title: Investigating the Journalistic Field:The Influence of Objectivity as a Journalistic Norm on the Public Debate on Genetic Engineering in New Zealand

authors: Rupar, Verica

subjects: Journalism

abstract: This thesis explores the relationship between journalism as a specific type of socio-cultural practice and the production of meaning in public discussion. Through a case study of newspaper coverage of the issue of genetic engineering in New Zealand (2001-2002), it specifically examines journalists' newsgathering methods, their use of sources and their story-telling frames, and analyses how the news media uses the norm of objectivity to shape public debate on contentious issues. 

The study argues that elements and structures of journalistic practice both determine a newspaper's ability to address events and issues in a meaningful way and define a newspaper's potential to create a space for public debate. Drawing on field theory, discourse studies and the sociology of journalism, the thesis develops a new operational framework for investigation of journalistic practice by looking at the ideal of objectivity as a method of news gathering, an account of representing reality, and an attitude towards the reality so constructed. This framework is applied in the case study of newspaper coverage of the GE issue where four components of journalistic practice are analysed: journalistic form, transparency of newsgathering, sources and frame. Using content analysis, discourse analysis, interviews and a survey, the thesis explores the relationship between journalistic norms around these elements of the practice and the discursive potential of the news text to represent, interpret and construct reality.

The findings of this study highlight the tension between outmoded forms of practice and the complexity of issues in the public domain. The analysis reveals how the norm of objectivity, originally developed as a shield for the defence of the autonomy of the profession to mediate reality, became, in the case of media coverage of genetic engineering, an obstacle in extending journalism's potential to contribute to public debate. As a method, objectivity failed to provide a set of transparent protocols for the representation of the issue in the public arena; as an account, it reflected the impossibility of separating 'facts' from 'views' and positions of detachment from those of partisanship; and as an attitude, objectivity was endangered by the increasing power of economic imperatives in the production of news.  Following this analysis, the thesis explores the influence of journalistic norms on public debate by looking at journalism as a text, as a discursive practice and as a field of cultural production.  The GE issue, constructed in the New Zealand press as a key component of the 'knowledge economy', drew attention to the dynamics between the economic imperatives
and professional standards of the journalistic field.  The objectivity norm was reduced in news reports to reporting 'what people say' rather than what the issue or argument meant, which led to a simplification of the genetic engineering issue in the public domain. The study concludes with the call for a re-examination of the journalistic field in light of the press's incapacity to challenge the status quo and map the social world for its readers.

text: Investigating the Journalistic Field:The Influence of Objectivity as a Journalistic Norm on the Public Debate on Genetic Engineering in New Zealand This thesis explores the relationship between journalism as a specific type of socio-cultural practice and the production of meaning in public discussion. Through a case study of newspaper coverage of the issue of genetic engineering in New Zealand (2001-2002), it specifically examines journalists' newsgathering methods, their use of sources and their story-telling frames, and analyses how the news media uses the norm of objectivity to shape public debate on contentious issues. 

The study argues that elements and structures of journalistic practice both determine a newspaper's ability to address events and issues in a meaningful way and define a newspaper's potential to create a space for public debate. Drawing on field theory, discourse studies and the sociology of journalism, the thesis develops a new operational framework for investigation of journalistic practice by looking at the ideal of objectivity as a method of news gathering, an account of representing reality, and an attitude towards the reality so constructed. This framework is applied in the case study of newspaper coverage of the GE issue where four components of journalistic practice are analysed: journalistic form, transparency of newsgathering, sources and frame. Using content analysis, discourse analysis, interviews and a survey, the thesis explores the relationship between journalistic norms around these elements of the practice and the discursive potential of the news text to represent, interpret and construct reality.

