Identificación de recursos y activos

6.4.1 Metropolitan newspapers: General and art news readership

Data for this analysis were gathered from the four metropolitan daily newspapers representing the country’s four major urban centres: New Zealand Herald from Auckland, The Dominion Post published in Wellington, The Press from Christchurch and the Otago Daily Times published in Dunedin. These were chosen because of their geographical spread and their numbers of both general and arts and culture readers. These four metropolitan newspapers maintain the largest circulation of all the New Zealand newspapers and cover both the North and South Islands. The results of the Nielsen Media National Readership Survey July 2005–June 2006 showed that on an average day 1,112,000 (35% of the total population) read a metropolitan newspaper, and

1.8 million people (57% of the total population) read at least one issue of a metropolitan daily within a single week (Newspaper Advertising Bureau, August 27, 2006).

Although published in the country’s major urban centres, these newspapers are mainly regional in their distribution and readership. As Phelan and Owen (2010) have

demonstrated, this regional focus follows a market-driven logic that is reflected in the coverage and selection of stories that accommodate the interests of the local readership. The New Zealand Herald’s circulation positioned it as the largest of the four

metropolitan dailies (see Table 4) and the preferred choice among readers in the

Auckland and the northern regions of the North Island (APN New Zealand, 2006). The Central and Southern sectors of the North Island were dominated by The Dominion Post, which, according to the Nielsen readership results for 2005, gained more new readers per average issue during this period than any other daily paper and increased its circulation in the capital city with half of all Wellingtonians reading the paper each day and over 75% reading it each week (Fairfax, March 1, 2006). In the South Island, The Press was the preferred daily newspaper not only in Christchurch, with over half (55.3%) of the population reading the paper daily and 82% reading it weekly, but also among all South Islanders in general (Fairfax, March 1, 2006). Finally, the Otago Daily Times maintained the smallest circulation of the four and was read by over half the population of Dunedin. Table 4 displays a comparison of the daily circulation figures for each of the metropolitan newspapers during the six-month period of March through September 2005.

Table 4: NZ metropolitan newspapers: Daily circulation (March–September 2005)

NZ Herald Dom Post The Press Otago Daily Times

201,254 98,245 90,909 44,075

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulation (September, 2005)

While the visual arts play a significant role in the cultural life of many of New Zealand’s cities and towns, each of the major metropolitan centres maintains a

particularly vibrant visual arts culture characterised by the presence of dealer galleries, non-profit artist run galleries, and public art museums that display works ranging from traditional early European to contemporary New Zealand visual art. This cultural life is apparently reflected in the newspaper readership as well. Table 5 presents the findings

of the Nielsen Media National Readership Survey (A.C. Nielsen, 2005) showing on average how many of those who read a metropolitan newspaper within a seven-day period also read that newspaper’s arts and culture news.

Table 5: NZ metropolitan newspapers: Comparison of general and arts/culture news readership for 2005

Metropolitan Newspaper Avg # of general readers per wk Avg # of Arts/Culture readers per wk NZ Herald 1,044,000 157,000 (15%) Dom Post 456,000 210,000 (46%) The Press 389,000 178,000 (46%) Otago Daily Times 176,000 74,000 (42%)

Source: Nielsen Media National Readership Survey (A.C. Nielsen, 2005)

For instance, according to the survey, of those who read the Dominion Post, 210,000 (46%) also read the paper’s arts section. Based on the data, the total number of readers of the four daily metropolitan newspapers who also read these newspapers’ arts and culture sections constituted almost 28% of the population (total population of 3,487,000 New Zealanders aged 10 or older). Interestingly, a comparison of the data shows that the proportion of arts readers for most of the four metropolitan newspapers was relatively similar.66 However, the value of these figures in gauging the nature of arts news readership is questionable, since it is not possible to determine what stories readers were drawn to. For example, movie and entertainment listings are typically located in the arts and culture sections of newspapers, and interest in that information may be driving these figures to some extent.

6.4.2 Sampling approach for analysis

Although the dates of the 51st Venice Biennale itself were from 12 June until 6 November 2005, this study focuses on New Zealand mainstream journalists’ coverage of the selection of the artist collective and of the exhibition. Therefore, the period to be examined, 3 July 2004 – 31 December 2005, extends from the date of the first CNZ press release announcing the artists’ selection to the end of the exhibition year and also

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A comparison of the data shows that the percentage of arts readers was relatively similar for all the metropolitan newspapers except for the New Zealand Herald. This disparity may be due, in part, to the

fact that the Table 5 figures are based on a sample of daily readership and the APN’s weekend

covers any assessments of the event immediately following the exhibition.

