Tweet
I hve been in Australia for a summer scholarship for 9 weeks now, and I have noticed something different to living back in New Zealand that puzzles me.
A certain introversion in news and opinions.
Oddly, I noticed this while listening to the Sports Radio here, trying to find out what the cricket score was in the latest one day match between New Zealand and India back home. I certainly wasn't expecting live coverage, but when we got to the sports news, all that was mentioned was a late addition to the Oz cricket team (not playing until the next day) and the Australian Open (the tennis). This deeply surprised me, as at home the news will cover national and international sporting events in at least SOME detail.
Another small detail, but it is in the small details one finds the truth: at home, when referring to Oz, we will say "across the ditch", meaning across the Tasman sea that separates NZ and Oz. Here, there seems to be no equivalent expression, and the impression I get from Australians here is that New Zealand is at about the same level in their minds as it is to Americans or Russians, except that a few more Australaians actually know where New Zealand is.
Granted NZ is a small country of under 4 million people, but it is directly next to Australia, and the two countries share much in heritage and there is much cooperation between both nations in many areas. I am most surprised that the Oz financial news on TV doesn't seem to even mention comparison with the Kiwi dollar!
This is not isolated to NZ either. The Australian newspapers I have seen have a small internationl section, dealing almost exclusively with the war on terrorism and Middle East problems. You would think nothing else happens in the world outside of Australia. The Oz news on TV too shows little beyond these shores.
All of this adds up to what I believe to be a characteristic of certain countries - they are "national" countries, concerned with domestic matters, and foreign matters are considered only when they will cause considerable national ructions. NZ, OTOH, is an "international country", reporting on much that happens overseas, even if it doesn't concern its citizens directly, such as, say, the NBA final or a riot in Nigeria.
Tell me - in your own experience is this really a characteristic of different countries' media and public conscience or is NZ the exception in that it is highly internationally concerned due to our heavy reliance on other countries' economies, and that every other country is as inward-thinking as Australia?
A certain introversion in news and opinions.
Oddly, I noticed this while listening to the Sports Radio here, trying to find out what the cricket score was in the latest one day match between New Zealand and India back home. I certainly wasn't expecting live coverage, but when we got to the sports news, all that was mentioned was a late addition to the Oz cricket team (not playing until the next day) and the Australian Open (the tennis). This deeply surprised me, as at home the news will cover national and international sporting events in at least SOME detail.
Another small detail, but it is in the small details one finds the truth: at home, when referring to Oz, we will say "across the ditch", meaning across the Tasman sea that separates NZ and Oz. Here, there seems to be no equivalent expression, and the impression I get from Australians here is that New Zealand is at about the same level in their minds as it is to Americans or Russians, except that a few more Australaians actually know where New Zealand is.
Granted NZ is a small country of under 4 million people, but it is directly next to Australia, and the two countries share much in heritage and there is much cooperation between both nations in many areas. I am most surprised that the Oz financial news on TV doesn't seem to even mention comparison with the Kiwi dollar!
This is not isolated to NZ either. The Australian newspapers I have seen have a small internationl section, dealing almost exclusively with the war on terrorism and Middle East problems. You would think nothing else happens in the world outside of Australia. The Oz news on TV too shows little beyond these shores.
All of this adds up to what I believe to be a characteristic of certain countries - they are "national" countries, concerned with domestic matters, and foreign matters are considered only when they will cause considerable national ructions. NZ, OTOH, is an "international country", reporting on much that happens overseas, even if it doesn't concern its citizens directly, such as, say, the NBA final or a riot in Nigeria.
Tell me - in your own experience is this really a characteristic of different countries' media and public conscience or is NZ the exception in that it is highly internationally concerned due to our heavy reliance on other countries' economies, and that every other country is as inward-thinking as Australia?
Comment