End of TV famine -wait for feast

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 15

End of TV famine -wait for feast

By

KEN COATES

From a famine there will ” e ’ or at least a snack. Both channels plan to mount sessions that look at newspapers and the print media. Television Ones is called, “Press Gang," and South Pacific’s, “News Stand. ’

The 12 to 15-minute TVI show will be screened each Wednesday in the afternoon programme, “Todav at One,” and according to the producer, Deirdre McCarten, will take a unde look at many i facets of the newspaper and | magazine industry. i The first of an initial six I segments of “Press Gang” | will be screened on September 7 and the hosts will be Helen Vause, a “Today at One" reporter, and Reg Birch- , field, editor of “National | Business Review.” i “The idea is to look at the j interesting world of the newspaper industry, and the large and small papers and> the publications that have al characteristically different I flavour,” comments the producer.

She said the style and approach of some overseas magazines, such as “Time” and “Newsweek” would be examined.

“We will also look at the story behind the story, at the work of a newspaper cartoonist and the people who have specialist jobs in the industry,” Miss McCartin explained. “News Stand,” to be produced in Christchurch by South Pacific’s Stan Hosgood, working closely with the

Canterbury University journalism lecturer, Mr Brian Priestley, will begin a 10week run on Friday, September 2, after the 10 p.m. news. Brian Priestley was a panel member on TVl’s “The

Media.” He was a working journalist in Britain a couple of years ago (in 1968 he won Granada Television’s media programme, “What the Papers Say" Reporter of the Year award) and should bring to “News Stand” professional perception and a lively practical flair.

The programme aims to interview leader writers and journalists and ask them to explain how they have gone about preparing a particular article.

“If a newspaper editor in Auckland, for example, took a sharply different line from one in Christchurch, we would endeavour to get both editors on the programme to discuss why,” said Stan Hosgood. On “News Stand” viewers can also expect to see people outside the newspaper industry commenting on articles — to see, for example, whether a topic has been adequately handled, or, if on a complex subject, whether it has been fairly presented in condensed form.

The programme will not restrict itself to newspapers, but will range over all the print media — from women’s magazines to comics.