Peter joined the Media Studies Programme at Victoria University of Wellington in 2011. He came to New Zealand in 1997, and lectured at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland, where he helped establish the postgraduate programmes in international communication. Prior to that he lectured in communication at

Bangkok University in Thailand, and also tutored in Thailand and Singapore for the Centre for Mass Communication Research at Leicester University. Peter’s broad area of interest concerns the political economy of media. Much of his published work concerns media policy, particularly in regard to public service media. He has closely followed recent developments in New Zealand and has published widely on the public broadcasting reforms.

What is it about public broadcasting that causes politicians so many problems? The history of broadcasting here is littered with legislative changes. Virtually every government of every shade has attempted to change the broadcasting ecology of Aotearoa/New Zealand. At the time of writing there is a further attempt to ‘restructure’ public broadcasting and, yet again, it is proving controversial. Given that New Zealand is one of a very few OECD countries without a genuine public television network, what would a genuine public broadcasting service for this country look like? Or has technology made the concept redundant?