Racial Discrimination and Political Bias on Talkback Radio in New Zealand: Assessing the Evidence

Abstract

Talkback radio has the reputation of being dominated by politically conservative hosts with a penchant for using controversial and divisive issues – particularly those relating to racial or ethnic conflict – to maximise audiences. This has led some analysts in Australia to see talkback as providing a vehicle for the anti-immigration, anti-multicultural politics of populist right-wing parties. In this paper the validity of these claims in the New Zealand context is assessed by examining complaints lodged with the Broadcasting Standards Authority in 2004-2005. While analysis of these cases reveals that New Zealand places a laudably high value on freedom of speech, it also highlights those peculiarities of the talkback genre which make academic research on it particularly challenging. The article thus concludes with some methodological suggestions for research designed to furthe R our understanding of the relationship between talkback and contemporary New Zealand politics.