The Outlook Team The heated debate in GayNZ.com's message boards on the subject of the forthcoming TV2 glbt TV series is reaching boiling point with the announcement yesterday confirming NZ On Air funding for a series (see our Daily News). The last time our message board ran this hot with concerns about NZ's glbt TV programming was during the ill-fated Kiwifruit and Outhouse seasons last year. And by and large the views expressed in the message board were in line with the results of more formal research subsequently carried out by funder NZ On Air. Speculation (some of it 'very well informed') about the format and basis for the ten half hour programme series to go to air shortly has been rife in recent weeks, since it was leaked that a proposal based on an observational documentary, or in industry parlance 'obs doc', format had found favour with TVNZ. As far as GayNZ.com is aware the programme makers, Umbrella Productions, will be using Express newspaper editorial staff as a lens through which viewers are enabled to understand community issues and aspects of our lifestyles. As a bonus we'll get to see how Express actually goes about researching and reporting on New Zealand's glbt communities. The main reason for this GayNZ.com editorial is to set some information and attitudes on public record, a professional thing to do when the pool of glbt media people in this country is so small and since GayNZ.com has some back history with Express and some of the proposals submitted for the new TV series. Express, then named Man to Man, was originally started by Warwick Mickell, a marketing and communications consultant, and me, an ex-Radio New Zealand presenter and producer, in 1991. In its early fragile years, it was financially supported by profits from my Lateshift gay mens cruise club in Auckland. A couple of years later Richard Todd came on board as a third partner. From that point on Express was a stand-alone, financially independent business. Sadly, Warwick Mickell died of an HIV-related illness within a year. After years of deadlines and long hours, albeit mixed with the great pleasures of working with such excellent then-staffers as Peter Dragicevich, Claire Gummer, Joanne Carnachan and others, I sold my interest in Express some six years ago and have had no direct involvement with it since. It is perhaps worth noting that, during my time as co-publisher of Express, with oversight of editorial content, we helped create and launch New Zealand's first ever glbt TV series, the non-publicly funded Express Report, produced and aired by Auckland's Horizon TV station. We received no payment for our involvement... our concern was to assist a fledgeling addition to the glbt media. Horizon asked to use our brand, to establish some credibility for the initial series, and we reluctantly agreed. With Horizon's demise Queer Nation, based around Express Report's presenters, was born. Two years after departing Express I teamed up with Neil Gibb, who had started up GayNZ.com, as co-publisher and content editor. We operate this site as a not for profit, largely voluntary, glbt news, information and dating website. Its success is such that GayNZ.com has just been acclaimed as 2006's number one most used gay and lesbian website in New Zealand by independent international web audit company Hitwise. The world of glbt media in New Zealand is small and GayNZ.com has informal links with many of the people who have been at different times associated with Express and Queer Nation, and other gay and lesbian media. Some of these people are amongst those who are involved in the spirited discussion thread on our message board regarding the new TV show's format. Most are strongly committed to community building and quality gay media, and most have made no secret of difficult experiences at Express in recent years. Having happily broadcast a magazine style TV programme, Livingston Productions' Queer Nation, for some years, TVNZ and NZ On Air suddenly decided the format was tired and ushered in the dubious, some might say risible, Outhouse and Kiwifruit series. Public reaction was loud and condemning (was the Cooking with Mince segment the lowest point in the history of NZ glbt television?). Subsequent research conducted for NZ On Air indicated that the glbt community wanted a programme which aired glbt news, issues and life experiences in a straightforward, informative and sensitive way. In essence, a magazine style programme. But the TVNZ brief for this year's series clearly leaned to a 'reality'-style obs doc format. Three production companies looking to create proposals for the forthcoming TV series on TVNZ approached GayNZ.com as a possible 'partner' to some degree. Two of those proposals, by Johnny Givens (Livingston Productions) and Brian Holland (ex-TV2), were essentially current affairs magazine format shows, to which we decided to lend some editorial and technical support. The format of the third proposal, by Umbrella Productions, in which their obs doc cameras would have captured our process of uncovering or generating stories, researching and preparing for publication, was not for us, regardless of any financial arrangements. We felt that a publicly funded TV programme should add to the mix of glbt media views and perspectives, not re-package an existing commercial one; that the observational documentary format would place our staff and editorial process unnecessarily and obtrusively near the focus of the programme; and that our internet and print editorial independence and resources could be compromised by the need to create 'good television.' It was clear that Express was Umbrella's preferred choice and we parted amicably. Will the new Express Yourself programme be good glbt television? We hope so. But some questions need to be asked, and in the coming weeks we will address some of them, such as: Why does only glbt minority programming aired by TVNZ have to be presented in this format? Why not Te Karere also? Or Tagata Pasifika? Or Front Seat? And what does basing the programme in the office of a gay media outlet and observing week after week the editorial process, as per the concept proposed to GayNZ.com, add to the stories other than window-dressing? If this 'obs doc' approach observes less than optimum editorial standards and resources at Express, will that be honestly presented or glossed over? Will Express become the programme's performing gay monkey? Will the programme become a sanitised PR depiction of Express? Will community debate about the merits or otherwise of the series be honestly and vigorously pursued and presented in Express? Judging by the controversy created by the Kiwifruit and Outhouse formats, the heated discussion by community stalwarts and industry insiders in our message board, the passion glbt New Zealanders have for the way they are represented in their media and to the population in general, the new programme's funding by taxpayer dollars distributed with the statutory objective of presenting us on air, and its commissioning by New Zealand's publicly owned TV broadcaster, this latest incarnation of glbt TV will likely be scrutinised and debated minutely. And so it should be. Public money is being spent and free to air television is a powerful medium with the abilty to enrich the lives of glbt New Zealanders. The jury is out and we will not know whose interests are being best served by the new series, and if it represents well targeted and appropriate spending by NZ On Air, until a few programmes of the ten week season have gone to air. GayNZ.com will, as we do with the many other original live news and feature stories we cover every week, report on, and background, community reaction to 'Express Yourself', in a professional and forthright manner. But this is a small community so we thought it only appropriate to declare now that, like nearly everyone else in New Zealand's glbt media, we too have connections with many of the parties to the decision making process behind the series. [Note: since this editorial first appeared, Umbrella Productions have advised that 'Express Yourself' is a working title which may or may not be used for the actual series.] Jay Bennie - 8th March 2007