The It’s not OK media advocacy project aimed to change the way the New Zealand news media reports family violence.
It was clear when the Campaign began that its goal of changing community attitudes towards family violence could not be achieved without good quality and plentiful reporting in the news media. We knew that the way the news media portrays family violence had a significant impact on the way
New Zealanders think about the topic. We knew that news reporting before the Campaign began did not show the seriousness or prevalence of family violence in New Zealand.
We also knew that myths about family violence were often unintentionally endorsed by news stories – simply because reporters did not understand the topic. Our approach was to treat the news media as one of many audiences we needed to work with to achieve a shift in attitudes and behaviour towards family violence. Our strategy was to work with all the audiences who could influence the quality and quantity of news stories across the print and broadcast media. Work began in 2006, a year before the Campaign’s mass media advertising component was launched. (from the introduction). Record #4883