ABSTRACT
Public journalism has made only sporadic appearances in New Zealand and it is a safe bet that few Kiwi journalists know it exists. Despite a promising beginning, involving three major newspapers in 1996, public journalism never caught on, surviving today as a series of routine practices in local body election coverage and sporadic newspaper ‘campaigns’. In this chapter we trace the history of public journalism in New Zealand, covering perspectives of pioneers and assessing the impact on election coverage.
