While the (hopefully) long hot months of summer mean many New Zealand businesses tend to wind down, the media machine still must be fed.
Termed the 'silly season', it is a time when the perennial favourite stories of campers flooded out of their tents, and the Christmas shopping bill tally of every man, woman and child are front page news.
There is, frankly, so little happening within New Zealand that we either get to read, watch and hear international stories of huge significance (witness 2004's Boxing Day Tsunami and last year's 'damned trees' on Auckland's Queen Street) or local stories that fit into the 'nice to know' or 'want to know', rather than the 'need to know', categories.
The main news drivers of government (both central and local), corporate New Zealand and the justice system are all 'out to lunch' until at least late January. The news momentum these entities create isn't able to be sustained if the spokespeople aren't there for comment, and the press releases aren't being issued - of course - baring an unforeseen event or a crisis situation.
It is for this very reason that the silly season is ripe for the picking if you have a great story that wouldn't usually get a look in.
The PR industry often targets this time of year with the type of story we wouldn't usually expect to get covered, even though we work hard to tempt the media to do so. It may be a justifiably great story, which deserves to be covered any time of the year. However, journalists are often more open to considering the 'nice to know' in the golden six weeks from mid December to late January.
As the lazy summer days stretch on, this media coverage also fits in well with what people want from their holiday media diet. Quite simply, most of us just want to be entertained. Our media consumption may switch from daily print (maybe even more than one major daily paper for many of us), hourly radio news and appointment-viewing television news and current affairs, plus news feeds to a more leisurely weekend paper, a treasured magazine or a special interest title saved for that beach or pool-side peruse.
While you yet again watch those poor flooded out campers, or are one of them yourself, thank the silly season for all those other stories you didn't know were out there, love to hear or read, and keep you entertained this silly season. |
