There were a number of possible reasons for this failure to engage with the public – the convoluted election process, the depressing array of talent that were up for election, or the postal voting system, which forced generations of people who have never licked a stamp to figure out how post boxes work.
And, of course, it was all the media's fault. It didn't take long for that blame and shame to be thrown about, that the entire media was apparently failing in its duty to inform. Everyone would have voted if they only knew the personalities and issues involved, and it was a failure on the news industry's part that was responsible for low turn-outs.
As usual, RNZ's Mediawatch programme had a crack at all the coverage immediately after the local elections took place, and was deeply concerned that national media outlets were not covering hyper-local issues. It was all backed up by chin-stroking comment from media personalities who hadn't actually worked in a newsroom for more than a quarter of a century, but knew it just wasn't the same anymore.
Unfortunately, this skated over the fact that there wasn't room in the 27 minutes of news on the national television stations to get really in-depth with things like local boards or councils, and the fact that were covered at all was a minor miracle.
It also glossed over the fine work done by a lot of great journalists at a lower level, at small newspapers and local radio stations, the people who do go to staggeringly dull debates and council meetings. Newsrooms have been depleted, but there is still a lot of great work going on at that level – local journalism for local people.
Mediawatch even ignored the fine efforts of its own reporters at RNZ – with strong work including Todd Niall's reporting in Auckland, Lois Williams' coverage up north, or Tracy Neal's stories from the top of the South Island. Mediawatch did find some nice things to say about The Spinoff's work in Auckland, but this was a bit undermined when the next day The Spinoff published a hot take from a Wellington Council comms person, who lamented and moaned that the coverage of the things they were directly involved with was so limited.
Fortunately, when a comms monkey is sad that you didn't tell the story they wanted you to tell, you know you're doing something right as a reporter.
When things get a bit more national, there is obviously a lot more coverage, and you can see that already with this year's general election - there are already plenty of stories from the big organisations on election pledges, promises and bribes.
There will, of course, still be a worryingly low election turn-out, and plenty of opinionating about the possible need for compulsory voting, and how to get the message out. And, once again, there will be loads of moans that it's all the media's fault, even after months and months of coverage.
But the media hasn't got the hang of diluting essential news into liquid form and injecting it into everybody's eyeballs yet, and short of that, it's hard to see what more New Zealand's newsrooms can do to spread the message of policies and personalities.
It's an easy target to blame journalists for low turnout, but it takes more than wall-to-wall coverage to get people off their fat arses and down to the polling booth, and the underlying reasons behind this might be a bit more complex than an easy blame game.
- Steve Lombard
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