An interesting and educational evening, but not for the usual reasons.

It promised to be an interesting evening, and it was – just not quite in the way expected.

Ursula Cheer - a Professor at the University of Canterbury who specialises in media law – was giving a public talk titled ‘What is Happening to Our Media, and Should You Care?’ It sounded very topical, considering our increasing disillusionment in mainstream media. Ursula also came highly recommended by a friend, who’d had cause to be impressed with her twenty years ago.

Well, something happened to Ursula in those intervening years. To put it succinctly, she went woke. I attended the talk in a small group of three others, and we were looking forward to some blood and guts, no-holds-barred, evisceration of the current state of the media. Instead, we got a rather weak talk about bugger all. Go woke, go weak, I guess - apart from when lambasting those who aren’t woke.

All in all, it seemed Ursula thought that, after a dip in the quality of journalism in New Zealand a few years ago, on the whole it was now getting better. At least, I think that was her conclusion. She believes that an independent 4th estate is essential to a functioning democracy – true - then appeared to endorse professional journalism being regulated in some ways, either through State regulation, or through bodies like the PSA or the NZ Media Council. Technically, I don’t disagree with that, as holding journos to some standards about what they can and can’t say or write, and having a place to complain about it, if necessary, is good. The downside is that those above-mentioned bodies give every indication they’ve gone woke. For example, what does it say about them when neither thought the vitriol spewed about Posie Parker (aka Kellie-Jay Keen) prior to her visit to NZ in March 2023 went against any media standards? Ursula bestowed us with a few more pearls of unremarkable wisdom, including that journalists “know about accuracy, fairness, and balance, of course”. That raised a few eyebrows in our group.

She also seemed to view the controversial Public Interest Journalism Fund¹ with favour. This fund was $55M package initiated by the government at the time to help media get through the Covid years. Naturally, it came with strings attached, which were criticised by some, and adhered to by those who wanted a share of the dosh. Ursula said the fund had been very helpful, particularly with local news content.

During the question time afterwards, I asked if she could expand on the bit about it being helpful for local news content, and perhaps give an example. She couldn’t. Apparently, it was her fellow trustees at the Better Public Media Trust who had told her how it had helped local news content, but she was sure I could find some examples online, if I looked for them.

Upon searching the Better Public Media Trust website later, I could find no mention of the Public Interest Journalism Fund, so presume the information about how it helped local news content came to Ursula by word of mouth. However, I did find a page on the website which seemed to have a number of the same points in it disseminated during Ursula’s talk. Between that and the website as a whole, you may get a more detailed picture of where Ursula’s coming from than I’ve given, if interested.

However, a bloke in the audience piped up a wee while after I’d asked my question to say that he worked at Newsroom, and the Public Interest Journalism Fund had enabled them to employ journos in Southland and on the West Coast. That sounded quite positive, although those journos would have had a very tight framework on what, how, and who they could report on in order to stay in line with the rules which came with the Fund. I presume that when the money from the Fund dries up, those journos will no longer work for Newsroom.

The talk was held in a city café called C1 Espresso, and it was packed by the time I arrived with Helen. The two others in our group were there before us, and saved us two seats – next to a giant tranny-bloke – lol!

• Helen and me at the talk.

I have a friend who is The Source of all there is to know about who’s who in the ‘hood, and they (‘they’ for anonymity) subsequently informed me they’ve encountered this tranny-bloke from time to time. He’s not always very comfortable to be around, is what I inferred from The Source. I didn’t know any of this at the talk, of course, but wondered if I would find myself in the women’s toilets with him at some stage. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but this is now what women have to think about.

I suspected if I had encountered him there, my instinct would have been to just get out as fast as I could. If I’d made a fuss, I don’t think I would have been supported by the staff or many of the talk attendees. The staff were young, as is normal for hospitality, and I would say that many of the talk attendees would have been terribly ‘progressive’. Of those who weren’t, I doubt they’d have had the courage to stand up for me, although without a shadow of doubt those in my group would have.

The toilet area was very strange, I have to say. It wasn’t downstairs, but it was rather dungeon-like regardless, perhaps due to the café being in an old building. I really couldn’t figure out if there were separate male and female toilets, as the little Star Wars-type figures (sans Princess Leia) on the doors gave no clues. In hindsight, I guess this was intentional, as although there seemed to be more than one toilet room to go into, it’s possible they were all mixed-sex in each room. Blergh! I decided to ring the café the next day to confirm this, but there is no easily discoverable phone number on their website or Facebook page. If the toilets are entirely mixed-sex, as I suspect, an enquiry by email would produce the usual shallow PR reply about ‘inclusivity’.

As a younger woman, I wanted to be fearless and part of the cohort making a mark on the world though social change. I don’t entirely discount the possibility that maybe if I was young today, I’d toss my head at the thought of it being risky to share a toilet block with men. It wouldn’t matter if I was fooling myself or not, I might still go along with the bravado of it.

As a general rule, we tend to be more idealistic when we’re younger, and grow more realistic as we get older. That’s getting a bit turned on its head now, though, as there seems to be a desperation amongst some to stay idealistic. Maybe it makes those who cling to idealism feel young.

Admittedly, idealism has its place, but biological sex is realism, and irrespective of whether we’re young or old, nothing can change that.

¹ General Guidelines for the Public Interest Journalism Fund.