Between 22 June and 7 July, Curia asked 905 New Zealanders ” I’m going to read out a list of media outlets in New Zealand. For each one please tell me how you regard their coverage of New Zealand politics from the following options of strongly right-leaning, somewhat right-leaning, neutral, somewhat left-leaning and strongly left-leaning.”
The media outlets covered were TVNZ One News, TV3 Newshub, Radio New Zealand, NewstalkZB, NZ Herald and Stuff. I believe this is the first time there has been a scientific survey of perceived media bias with major media outlets.
The results (of those who listened to or read the medium) are:
- TVNZ/One News – 19% right leaning, 28% left leaning
- TV3/Newshub – 29% right leaning, 29% left leaning
- Radio NZ – 20% right leaning, 25% left leaning
- NewstalkZB – 55% right leaning, 13% left leaning
- NZ Herald – 34% right leaning, 20% left leaning
- Stuff – 11% right leaning, 31% left leaning
The net lean for each is:
- TVNZ/One News – 9% left leaning
- TV3/Newshub – 0%
- Radio NZ – 5% left leaning
- NewstalkZB – 42% right leaning
- NZ Herald – 14% right leaning
- Stuff – 20% left leaning
So New Zealanders overall think Stuff, One News and Radio NZ lean left and NewstalkZB and NZ Herald leans right. Newshub has equal numbers who think it leans left and right.
Perceived media bias can reflect the political views of the respondents. Below we have broken down the views of those who say they will vote centre right and centre left.
CR Voters
- TVNZ/One News – 23% left leaning
- TV3/Newshub – 21% left leaning
- Radio NZ – 10% left leaning
- NewstalkZB – 35% right leaning
- NZ Herald – 12% left leaning
- Stuff – 35% left leaning
So CR voters see Stuff as the most left leaning following by the two TV broadcasters. The only medium seen as right leaning by CR voters is NewstalkZB.
CL Voters
- TVNZ/One News – 4% right leaning
- TV3/Newshub – 15% right leaning
- Radio NZ – 3% left leaning
- NewstalkZB – 52% right leaning
- NZ Herald – 38% right leaning
- Stuff – 7% left leaning
So CL voters see Stuff and Radio NZ as left leaning, TVNZ as slightly right leaning and NZ Herald and NewstalkZB as heavily right leaning.
CR and CL voters agree that they perceive Stuff and Radio NZ as leaning left and NewstalkZB as leaning right. For the NZ Herald, One News and Newshub they disagree with each set of voters seeing the outlet as leaning the other way.