TV3 says 413,400 viewers aged five or older watched the first episode of GC, a reality show about a group of young Maori on the Gold Coast. It was watched by 42 per cent of Maori watching television
It out-rated 3News and Campbell Live and became a trending topic world wide on Twitter, but attracted a lot of negative comment on Facebook and was generally panned by TV critics.
“Perhaps the most disturbing thing about GC is that it is funded by NZ on Air with your money and mine in a $420,000 grant for a programme that showcases young, urban Maori who have moved across the Tasman in pursuit of their ‘dream of money, sex and fame’,” says Catholic Media Consultant Lyndsay Freer.
“Thankfully, these kids are not representative of the majority of Maori youth or of young New Zealanders of any ethnic background,” she said
“What an irony that Television New Zealand is to close TVNZ7 because its limited audience doesn’t justify its continued existence, while NZOA pumps close on half a million dollars into clichéd trash like GC which is arguably the pits of the largely second-rate reality TV genre.”
Freer said that if a publicly funded agency believes it worthy to promote moronic young TV characters whose dream is to fritter away their money and integrity on the Gold Coast (even if there are some who do), then there should be a re-evaluation of New Zealand on Air’s mandate.
“We are all assailed by what has been called ‘the globalisation of superficiality’ in our reading and viewing habits. Even our daily newspapers are not averse to running front page trivia about such matters as Prince William’s wife’s sister’s derriere or the latest celebrity who is botoxed to the hilt or who has returned to rehab for the umpteenth time,” she said.
“One could go on to deplore the values and sexual exploits of these kids in GC (five girls in five nights was one guy’s boast). Certainly other programmes showing on our screens are no better. But the point is that NZ on Air is mandated to use public money to encourage quality and representative local programming. The TV3 series will explore emigration from a Maori perspective and how Tikanga Maori supports them as they adapt to life in a new country,” they write. Really?
Those involved in promoting overseas tourism to New Zealand just might not agree. More to the point is the comment of Labour MP, Shane Jones, ‘It’s probably evidence why the exodus of some Kiwis is good for New Zealand.'”
Source
- New Zealand Herald
- Image: Stuff.co.nz
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