title: Newspaper Coverage of People with Disabilities: A New Zealand Perspective

authors: Wall, Stacey Lee

subjects: disability

abstract: Throughout history the science of mass communication has been a topic of public and academic interest. In the past 3 decades portrayals of various minority groups have been of concern to researchers, health professionals and member of these groups. This study examines how people with disabilities are portrayed within the New Zealand print media and whether or not a traditional (often negative) or progressive (often positive) modes of representations predominate in coverage. Progressive focus views disability and the problems surrounding it as being located in society's failure to accommodate all members of the population. In contrast, traditional focus views people with disabilities as dysfunctional because he or she is unable to function in an environment designed by or for people without disabilities. The research corpus comprises relating to intellectual and physical disabilities and people with disabilities published in three major newspapers of New Zealand; The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion Post and The Sunday Star Times between the 1st of June and the 1st of August 2006 (N=101). These articles were collected and the content of each article was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Aspects such as structure, content, terminology, sources used and attributes assigned to the people with disabilities were analysed within each article as a means of determining whether an article was positive, negative or neutral. Results show that within the New Zealand print media disability is generally portrayed in a positive or neutral manner. Moreover, it was discovered that Clogston's (1989) classifications of traditional and progressive focus were problematic because results indicated that a traditional mode of focus was dominate but this did not reflect a negative portrayal of disability. This may have been due to the disparities between the findings of this thesis and previous research conducted in other countries over a decade ago. Furthermore, it was found that the main source within each article was the government and this supported past research (Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien, 1980).

text: Newspaper Coverage of People with Disabilities: A New Zealand Perspective Throughout history the science of mass communication has been a topic of public and academic interest. In the past 3 decades portrayals of various minority groups have been of concern to researchers, health professionals and member of these groups. This study examines how people with disabilities are portrayed within the New Zealand print media and whether or not a traditional (often negative) or progressive (often positive) modes of representations predominate in coverage. Progressive focus views disability and the problems surrounding it as being located in society's failure to accommodate all members of the population. In contrast, traditional focus views people with disabilities as dysfunctional because he or she is unable to function in an environment designed by or for people without disabilities. The research corpus comprises relating to intellectual and physical disabilities and people with disabilities published in three major newspapers of New Zealand; The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion Post and The Sunday Star Times between the 1st of June and the 1st of August 2006 (N=101). These articles were collected and the content of each article was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Aspects such as structure, content, terminology, sources used and attributes assigned to the people with disabilities were analysed within each article as a means of determining whether an article was positive, negative or neutral. Results show that within the New Zealand print media disability is generally portrayed in a positive or neutral manner. Moreover, it was discovered that Clogston's (1989) classifications of traditional and progressive focus were problematic because results indicated that a traditional mode of focus was dominate but this did not reflect a negative portrayal of disability. This may have been due to the disparities between the findings of this thesis and previous research conducted in other countries over a decade ago. Furthermore, it was found that the main source within each article was the government and this supported past research (Tichenor, Donohue, and Olien, 1980).

year: 2007

title: Islam: A challenge to Christianity

authors: Pratt, Douglas

subjects: religion

abstract: The coming together of people of diverse religions to plan or reflect upon a common action or venture, and to consider, let alone engage in, an act of shared spiritual experience – such as interreligious prayer – is something comparatively novel and relatively rare. Yet the impetus for acts of inter-faith prayer, worship, or other liturgically shared acts, is increasing as more and more experiences of cross-religion engagement and dialogical encounter occur, and as communities encompassing religious diversity address issues in common, or respond to crises that affect all. In some corners of the globe this is already very much the case; for others it is only just emerging into view on the horizon of possibility. 

In this paper I explore the question of interreligious prayer arising from my involvement in a joint World Council of Churches and Vatican Study undertaken during the 1990s. The questions which lay behind this co-operative venture remain, of course, live ones today and require continual reflection and fresh thinking. When the natural human response is to pray, and the context of that response is multi-religious, what can we do together? How can we do it? Indeed, ought we to do it? And if we do, on what basis may we proceed? What justification can we give in respect of our own faith? What are the issues to be addressed? How, if at all, may they be resolved?

text: Islam: A challenge to Christianity The coming together of people of diverse religions to plan or reflect upon a common action or venture, and to consider, let alone engage in, an act of shared spiritual experience – such as interreligious prayer – is something comparatively novel and relatively rare. Yet the impetus for acts of inter-faith prayer, worship, or other liturgically shared acts, is increasing as more and more experiences of cross-religion engagement and dialogical encounter occur, and as communities encompassing religious diversity address issues in common, or respond to crises that affect all. In some corners of the globe this is already very much the case; for others it is only just emerging into view on the horizon of possibility. 

In this paper I explore the question of interreligious prayer arising from my involvement in a joint World Council of Churches and Vatican Study undertaken during the 1990s. The questions which lay behind this co-operative venture remain, of course, live ones today and require continual reflection and fresh thinking. When the natural human response is to pray, and the context of that response is multi-religious, what can we do together? How can we do it? Indeed, ought we to do it? And if we do, on what basis may we proceed? What justification can we give in respect of our own faith? What are the issues to be addressed? How, if at all, may they be resolved?

year: 2007-05

title: Initial report of the 2018 Census external data quality panel

authors: Bedford, Richard

abstract: One in six New Zealand residents did not complete a questionnaire for the 2018 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings. This was largely due to operational failures that made it difficult for a significant number of individuals and households to access census questionnaires, and to fulfill their statutory duty to participate.

text: Initial report of the 2018 Census external data quality panel One in six New Zealand residents did not complete a questionnaire for the 2018 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings. This was largely due to operational failures that made it difficult for a significant number of individuals and households to access census questionnaires, and to fulfill their statutory duty to participate.

year: 2019