The findings of this study highlight the tension between outmoded forms of practice and the complexity of issues in the public domain. The analysis reveals how the norm of objectivity, originally developed as a shield for the defence of the autonomy of the profession to mediate reality, became, in the case of media coverage of genetic engineering, an obstacle in extending journalism's potential to contribute to public debate. As a method, objectivity failed to provide a set of transparent protocols for the representation of the issue in the public arena; as an account, it reflected the impossibility of separating 'facts' from 'views' and positions of detachment from those of partisanship; and as an attitude, objectivity was endangered by the increasing power of economic imperatives in the production of news.  Following this analysis, the thesis explores the influence of journalistic norms on public debate by looking at journalism as a text, as a discursive practice and as a field of cultural production.  The GE issue, constructed in the New Zealand press as a key component of the 'knowledge economy', drew attention to the dynamics between the economic imperatives
and professional standards of the journalistic field.  The objectivity norm was reduced in news reports to reporting 'what people say' rather than what the issue or argument meant, which led to a simplification of the genetic engineering issue in the public domain. The study concludes with the call for a re-examination of the journalistic field in light of the press's incapacity to challenge the status quo and map the social world for its readers.

year: 2007

title: Genocide Prevention through Changing the United Nations Security Council Power of Veto

authors: Butters, Michelle

subjects: genocide

abstract: In 1948 the international community in reaction to the horrors of the holocaust sought to eradicate genocide forever by creating the 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide'.  This Convention criminalised the preparation and act of genocide by international law, making all individuals accountable irrelevant of status or sovereignty.  But the Convention has not been enough to deter the act of genocide from occurring again, and again, and again.  Worst, the international community has been slow to react to cases of genocide.  The problem with preventing and punishing genocide is hindered by the power and right of veto held by permanent members of the UNSC.  The UNSC has been given the responsibility to maintain international peace and security and is the only entity that can mandate an intervention that overrides the principle of non-intervention. The aim of this thesis is to show that the veto has been a crucial factor in stopping the prevention of genocide, thus it is imperative that the veto change.  This study argues that to effectively prevent and punish genocide the veto needs to be barred from use in cases of genocide.  It looks at different cases since the Armenian genocide during WWI through to the Darfur genocide which is still in process.  The case of Armenia is significant because for the first time, members of the international community were prepared to hold leaders of another state accountable for their treatment of their own citizens.  However the collective will to bring justice to those accountable waned coming to an abrupt end in 1923.  The holocaust followed in WWII; six million Jews died, and numerous other groups were targeted under the Nazi's serial genocide.  The shock of the holocaust led to the Genocide Convention.  But thirty years later during the Cold War, Cambodia became embroiled in a genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge.  The international community silently stood by.  The USSR, China, and the US all had their reasons to stay out of Cambodia, from supporting a regime with a likeminded political ideology to war weariness from Vietnam.  In the 1990s, genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Kosovo) followed.  The former was neglected by the US's unwillingness to be involved in another peacekeeping disaster.  The two genocides in the former Yugoslavia were affected by Russia and China's reluctance to use military force even after the clear failure of serial negotiations.  Finally, in 2003 Darfur became the latest tragedy of genocide.  Again, Russia and China have been timid of calling the conflict genocide thus avoiding any affirmative action to stop it.  These cases all show that where one state is unwilling to be involved in stopping genocide, their right and power to the veto stops or delays the international community from preventing and punishing genocide, regardless of whether the veto is used or merely seen as a threat.  Therefore, for future prevention of genocide, the veto needs to be changed to prevent its use in times of genocide.

