Shaping the News: Waitangi Day on Television

This is an unusual study of the way in which New Zealand television presents local news. It takes a well-known and often controversial annual event, the Waitangi Day commemorations, and explores in considerable detail how this has been handled from 1990 to 1995. As well as giving an illuminating picture of how television news is produced, it also offers insights into the way in which Maori issues are treated by mainly Pakeha news teams and the powerful if often unconscious shaping of attitudes towards race relations and biculturalism presented by television news programmes.