70% of gay and lesbian television audiences do not like our LGBT programme, NZ On Air has found. The results of a study of New Zealand gay and lesbian television audiences has just been released. Six 'focus groups' were organised around the country to provide NZ On Air with feedback on their investment to meet the television needs of the gay and lesbian television viewing audience. This year NZ On Air gave $892,795 to television production company Cream TV to produce 25 episodes of Kiwifruit, broadcast by TVNZ late-night on Tuesdays. Audiences said the 11pm timeslot for Kiwifruit has been a barrier to viewing and reinforces gay perceptions of tokenism and marginalisation. 70% of those surveyed said they did not like Kiwifruit, generally criticising the programme for being too shallow and providing superficial coverage of issues. Aspects of Kiwifruit were also seen as offensive. Most participants in the focus groups did not see the programme as being personally relevant to them. The study also showed LGBT audiences received the gay content in Maori Television's Takataapui programme well and considered it to show 'real people with real and interesting stories'. The focus groups found visibility of LGBT people on 'mainstream' television is 'actually being met quite well' through inclusion of gay content in programmes for primetime viewing. Coronation Street was given as example of a programme which has covered gay issues well, with a coming out story, a transgender character, as well as the stereotypical gay male. Audiences said the gay community needed to be kept informed of what is of interest to them, and all focus groups agreed there was still a need for a separate LGBT programme on New Zealand television. This is seen to be necessary partly due to the lack of coverage in other programmes of gay issues and events, but also because of the importance in having one consistent, accessible timeslot (i.e. 10pm at the latest) where people can feel ‘connected' to the community. Ref: NZ On Air (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 22nd September 2006 - 12:00pm