Smashing the audience : the political economy of New Zealand television : a thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology, Massey University, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Abstract

This thesis is a work in the political economy of New Zealand television. It seeks to understand the relationship between three distinct processes. Firstly, how are the institutions of broadcasting effected by their location within the centralised, extensively intervening New Zealand State? Secondly, how does the above relationship of the institution to the State effect the work of professional television journalists in the production of political television? Thirdly, how do the two levels of relationship previously considered effect effect the programmes that are produced? Each question is answered through three types of analysis: historical, qualitative observation and semiotic respectively. It is argued that the entire process is unified within the terms of the liberal democratic State, and that the practices of journalists ideologically represent this State form as "above" the class character of the New Zealand social formation.