text: Genocide Prevention through Changing the United Nations Security Council Power of Veto In 1948 the international community in reaction to the horrors of the holocaust sought to eradicate genocide forever by creating the 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide'.  This Convention criminalised the preparation and act of genocide by international law, making all individuals accountable irrelevant of status or sovereignty.  But the Convention has not been enough to deter the act of genocide from occurring again, and again, and again.  Worst, the international community has been slow to react to cases of genocide.  The problem with preventing and punishing genocide is hindered by the power and right of veto held by permanent members of the UNSC.  The UNSC has been given the responsibility to maintain international peace and security and is the only entity that can mandate an intervention that overrides the principle of non-intervention. The aim of this thesis is to show that the veto has been a crucial factor in stopping the prevention of genocide, thus it is imperative that the veto change.  This study argues that to effectively prevent and punish genocide the veto needs to be barred from use in cases of genocide.  It looks at different cases since the Armenian genocide during WWI through to the Darfur genocide which is still in process.  The case of Armenia is significant because for the first time, members of the international community were prepared to hold leaders of another state accountable for their treatment of their own citizens.  However the collective will to bring justice to those accountable waned coming to an abrupt end in 1923.  The holocaust followed in WWII; six million Jews died, and numerous other groups were targeted under the Nazi's serial genocide.  The shock of the holocaust led to the Genocide Convention.  But thirty years later during the Cold War, Cambodia became embroiled in a genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge.  The international community silently stood by.  The USSR, China, and the US all had their reasons to stay out of Cambodia, from supporting a regime with a likeminded political ideology to war weariness from Vietnam.  In the 1990s, genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Kosovo) followed.  The former was neglected by the US's unwillingness to be involved in another peacekeeping disaster.  The two genocides in the former Yugoslavia were affected by Russia and China's reluctance to use military force even after the clear failure of serial negotiations.  Finally, in 2003 Darfur became the latest tragedy of genocide.  Again, Russia and China have been timid of calling the conflict genocide thus avoiding any affirmative action to stop it.  These cases all show that where one state is unwilling to be involved in stopping genocide, their right and power to the veto stops or delays the international community from preventing and punishing genocide, regardless of whether the veto is used or merely seen as a threat.  Therefore, for future prevention of genocide, the veto needs to be changed to prevent its use in times of genocide.

year: 2007

title: Supervision and continuing professional development: Supervisors’ hopes for meaningful, supervision-supported CPD

authors: Flanagan, Paul G.

abstract: Continuing professional development (CPD) is now embedded into the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) practices, such as its members’ supervision, processes for membership renewal and applications for annual practicing certificates. Since its implementation in 2017, a number of developments have been made to NZAC CPD requirements, and in 2020 the process went online. During the same year, six experienced supervisors participated in a small-scale study in which they were interviewed about their experiences of the CPD process and its effects on supervision. The research project was part of a postgraduate paper in professional supervision and worked to introduce and engage researcher-students, all of whom were experienced counselling practitioners, in a supervised collaborative project. This article offers a review of literature on CPD and supervision, and presents the new findings about supervisors’ hopes for meaningful, supervision-supported CPD. The findings highlighted limitations with current competencies for CPD and questioned these competencies as reflecting dominant Pākehā constructions of counselling and therefore, having effects for Māori practitioners. The study also revealed a tension between treating professional development as a requirement to be accounted for and hopes for supervision as a space to reflect on and shape future professional development.

text: Supervision and continuing professional development: Supervisors’ hopes for meaningful, supervision-supported CPD Continuing professional development (CPD) is now embedded into the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) practices, such as its members’ supervision, processes for membership renewal and applications for annual practicing certificates. Since its implementation in 2017, a number of developments have been made to NZAC CPD requirements, and in 2020 the process went online. During the same year, six experienced supervisors participated in a small-scale study in which they were interviewed about their experiences of the CPD process and its effects on supervision. The research project was part of a postgraduate paper in professional supervision and worked to introduce and engage researcher-students, all of whom were experienced counselling practitioners, in a supervised collaborative project. This article offers a review of literature on CPD and supervision, and presents the new findings about supervisors’ hopes for meaningful, supervision-supported CPD. The findings highlighted limitations with current competencies for CPD and questioned these competencies as reflecting dominant Pākehā constructions of counselling and therefore, having effects for Māori practitioners. The study also revealed a tension between treating professional development as a requirement to be accounted for and hopes for supervision as a space to reflect on and shape future professional development.

year: 2021