MAY NEWSLETTER

Kia ora koutou,

Our news bulletin of Classification Office activities comes to you this month bursting at the seams with ways that we're listening to and working alongside different voices.

The month we hosted Kate Hannah, Deputy Director, Equity and Diversity, within Te Pūnaha Matatini, at our office. We visited Otago University students to help inform their learning about 'Screen Form and Culture'. In Wellington at The Light Project workshop we presented findings from our porn research alongside representatives from RespectEd and The Light Project. Over on the blog we look at the development of the zombie genre alongside our approach to classification, and we highlight a film that could be a clever conversation starter with rangatahi. 

Our newsletters generally talk about topics like sex, drugs, and the media content landscape. Our aim is to have difficult conversations and shine a light on ways to reduce harm for New Zealanders. If you know someone who should receive these updates, please share our newsletter or encourage them to subscribe here.

#WatchTogether #TalkTogether

Pictured: Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead alternative film poster. 

‘Narrative Knowing: a novel mixed methods approach to understanding disinformation in Aotearoa New Zealand’

We were joined in the office this month by Kate Hannah, cultural historian of science and technology whose research works within and across cultural history, science and technology studies, and public understanding of science and technology.

She leads two research workstreams within Te Pūnaha Matatini’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment-funded Covid-19 research programme: Manaakitia, focused on equitable outcomes for at-risk communities, and disinformation, focused on understanding the nature and prevalence of the infodemic in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Some highlights of Kate’s talk were the Covid-19 mis/disinformation key word analysis currently underway.

“We started seeing conspiracy-based meta-narratives with links back to anti-semitism and 9-11 truthers… Most conspiracies are broadly generic anti-vax conspiracies, re-packaged… Stories are changing and adapting to new contexts, narratives and power structures.”

We are grateful to be working alongside Kate in the mis/disinformation research field. Her approach to working with rich, contextualised mixed data approach seeks to reduce the likelihood of cultural, archival, agentic, and computational silencing. In short, ensuring that many voices are considered in the gathering of information allowing for a greater picture of history.

Kate Hannah is Deputy Director, Equity and Diversity, within Te Pūnaha Matatini, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for Complex Systems and Networks, a Research Fellow in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, and a PhD candidate at the Centre for Science and Society at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.

Pictured: Kate Hannah and Chief Censor David Shanks after her presentation at the Office this month. 

We take a look back at zombie classifications

Blood, gore, violence, and death – you generally know what you're in for when you tune into a zombie film. Since the days of Dawn of the Dead and Michael Jackson's Thriller, zombies have grown up; they've learned to run as well as walk, develop feelings, emotions, and a general higher level of consciousness. Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (hitting Netflix on 21 May) shows an evolution and expansion of the genre. I thought this deserved a timely chat with our Senior Classification Officer, Kirsten, to determine if the change in zombie films affect our classification decisions.

"I think it's the sub-genres we're getting now which is changing decision making the most… we're seeing zombies creep into rom-coms, action, it's almost like the filmmakers are saying 'hey, we need a new approach, let's chuck a zombie in it,'" says Kirsten.

Zombies are no longer niche, so does that mean we're desensitised to the horror, and if so, does this impact the classifications?

We've rated Army of the Dead R16 | Graphic violence & offensive language

Is Amy Poehler’s high school comedy-drama appropriate for young people?

Caitlin, one of our Youth facilitators, regularly engages with young people and enjoys hearing their perspectives on content aimed at younger audiences. Over on the blog she gives advice on talking about content you watch with your rangatahi.

In a sea of teen films and series sometimes I feel like I am drowning in sensationalised exploitation of young people. So when a film like Moxie comes along I can finally breathe a bit.

For whānau it can be hard finding a film that you can comfortably watch with your growing teenagers. It is also hard to know what to say when topics like suicide, sexual violence and bullying are the focus. It is understandably fair to think you could say the wrong thing or your child might get mad at you for trying to navigate a difficult conversation.

Read on for some conversation starters which are helpful when watching with a young person.

- Slide from Otago University Presentation

IN PERSON

Dylan and Georgia guest lectured a first year film studies class at Otago University last week. Students taking the ‘Screen Form and Culture’ paper are learning to analyse and explore the way screen studies has conceptualised relations between viewers and moving images. During the two lectures Dylan took the students on a journey through the history of censorship in Aotearoa, the changing media landscape, and the future of classification. Georgia walked the students through the classification process and showed them examples of outreach and research done by the Classification Office. They also presented the students with case studies on harmful viral videos and controversial classification decisions.

Caitlin and Kate presented at The Light Project workshop on Monday 10 May
They presented along with Nikki and Jo from The Light Project, as well as Vic and Judy from RespectEd. The workshop included insight, advice and resources on the difficult subject of porn. Caitlin talked about the background of our three stage research and the resources and campaigns it had influenced. Kate focused on the upcoming porn module and her involvement with the animations. The audience was a mixture of people from health, education, police and the youth sector. It was a great opportunity to deliver a workshop alongside the two different organisations.

Pictured: Georgia and Dylan walked Otago University students through the classification process. "The Dominant Effect" featured on screen refers to the overall effect or impact of the film. 

ONLINE

The Classification office submissions
We presented two submissions recently. Our Submission on the Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill was in support of the proposed amendment which would promotes online safety and a shift to establishing a lack of consent when sharing images online. We emphasised that it is important that young people are not unduly criminalised for behaviour seen as normal by them. As an office we are proud to work alongside and learn from young people. We understand from them that sending and sharing intimate visual recordings is very common. We are also lucky enough to work with experts like Dame Sue Bagshaw who advise us on brain development and how this relates to making decisions without analysing risks.

Chief Censor David Shanks presented our submission on the FVPC (Urgent Interim Classification of Publications and Prevention of Online Harm) Amendment Bill in person to the select committee. In particular our submission spoke in favour of the clear need for checks and balances, transparency and review mechanisms for a carefully applied internet filter. You can view the full submission on our website here.

UPDATED RESOURCE AVAILABLE

Our Growing up with Porn: Insights from young New Zealanders report has been updated with practical resources for whānau. If you or your organisation are interested in receiving physical copies please contact us at media@classificationoffice.govt.nz.

Because our work involves a broad knowledge of the vast online landscape, we consume a lot of media in the office. Here are just a few of the things we’ve enjoyed digesting over the past month.

“Misinformation has become one of the biggest stories in the world. Its ascent up the news agenda accelerated with the political emergence of Donald Trump, as millions of people were won over by his barrage of untruths. These were people whose beliefs, like McGowan’s, had been reshaped by questionable information they found online. For some, the changes have driven them to extremism.” [NZ Geo] 

What the sexual violence of Game of Thrones begot [The Atlantic]

Wellington Film Society turns 75: Censorship, comradery and the big screen [Stuff.co.nz]

“Trust in news in New Zealand is clearly below Finland, Portugal and Turkey, but much higher than in countries such as Australia, the US and the UK.” [Newsroom]

There’s a perfect number of days to work from home, and it’s 2 [The Atlantic]