Radio New Zealand and the Internet: Radio and convergence through ten years of transformation

Abstract

This article examines ten years of change at New Zealand’s public radio broadcaster, Radio New Zealand (RNZ), as it has adjusted to the new realities of multiplatform content creation and transmission brought on by the transformation of media organizations in the digital age. This necessarily engages with concepts of ‘convergence’ and how media organizations are reflecting theories of digital media change as new platforms emerge and become influential on audiences, content and organizations. RNZ’s ten-year transformation both reflects these new realities and provides new ways of interrogating the vagaries of convergence. This article critiques RNZ’s attempts to transform itself into a multimedia and multiplatform public media provider after a decade of concerted effort that began with mixed successes and ended with a definitive change in culture and content. This has seen the organization go from strength to strength in its digital and broadcast abilities and outputs. It provides an assessment of the changes at RNZ that have allowed this to happen and an evaluation of the process through some of the key concepts that have emerged around media convergence in recent times that reflect the issues radio organizations are facing in the digital age.