Because of the limited number of pertinent news items (n=155 comprising 92 news stories, 25 editorials and 38 letters to the editor), employing a census approach, rather than a selection from a random sample of texts, was deemed best. The census comprises every relevant article published within a given timeframe. Riffe et al. (2005) has

explained that a census approach makes sense when researching a particular event (p. 98). When dealing with a small population of content a random sample is likely to omit key stories and possibly distort the results (Riffe et al. 2005, p. 98). For instance, since the coverage of the event by some of the newspapers was sporadic, randomly sampling a date range, e.g., several weeks during the reporting timeframe, would not have provided a reliable indication of whether the news organisations’ stance throughout the event was consistent or a sufficient sample size for comparison of the different

newspapers’ coverage. Moreover, analysing selected content from particular timeframes would have limited any insight regarding the ebb and flow of the different newspapers’ coverage as it intensified or abated during the reporting period.

The relevant content for this analysis was initially gathered from a search of the

Newztext and Otago Daily Times electronic databases using the search terms “Venice”, “Venice Biennale”, “et al” and “Tweedie”. The Newztext database archives the full text of many of New Zealand's major news and business publications, not including Otago Daily Times. These results were cross-checked with the more comprehensive

Newzindex database, which does not include full text articles but does provide references to many publications not available online, and with Factiva. This cross- checking approach was especially important since some of the arts journalists who figure in this analysis, such as Mark Amery and Josie McNaught, are freelance, and not all of their articles are included in the Newztext digital database. These along with other articles were identified and photocopied from the National Library newspaper collection on microfilm.

Within a constructionist paradigm, any published items can be considered part of the journalistic narrative that may influence news consumers. Since the focus of this research is the journalistic representation of et al. and the Venice Biennale, published items that present these aspects in an evaluative way operate as part of the journalistic narrative that constructs the public’s understanding of the event. Therefore, the

published items selected for analysis include editorials, opinion pieces, news stories, features and letters to the editor that dealt specifically with the artists and/or the event. Excluded from the sample were announcements of peripheral events, such as diary notices of upcoming lectures or feature articles that included a passing reference to the Venice Biennale.

6.4.3 Selection of coding units

The units of analysis are the distinctive items or categories identified and counted by the researcher (Krippendorf, 2004). For instance, the sampling units, as described in the previous section, are the newspaper articles, editorials and other items drawn from the larger collection of materials published by the newspapers and distinguished by some particular characteristic, in this case their subject matter and timeframe, that determines whether they will be included for analysis.

The recording, or coding, units are the elements of content to be classified in the coding process. Typically contained within the sampling unit, the coding units demonstrate a particular descriptive characteristic that can be categorized and are “the smallest units that bear all the information needed in the analysis” (Krippendorf, 2004, p. 100). Defining the appropriate elements to be analysed is the “conceptually most taxing” aspect of content analysis (Hansen et al., 1998, p. 106). Coding units are defined empirically by their distinctive characteristics. According to Riffe et al. (2005, pp. 74- 78) these may be physical (such as a text’s word length, duration or dimensions), syntactical (for instance, words, sentences, headlines or articles), referential (such as elements that share a classification or category) or thematic (such as recurring motifs or concepts).

For this study, a review of the sample texts was carried out in relation to the research questions in order to identify the categories of content that could be examined in relation to the research objectives. Guiding this process was a consideration of the research questions and their objectives as well as the types of coding units that would be relevant to achieving these objectives. The following categories, therefore, were

selected as the primary focus of this content analysis:

newspaper, date of publication, headline, reporter’s name, section and page number, and genre (editorial, letter to the editor, feature, report, etc.) for each news item

Recurring concepts/language (motifs): repeated reference to key figures and issues that appeared in each newspaper’s account of the art story

Tone: the dominant evaluative position each news item conveys

Based on this framework, relevant units of analysis were identified. These were then tested against a sample of texts and adjusted to create a coding schedule. The following section discusses the structure of the coding schedule and provides details about the coding units that comprise the three sections of the coding schedule.