title: “We thought we had more time”: An examination of climate and extreme weather framing in regional online newspapers in Aotearoa

authors: Morgan, Lauren

abstract: Climate change poses growing risks to health and wellbeing, yet public engagement with these challenges depends heavily on how they are communicated. News publications play a key role in shaping public understanding of climate-related risks and responses, with regional news outlets especially well placed to inform their audiences with locally relevant and contextualised coverage. 

While national-level media studies in Aotearoa have examined climate and health coverage, little is known about how regional newspapers frame these issues, especially before and after locally experienced extreme weather events. The underrepresentation of Indigenous perspectives and limited coverage of health-related impacts further highlights the need for research into whose voices are prioritised in regional reporting. 

This thesis examines how three regional online newspapers in Aotearoa New Zealand frame climate change, extreme weather, their relationship to health. The Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Te Tairāwhiti/Gisborne regions were selected for their exposure to Cyclone Gabrielle, their diverse population compositions including significant Māori communities, and the presence of active regional online news publications. Drawing on a constructivist epistemology and community psychology principles of social justice, collective resilience, and ecological systems thinking, this research employs reflexive thematic analysis to inductively code and analyse media coverage spanning one year before and one year after Cyclone Gabrielle. The analysis identified narrative framing and underlying themes in how climate and health risks were communicated to local  audiences by the selected regional online newspapers. 

Findings reveal patterns in media framing that shaped whether climate change was portrayed as an immediate, localised concern or a distant, abstract issue, as well as disparities in whose voices, experiences, and knowledge systems were included. Themes emerged around political accountability, community resilience, and structural vulnerability, though coverage varied in depth and equity. Indigenous perspectives remained underrepresented, and economic and infrastructure concerns overshadowed impacts on health and wellbeing. However, examples of inclusive and locally grounded reporting demonstrated the potential for regional media to support more equitable climate communication and adaptation. 

Findings were interpreted using a holistic analytical lens informed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and the Social Determinants of Health framework. This approach illustrated significant implications for community engagement in climate discourse. The dominance of elite and institutional perspectives over grassroots experiences limits the visibility of community-driven adaptation efforts and obscures structural drivers of vulnerability, such as housing insecurity, economic inequality, and historical injustices rooted in colonialism. By excluding structural and health-related dimensions in climate discourse, regional newspapers risk unintentionally reinforcing inequities and limiting opportunities for collective action by marginalising those most affected. To support collective resilience regional media must move towards more consistent, health-focused, and community-led coverage, amplifying underrepresented  voices and addressing the broader structural determinants of vulnerability to climate impacts. 

This study contributes to climate communication research by centring regional media and offers practical insights for journalists, policymakers, and community advocates seeking to foster more just, inclusive, and community-responsive climate discourse in Aotearoa.

text: “We thought we had more time”: An examination of climate and extreme weather framing in regional online newspapers in Aotearoa Climate change poses growing risks to health and wellbeing, yet public engagement with these challenges depends heavily on how they are communicated. News publications play a key role in shaping public understanding of climate-related risks and responses, with regional news outlets especially well placed to inform their audiences with locally relevant and contextualised coverage. 

While national-level media studies in Aotearoa have examined climate and health coverage, little is known about how regional newspapers frame these issues, especially before and after locally experienced extreme weather events. The underrepresentation of Indigenous perspectives and limited coverage of health-related impacts further highlights the need for research into whose voices are prioritised in regional reporting. 

This thesis examines how three regional online newspapers in Aotearoa New Zealand frame climate change, extreme weather, their relationship to health. The Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Te Tairāwhiti/Gisborne regions were selected for their exposure to Cyclone Gabrielle, their diverse population compositions including significant Māori communities, and the presence of active regional online news publications. Drawing on a constructivist epistemology and community psychology principles of social justice, collective resilience, and ecological systems thinking, this research employs reflexive thematic analysis to inductively code and analyse media coverage spanning one year before and one year after Cyclone Gabrielle. The analysis identified narrative framing and underlying themes in how climate and health risks were communicated to local  audiences by the selected regional online newspapers. 

Findings reveal patterns in media framing that shaped whether climate change was portrayed as an immediate, localised concern or a distant, abstract issue, as well as disparities in whose voices, experiences, and knowledge systems were included. Themes emerged around political accountability, community resilience, and structural vulnerability, though coverage varied in depth and equity. Indigenous perspectives remained underrepresented, and economic and infrastructure concerns overshadowed impacts on health and wellbeing. However, examples of inclusive and locally grounded reporting demonstrated the potential for regional media to support more equitable climate communication and adaptation. 

