UC senior lecturer calls for more in-depth journalism in wake of Close Up closing

University of Canterbury (UC) journalism senior lecturer Tara Ross said today she hoped TVNZ will replace Close Up with a similar in-depth programme.

Television New Zealand announced today it will shut down its current affairs show Close Up before the end of the year. Ross said current affairs on television was a ‘rare beast’ in New Zealand.

``We don’t have a lot of the longer form of news background shows. TV One’s audiences get plenty of news from their breakfast show, the website and the 6pm news but it’s all small bit sized news.

``We need a show that had the room to provide in-depth news coverage. Whatever the repackaging of Tv One’s 7pm slot, the important thing is that there are enough journalists on the new programme and there is enough time for them to produce in-depth stories. We don’t want to make this breakfast tv at 7pm.

``TV organisations give a lot of attention to packaging and how a programme looks; as much attention needs to be given to its content. That comes back to questions around whether the staffing for the new programme will be as high, and whether reporters will have the time to explore the news issues that One News can’t cover,’’ Ross said.

Ross, a former award-winning journalist for The Press and the Sunday Star-Times, is running next year’s UC’s journalism course which was not offered this year in the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes.

The course, which began in the 1920s, has trained some of the country’s foremost journalists.