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There is a very good and useful book waiting to escape from this collection on journalism and public affairs in New Zealand. Its editorial troika of scholars (from three different universities) have set themselves laudable but editorially exacting goals, made more demanding by the accelerated climate of academic publishing. The stated editorial intent is to address the 'tensions between [journalistic] practitioners and academics … exemplified in the enduring tendency to see "theory" and "practice" as irrevocably opposed' (p. 21), and to 'redirect [New Zealand journalism] towards a more critical and reflexive position of intellectual confidence and independence' (p. 24).

Journalists and their editorial managers are increasingly beholden to standards of performance built into industrial performance templates imported from outside what used to be regarded as the journalistic 'field'. This paper distinguishes three sets of criteria for journalistic 'performance': ethical (P1), commercial (P2) and theatrical (P3). These are elaborated in turn with respect to their industrial origins, their underlying conceptions of the public interest, their political implications and their productive consequences. The three-template model extends Franklin's (2003) critique of McJournalism by: a) providing a fuller account of the (P2) McDonaldization of television news, b) more precisely demarcating backstage (P2) and frontstage (P3) elements of journalistic performance, and c) elaborating a new P3 news template with reference to Bryman's (2004) work on Disneyization. The paper concludes with a New Zealand case study highlighting tensions between P2 and P3 modes of performance and audience outcomes. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Inc.]

Journalists and their editorial managers are increasingly beholden to standards of performance built into industrial performance templates imported from outside what used to be regarded as the journalistic 'field'. This paper distinguishes three sets of criteria for journalistic 'performance': ethical (P1), commercial (P2) and theatrical (P3). These are elaborated in turn with respect to their industrial origins, their underlying conceptions of the public interest, their political implications and their productive consequences. The three-template model extends Franklin's (2003) critique of McJournalism by: a) providing a fuller account of the (P2) McDonaldization of television news, b) more precisely demarcating backstage (P2) and frontstage (P3) elements of journalistic performance, and c) elaborating a new P3 news template with reference to Bryman's (2004) work on Disneyization. The paper concludes with a New Zealand case study highlighting tensions between P2 and P3 modes of performance and audience outcomes.