Television news and broadcast deregulation in New Zealand

This study traced sourcing patterns on prime‐time news across a 12‐year period that encompassed the deregulation of broadcasting in New Zealand. With a switch to a more commercial news style came reduction in sound‐bit length. There were, however, signs that the source base of news had not weakened despite competitive pressures. Although government sources continued to be important, so did non‐government organization officials. Although still predominant, official news sources became less important in relation to nonelite sources. News managers' growing insistence on targeting news at ‘ordinary people’ encouraged journalists to use a wide variety of news sources.