The role of the Chinese ethnic media in response to mainstream media’s portrayals of the Chinese diaspora in New Zealand.

Abstract

This presentation takes a look at the way one Chinese ethnic online media, SkyKiwi.com, responded to the representation of the Chinese people in the New Zealand Herald [the Herald].The first case involves Auckland Mayor Len Brown’s affair with Bevan Chuang in 2013. The second case is based on the reporting of an incident during which a group identified by the Herald as Chinese tourists ate at a charity Christmas lunch in 2012.

A comparison of reports about these events in both media outlets, indicates a tendency of the Herald to focus on more dramatic descriptions of celebrities and to be more connected with the dominant, Pākehā group. SkyKiwi.com emphasises vicarious experience, in a news story that highlights the emotional elements guiding the audience to understand both events from another angle and providing an independent, alternative media space in which the Chinese diaspora in New Zealand could represent themselves in their own words.