Themes of connection and progress in rural television: New Zealand’s Country Calendar 1990–2015

Abstract

Airing for over 50 years, New Zealand’s Country Calendar (CC) television show tells the stories of those who live and work on the land. This article presents a thematic analysis of 25 years of programme content, identifying a balance of ‘connection’ and ‘progress’ themes across this time frame, linked to the political economy of NZ broadcasting and agriculture. The concept of the rural idyll helps explain the connection theme’s focus on family, community, a passion or dream, and history and tradition. However, CC’s version of the rural idyll goes beyond nostalgia and the expression of shared social ideals to include the practical, day-to-day ‘work’ of contemporary farming. Ultimately, CC’s content is shaped by the broadcasting and agricultural policies and structures which impact its funding, subjects and socio-economic environment.

Telling Stories About Farming: Mediated Authenticity and New Zealand’s Country Calendar

“…This taps into both natural and referential authenticity which draws from collective memories and cultural longings (Sutherland 2020a). Part of NZ's rural idyll myth entails the belief that at least some version of the farming lifestyle is accessible to everyone, and CC rhetorically preserves this belief through its tendency to downplay issues such as declining land affordability (Fountaine 2020). The readings of our urban participants were also less focused on industry practices and more attuned to the human dimensions of CC storytelling.…”

“…This article is an outcome of a three-part study of CC content, producers and audiences. The first part of our study employed qualitative thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) to analyze patterns in CC content across a 25-year period, establishing the existence of a signature combination of rural idyll and an emphasis on progress in storytelling about a focal person, partnership or family (see Fountaine 2020). This thematic data contributed to a set of discussion questions for part two, where nine people involved with the production of CC were interviewed: two producers, four directors, the show's researcher, and a camera operator and sound recordist.…”

“…Unlike Enli's case studies of mediated authenticity, which consider new (for the time) media formats, CC is able to draw from high levels of existing audience familiarity, as a show broadcast on TVNZ for over 50 years. Its current format of people-based profiles is relatively unchanged since 1990 (Fountaine 2020), and as sound recordist Don Paulin said: "one of its strengths is that it hasn't changed too much. "…”

“…Indeed, CC has long fallen into Mills' (2010) category of "invisible television"-programs which are popular with a significant number of viewers but attract little academic attention. An initial thematic analysis of the show, published in 2019, established its dual emphasis on elements consonant with the rural idyll (particularly family, community, and tradition) and progress (Fountaine 2020), linked to the political economy of NZ broadcasting and agriculture. In keeping with its "lifestyle" focus, CC does not directly engage with farming "issues" (such as animal welfare) or agricultural politics.…”

Decolonising public service television in Aotearoa New Zealand: telling better stories about Indigenous rurality

“…Touted as ‘quintessentially New Zealand’ and tapping into aspects of national identity such as connection to the natural world (Bell, 1996), attachment to place (Relph, 1976) and ‘Kiwi ingenuity’ (McCreanor, 2005), it tells the real-life stories of people who live and work on the land. These stories are told within a well-recognised formula, centred around themes of progress and community and with a positive spin (Fountaine, 2020; see also Waller et al, 2020). NZ is one of many nations where ‘the countryside is intimately and inextricably linked to notions of national identity’ (Agyeman and Spooner, 2005: 199), but the substantial economic role of the country’s agricultural sector elevates rurality and farming as touchstones of national storytelling and popular culture.…”