/li>\n
\n Dunblane<\/a> Scotland) Martin Bryant<\/a> (Australia) and David Gray<\/a> (New Zealand).<\/li>\n
\n encounter.<\/li>\n
\n Bridge.<\/li>\n
\n 1995 of the murder of his family. TV1 Highest rated NZ On Air<\/a> funded factual programme
\n in 2005<\/li>\n
\n categories at The New York Festivals Television and Film Awards. Awarded despite apparent initial TVNZ reluctance to release, and subsequent
\n criticism from some reviewers.[16]<\/a><\/sup> <\/li>\n
\n 1970<\/li>\n
\n at The New York Festivals Television and Film Awards.<\/li>\n
\n in New Zealand.Bronze Medal Winner at The New York Festivals Television and Film Awards.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nReferences<\/h2>\n
\n
<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"