Findings were interpreted using a holistic analytical lens informed by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and the Social Determinants of Health framework. This approach illustrated significant implications for community engagement in climate discourse. The dominance of elite and institutional perspectives over grassroots experiences limits the visibility of community-driven adaptation efforts and obscures structural drivers of vulnerability, such as housing insecurity, economic inequality, and historical injustices rooted in colonialism. By excluding structural and health-related dimensions in climate discourse, regional newspapers risk unintentionally reinforcing inequities and limiting opportunities for collective action by marginalising those most affected. To support collective resilience regional media must move towards more consistent, health-focused, and community-led coverage, amplifying underrepresented  voices and addressing the broader structural determinants of vulnerability to climate impacts. 

This study contributes to climate communication research by centring regional media and offers practical insights for journalists, policymakers, and community advocates seeking to foster more just, inclusive, and community-responsive climate discourse in Aotearoa.

year: 2025

title: New Zealand pest fish species: Koi carp and Gambusia – fact sheet

authors: Tempero, Grant Wayne

abstract: New Zealand has a total of about 36 native freshwater fish species, and a further 22 (39% of all freshwater fish) have been introduced from overseas. Like all introduced species, they have some impact on New Zealand's native ecosystems, but some cause more problems than others.

text: New Zealand pest fish species: Koi carp and Gambusia – fact sheet New Zealand has a total of about 36 native freshwater fish species, and a further 22 (39% of all freshwater fish) have been introduced from overseas. Like all introduced species, they have some impact on New Zealand's native ecosystems, but some cause more problems than others.

year: 2015

title: Context counts : leading educational reform in New Zealand secondary schools

authors: Morrison, Michele

subjects: context

abstract: Educational leadership and organisational literature is replete with syntheses of effective leader behaviours, change sequences and reform models, yet few studies explore the nuanced manner in which individual leaders make sense of and respond to the dynamic influences shaping their thinking and practice over time. In posing the question, how do principals experience leadership during periods of intentional educational change, this study gains insight into the lived experience of five New Zealand secondary school principals as they lead school wide implementation of Phase 5 Te Kotahitanga, a reform initiative designed to reduce disparities in the educational achievement of indigenous Māori students through the introduction of a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. The case narratives arising from a three year dialogue with participants examine the genesis of each principal’s commitment to equity in educational access, opportunity and outcome; their evolving thinking and practice; and the manner in which people and structures within each school field enable and constrain their leadership endeavours. Findings demonstrate that leading counter-hegemonic change is a situated, complex and demanding undertaking, the intensity of which eludes much of the leadership and change literature. Hermeneutic reading of these rich qualitative accounts of lived experience suggests that, far from being detached observers, leaders both embody and are embedded in context. This exposes the shortcomings of literature that dichotomises the two and makes Bourdieu’s lens on practice as a temporal, embodied, discursive and social activity an important heuristic through which to view the holism of change leadership. The implications arising from this study are fourfold: leadership narratives open windows to natural and vicarious meaning making, personal biography is of central rather than peripheral importance, emotional and micropolitical literacy crucial, and professional mentoring a potentially powerful catalyst in building practice wisdom.

text: Context counts : leading educational reform in New Zealand secondary schools Educational leadership and organisational literature is replete with syntheses of effective leader behaviours, change sequences and reform models, yet few studies explore the nuanced manner in which individual leaders make sense of and respond to the dynamic influences shaping their thinking and practice over time. In posing the question, how do principals experience leadership during periods of intentional educational change, this study gains insight into the lived experience of five New Zealand secondary school principals as they lead school wide implementation of Phase 5 Te Kotahitanga, a reform initiative designed to reduce disparities in the educational achievement of indigenous Māori students through the introduction of a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. The case narratives arising from a three year dialogue with participants examine the genesis of each principal’s commitment to equity in educational access, opportunity and outcome; their evolving thinking and practice; and the manner in which people and structures within each school field enable and constrain their leadership endeavours. Findings demonstrate that leading counter-hegemonic change is a situated, complex and demanding undertaking, the intensity of which eludes much of the leadership and change literature. Hermeneutic reading of these rich qualitative accounts of lived experience suggests that, far from being detached observers, leaders both embody and are embedded in context. This exposes the shortcomings of literature that dichotomises the two and makes Bourdieu’s lens on practice as a temporal, embodied, discursive and social activity an important heuristic through which to view the holism of change leadership. The implications arising from this study are fourfold: leadership narratives open windows to natural and vicarious meaning making, personal biography is of central rather than peripheral importance, emotional and micropolitical literacy crucial, and professional mentoring a potentially powerful catalyst in building practice wisdom.

year: 2019