Paul Norris: On the changing face of TV news and current affairs…

Journalist and academic the late Paul Norris had a major role in changing the landscape of television news and current affairs in New Zealand. He cut his teeth with the BBC, but moved back to New Zealand to run TVNZ’s News and Current Affairs division in 1987. In that role, he revamped the evening news on TV One, and launched the Holmes show in 1989. Norris left TVNZ in 1996 to head the New Zealand Broadcasting School in Christchurch. Norris died in February 2014.

In this ScreenTalk, Norris talks about:

• How a British election set off his career in journalism
• Being lured back to be Head of News and Current Affairs at TVNZ
• The changes brought about by former head of TVNZ Julian Mounter
• Bringing together Richard Long and Judy Bailey on the evening news
• Being criticised for introducing American consultants for the show
• How the Holmes show changed the TV current affairs landscape
• The truth behind the Dennis Conner interview
• Wanting to tell the story behind radical political changes in the 80s, in documentary series Revolution
• Reinventing himself as an academic as Head of the NZ Broadcasting School
• Feeling that TV current affairs is now in a rather dire state
• Changing the landscape of broadcasting

This video was first uploaded on 14 February 2014, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside